what is the correct way to use folders from another /home partition

JackDaniels

2/13/24, 10:47 PM

I currently have Kubuntu 22.04 installed in partition A, and /home installed in partition B. I recently created partition C and installed Ubuntu 22.04 with gnome. Partition C has root and home together as this was for testing purposes. I liked how it ran so I decided to use it permanently. Since partition C has low storage space, I want to use the Downloads,Documents,Pictures and Music folders from partition B, so I can have the same files through both OS's. I tried removing the music folder from partition C and replaced it with a symlink copy of Music folder from partition B. This worked quite well, but after a restart all my Snap Apps wouldn't open. When opening them through the terminal, it said that apport denied them and pointed to that folder I replaced. Am I doing something wrong? Is it possible to replace all those folders with the symlinked ones from partition B and have no issues?

0 + 8

permissions

dual-boot

symbolic-link

guiverc

2/13/24, 11:16 PM

Snap packages run *confined* by default meaning they don't have full access to your file-system, but are restricted to certain directories. You mention *symlinks* but didn't specify what the links where too (hard? soft? from & to where specifically) as it matters. If you wanted to *share* the same $HOME between systems; I'd likely just modify the file-system table (*fstab*) so both used the same directory for everything (esp. if the same release; there can be complications where stacks vary in age so consider what you'll do in the future before doing this though) \

JackDaniels

2/13/24, 11:21 PM

I thought about sharing the same /home but since one is kde and the other os is gnome I don't want the .config folder to get messed up. I just want my Ubuntu partition to see the folders Documents, Pictures, Downloads, as it's own. I went to the /home partition and right clicked the folder and clicked con "create link". I went to the ubuntu partition, deleted the folder "Music" and pasted the linked folder.

guiverc

2/13/24, 11:25 PM

My system here is a multi-desktop system (I have Lubuntu, Xubuntu & Ubuntu Desktop installed thus three), and have other systems that have Kubuntu installed with Lubuntu etc.. My own experience indicates the difference in software stack age (ie. different releases) is more the problem... But you've not provided details of your exact (current) mounts & symlinks this I can't comment there, nor say if *snap* packages would be expected to have issues (ie. did you consider the *confinement* in where you chose to mount?)

JackDaniels

2/13/24, 11:45 PM

I'm afraid I lack the knowledge to provide you that info. /dev/nvme0n1p4 (kubuntu), /dev/nvme0n1p5(/home), /dev/nvme0n1p6(ubuntu / with home) . The link I created(not sure which one it is) is copied from p5 to p6. When I click on properties it just says Link to folder. If I delete anything from it, it also deletes it from the original folder. Not sure if it helps but if I delete a file on that linked folder, it doesn't go to trash, just deletes directly.

guiverc

2/14/24, 12:08 AM

I'm unsure of how you've mounted, nor what symlinks you're using thus can't comment there (ie. I'd use `ln` to crate them & `stat` to view the link (is it hard or soft link that was created if you forget which you created..), but some *fstab* details can be found here - https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Fstab . My guess is you used GUI where I'd use terminal and thus aren't familiar with terminal defaults (I'm also not using GNOME or KDE Plasma let alone *jammy* (22.04) so my defaults may differ if I was to explore sorry)

JackDaniels

2/14/24, 12:23 AM

I did use GUI. I opened the Gnome Disk utility, clicked on the partition containing /home. Under "additional partition options" I clicked on "Edit mount options" then "Mount at startup", which mounts gives it a mount point of "/mnt/2d1e2f4e-cb11-46ad-b8ef-00ef2b20c761". I think the symlink is a soft link and has the link target of "/mnt/2d1e2f4e-cb11-46ad-b8ef-00ef2b20c761/ernesto/Music"

guiverc

2/14/24, 12:40 AM

I'll provide https://askubuntu.com/questions/1184357/why-cant-chromium-suddenly-access-any-partition-except-for-home where I talk about the *snap* package `chromium` & the `snap connect` which will allow confined *snap* packages to access `/media/` and `/mnt/` (ie. a directory you've only just mentioned & the reason I wanted the link details as location matters). Try what I suggest in my answer.

JackDaniels

2/16/24, 10:42 PM

@guiverc Thank you for your suggestion. I tried experimenting with fstab and the folders showed as mounted devices which I did not like. I went back to using symbolic links created using nautilus. I replaced some of the Snaps with .deb versions and for snaps like WPS office I used the snap connect you suggested on the link and the app was able to see the files from the linked folder. Thank you! I wonder if the problem is a permission or ownership problem with the linked folders.

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