Member Avatar for asuprem

On my computer, I have Ubuntu 11.1 and Kubuntu 11.1 installed as dual-boot. When I started, I specified completely separate partitions for both of them, but I now realize I want them to share the same home folder, i.e. the same desktop (I keep everything on my desktop). Any way to do that now, such as any software or any sort of reinstall? (P.S. - My Ubuntu partition is completely set up but I will be fine deleting and reinstalling Kubuntu).

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Quick summary tied to the thread: ’s outcome shows a dedicated /home can work across installs, correctly pointed to numeric ownership as the common pitfall, and pointed out you can avoid a second install by adding KDE instead. Below are practical checks, fixes and cautions that were not fully shown in the replies.

Always back up before changing users or ownership. Confirm the numeric ids on each install and, if they differ, change the uid/gid on the system you want to adjust and then fix file ownership. Example commands (run as root; substitute names and numbers): 

id alice
getent passwd alice

usermod -u 1000 alice
groupmod -g 1000 alice

# then update files in /home that belonged to the old numeric id
find /home -xdev -uid OLDUID -exec chown -h 1000:1000 {} +

Do the numeric change from a single OS (or Live environment) and stop any processes for that user while you change ids.

Dotfile collisions are the other common problem: KDE, GNOME and other apps write different hidden files and can overwrite each other’s settings. To avoid a “mixed” desktop, either keep per-desktop profiles (rename or move KDE/GNOME config dirs before first login) or only share data directories and symlink them into each user account. Example strategy: keep ~/Documents, ~/Music, ~/Pictures on the shared partition and leave ~/.config, .kde, .gnome private to each install.

If you see both GNOME and KDE panels together, first ensure the correct session is selected at login. If autostarted GNOME components persist, disable the offending .desktop files under ~/.config/autostart (or /etc/xdg/autostart) by moving them aside. Final caution: encrypted-home setups (ecryptfs/LUKS wrappers) and some desktop-specific services complicate sharing — decrypt/mount correctly or avoid sharing the encrypted home itself.

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Member Avatar for rubberman

This is possible - I do it myself, but you will want to be sure that your user and group ids are the same on both systems. Not the name, but the id number.

Member Avatar for asuprem

Actually, here's what I did. I first backed up my data, then I deleted both partitions.

Then I installed Kubuntu with manual partition with the following partitions:

10GB - swap area; primary
10GB - ext4 journaling; mount point: /; primary
600 GB - ext4 journaling; mount pont /home; logical
20GB - unallocated.

Then I rebooted and started Ubuntu install with the following:

10GB - swap area, logical (primary wouldn't work, for some reason)
10GB - ext4 journaling; mount point: /; primary

select the 600 GB allocated for Kubuntu home and click "change"
select ext4 journaled, NOT "do not use this partition"
select mount point as /home.

Install. Reboot. Gloat.

Member Avatar for rubberman

Yes. As long as you created your user account(s) and group(s) in the same order, then Kubuntu and Ubuntu should have given you the same account and group ids. However, if you just wanted Kubuntu because it uses the KDE desktop, you could have installed that on Ubuntu after the basic installation, and select which desktop you prefer when you log in.

Member Avatar for asuprem

I tried that, but maybe it was my fault for not installing correctly, because the Gnome taskbar remained with the KDE taskbar. I didn't really like that.

Member Avatar for khajvah

I dont know what you did but you can install kde desktop on ubuntu. Just run
sudo apt-get install kubuntu-desktop, then choose kubuntu from login screen.

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