The story so far:
The machine originally had Ubuntu installed then the Lubuntu packages were added to it.
That's some time ago, version (??) is no longer supported, but i do remember having some problems because i had"added" Lubuntu to Ubuntu.
There are separate partitions for /BOOT, /ROOT, /HOME plus a few other"data" drives.

Present day:
As i said, it's old, lots of s/w is out of date, no longer supported, etc.
Also, i used to love Ubuntu but now i feel it has turned to the dark side with it's emphasis on adding bells and whistles ... as that other famous OS did.
To me a computer is a screwdriver, an Honda - totally functional and ultra reliable! Not a flash sports car that's too wide for the streets in most European cities; accelerates too quickly to be safe unless it's on a track; uses far more fuel than is good for the environment; requires servicing far too often and is much too hard for an old man (like me) to get in an out of.
Hence i use MX-14 ... and drive an Honda!

Question(s):
1)
I would really, really love to keep all my"settings", especially for Chromium, Iceweasel, plus a few more, but am i likely to have problems moving from my old install of an out-of-date Ubuntu / Lubuntu mash-up to MX-14 if i do not format my /HOME partition?
2)
If the recommendation is to erase my /HOME partition then which"dot" files could i safely copy back after installing MX-14 please?

Thanks for reading.

I would back up /home (don't foget the .dot files) to somewhere else. of course, if there is stuff in it you no longet need, then just delete it.

On installation, choose either home on a separate partiton or within the / partition. It is really up to you.

Which .dot files? I don't think there will be issues except (possibly) ones related to xfce if you have any xfce apps.

Just post which file if you are not sure.

Cheers anticapitalista ... damn quick reply too!
I'll run a full backup of /HOME using Back In Time as root (probably Sunday) plus take a copy, again as root, of the partition it to a"spare" /HOME drive i have then, provided backups were ok, probably try installing MX-14 on Monday.

Thanks again,
Marv

you might have trouble with chromium profiles in .config, depending on what version you are running now and what version you install later. the profile scheme changed around version 35 or so and they are not compatible. a later chromium will update an existing earlier profile during installation.

dolphin_oracle wrote:you might have trouble with chromium profiles in .config, depending on what version you are running now and what version you install later. the profile scheme changed around version 35 or so and they are not compatible. a later chromium will update an existing earlier profile during installation.

Cheers m8.
Was old(er) Chromium, really need newer version (one of the many reasons to move).
Many thanks for the warning.

anticapitalista wrote: Just post which file if you are not sure.

... well, sort of __{{emoticon}}__
Sorry about that"cheat" but ...

Yesterday i copied, using Nautilus as root with hidden files displayed, all files from my existing (while running) /home to an empty partition of the same size. The output was initially formatted as extn4. After i got the error shown below lots of times i cancelled and i reformatted the output fs as a catch-all fat32 ... only to get exactly the same error message:

Error while copying to /media/marvin/HOME2/.local/share/gvfs-metadata/recent:
Invalid parameters

Am i doing something wrong?
Would i be better off, safer, to boot from a live cd and then do the copy?

I think you would be better off skipping that particular directory. It won't be any use to you anyway on the new system.

might be important to clarify:
should be safe to skip just that"recent" subdirectory
/media/marvin/HOME2/.local/share/gvfs-metadata/recent

If the"gvfs-metadata" directory cannot be copied (which may well be the case, short of some serious fiddling)
you're going to lose any"emblems" you had applied to items while using nautilus,
along with (possibly) notes created via the"gnote" or"tomboy" apps...

cheers guys.

Do you think i would be better, safer, to boot from a live cd and then do the copy?
Or should it not matter (if running system or not)??

skidoo wrote:...
you're going to lose any"emblems" you had applied to items while using nautilus,
...

<rhetorical>
Why is it that every time i try to use any"pretty bits" i always seem to find a problem?
At my age i should have known better. I guess it serves be right, i should stick to using computers as a tool rather than trying to be"down wiv der kids" and make everything fancy!
</rhetorical>

Thanks again guys.

[SOLVED (for now]

... unless you know where there may be more dragons __{{emoticon}}__

its probably safer to copy with the liveCD. Its maybe not completely necessary, but it is safer.

cheers dolphin_oracle ... and everyone else too.
Thanks for that ... plus all your other help.

Now all i need is time.
What you guys like at getting a few more days put into the week for me?

dolphin_oracle wrote:you might have trouble with chromium ...

RESULT !

OK, i had some (well, a 'shoot' load of) problems! And they were all to do with file ownerships!

But first let me brag about the final RESULT !

Chromium, after the re-install (and my file ownership issues!) is identical to how it was before the re-install ... except for being a lot newer and having a much prettier font in this forum.
But that's not all, things such as picking up my bookmarks. It even carried forward the extensions i used previously - even all the tabs i had open pre-wipeout.
<very happy bunny smiley/>

Now let me admit to my 'mess'-ups!

I decided i should take this opportunity to wipe my /home partition <thought> might as well if i'm going to copy it </thought>. [At this point i can actual hear you all saying the old adage"if it ain't broke, don't fix it". __{{emoticon}}__ ] So i loaded the live MX-14 cd (plans to make new post about not using a usb stick) and copied my /home using root < Danger, Will Robinson! /> ... including almost all of the hidden files (a few were"special" and not possible to copy).
Yes, all the file ownerships changed to root - not that i realised until later ... !
I formatted /home and /root (and a tiny /boot too) and ran the install ... and all was good.

Then i copied, initially as me but when that had problems i used root, my copy of /home to the new one ... at this point some of you will have noticed my mistake.
I guess that my problems would have been less if i had copied the files from my backup to the"cleaned" /home BEFORE the re-install - but i didn't.

Some things seemed to work fine but Chromium would not even start (IceW managed to weasel it's way to running). And that's when i thought about file permissions and ownerships.

So i tried to do a bulk change using the option in Thunar (as root). That changed some files - but still no joy with Chromium. Tried again with a root Tux Commander. Again, seemed to work but still no Chromium. I seemed to do those, in various permutations, until late into the night. I had already used the CLI commands chown, chgrp & chmod using *.* as the filenames (my bad) and without the /R option too (my really bad).

I had also noticed the ownership on other file systems (again partitions).
Eventually, i seemed to solve everything by going to the /media directory in a root terminal and entering:
chown -R username:usergroup filesystem
chgrp -R username filesystem
chmod -R 700 filesystem

Question:
Obviously my first CLI attempts were flawed but why did the root Thunar &/or root Tux (or your fav) Commander do the trick? Surely if Thunar says 'ownership to user' then that's what it should do. Ditto Tux Commanders"change owner/group' option.

I think Thunar & other GUI type tools only contend themselves with normal files & don't touch hidden . (dot) files.

I think Thunar & other GUI type tools only contend themselves with normal files & don't touch hidden . (dot) files.

Sometimes you think too much.
(Sometimes, I do too, but that's beside the point here...)

Don't think. Do it. Try it:
Within your GUI file manager of choice, select multiple files, including some which are hidden
( aha (duh!) cannot select hidden files unless the file manager prefs are set to show hidden files )
and attempt to paste 'em to another location. Are all the selected files copied? (hint:yes)

bonus exercise:
Via the a GUI filemanager, select for copying a directory object, a directory containing some hidden files.
After copying it, inspect the contents. Are all expected files present, including the .hidden files? (hint:yes)