[clue] [HelpDesk] move/copy user to another machine

Yaverot Yaverot at computermail.net
Mon May 30 14:44:59 MDT 2011


My google-fu is failing me so its time to ask for help.

I want to move one (or two, but less than 5) user account from a Ubuntu Linux (not yet 10.10 version) to a Gentoo box.  The Ubuntu system is low RAM, and have very low hard drive space remaining.

My searches pop up results along the lines of "take all the [user] accounts from the old system and put them on a new system that hasn't been used before".
The destination (Gentoo) box has much more information, and has more users already setup on it than the box I'm pulling from.  Most importantly, my account is practically empty on source and well-stocked on destination, so I'm not planning on moving that.

The account that /is/ being moved has the following things important:
1. Thunderbird email: stored messages and account settings.
2. Firefox settings (bookmarks, startup tab group, plug-ins and the plug-ins' configurations).

I can have both machines on at the same time so they're on the same network, I can use a flash drive to move the files, and I can physically move the source drive so that it is hooked up to the new system (long enough to do the copy, not permanently).

And if I wasn't so busy Saturday I would've tried to get this handled at the installfest.

TL;DR:
move a single user account between systems completely, without disturbing the other accounts on the systems.


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