{"id":47038,"date":"2024-08-12T15:57:44","date_gmt":"2024-08-12T15:57:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/?p=47038"},"modified":"2024-08-12T15:57:44","modified_gmt":"2024-08-12T15:57:44","slug":"separate-home-ubuntu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/index.php\/2024\/08\/separate-home-ubuntu\/","title":{"rendered":"Create Separate \/home Partition (e.g., on USB) for Ubuntu 24.04"},"content":{"rendered":"

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This tutorial shows how to separate \/home<\/code> from an existing Ubuntu file-system, to individual disk partition or even USB stick, while preserving all personal data.<\/p>\n

Linux can have separate \/home<\/code> partition, which is useful for re-installing system, or even trying different Linux distributions without losing most of custom settings, configurations, downloads, etc.<\/p>\n

While installing Linux, there’s usually an option to create separate \/home<\/code>. If you didn’t do that, then here’s step by step guide shows you how to do the trick afterward.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

NOTE: This tutorial is tested in Ubuntu 24.04 LTS, though it should work in most popular Linux Distributions, such as Debian, Fedora, Arch, and more.<\/b><\/p>\n

Step 1. Create Disk Partition for \/home<\/h3>\n

First, launch GNOME Disks<\/b>. Choose the destination disk drive from the left pane. If there’s enough free unallocated space in right, then choose it and go to next step to create a Ext4 file partition.<\/p>\n

If NOT, either format an existing partition or shrink it to make free room. In my case, I was going to use my USB stick for \/home<\/code>, so I can take it anywhere and use even on different machines.<\/p>\n

However, the USB drive has NTFS file-system on it which is NOT recommended for Linux file system due to security reason. In the case, either shrink to make free space<\/strong>, while preserving existing data in the drive, or format to use full partition<\/strong> which will however remove all data on it.<\/p>\n

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Once you have enough free space on the disk drive, choose it and click on “+” to create partition on it. Then, choose format to Ext4<\/b> file-system type, either with or without LUKS encryption as you want.<\/p>\n

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When done, you need to copy the UUID of the partition you’re going to use it for \/home<\/code>.<\/p>\n

If encryption enabled, then unlock and use the UUID of top half (device marked as \/dev\/sdXY<\/code> or \/dev\/nvmeXnYpZ<\/code>) for \/etc\/crypttab<\/code>, and, the UUID of bottom half (marked as \/dev\/mapper\/xxxxxxx<\/code>) for \/etc\/fstab<\/code> in next step.<\/p>\n

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Step 2: Copy existing user contents to the Separate Disk Partition<\/h3>\n

After created the separated partition, click unlock (if encrypted) and mount using either file manager or Gnome Disks.<\/p>\n

Then, open terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) and run command to copy all existing users’ contents into the new separated partition. The -a<\/code> command option is required to preserve the ownership, timestamp, etc, information.<\/p>\n

sudo cp -a \/home\/* \/media\/ji\/xxxxxxxx<\/pre>\n
NOTE: replace \/media\/ji\/xxxxxxx<\/code> in command to your mount point. Check it either in Gnome Disk, file manager, or by running command mount |grep \/media\/$USER<\/code>.<\/b><\/p>\n
Next, rename (move) the current \/home<\/code> as backup:<\/p>\n
sudo mv \/home \/home_backup<\/pre>\n
NOTE: after running this mv<\/code> command, all personal folders will be inaccessible until reboot with new separate \/home<\/code>. It’s better to close your apps, and stop any downloading before running this command.<\/b><\/p>\n
Finally, re-create an empty \/home<\/code> directory as mount point for the new separate partition on every startup:<\/p>\n
sudo mkdir \/home<\/pre>\n
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Step 3: Configure to let your system know the new \/home partition<\/h3>\n
1.<\/b> \/etc\/fstab<\/code> is the configuration file to tell Linux to mount all the file partitions on start up.<\/p>\n
To edit the file, open terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) run command:<\/p>\n
sudo gnome-text-editor \/etc\/fstab<\/pre>\n
Replace gnome-text-editor<\/code> with your favorite editor, or use nano<\/code> command line text editor that works in most Linux<\/i>.<\/p>\n
When it opens, add new line to tell it to mount the specified partition (via UUID) as separate \/home<\/code>:<\/p>\n
UUID=xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx \/home ext4 defaults 0 2<\/pre>\n
NOTE: Replace the ID accordingly! Check it using ‘Gnome Disks’, and, if LUKS encryption enabled, use the UUID of bottom half marked as device \/dev\/mapper\/luks-xxxxxxx<\/b><\/p>\n
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For nano<\/code> text editor, press Ctrl+S then Ctrl+X to save and exit.<\/p>\n
2.<\/b> If you enabled LUKS encryption for that partition, then open terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) and run command to install the required management tool.<\/p>\n
sudo apt install cryptsetup<\/pre>\n
Then, edit the \/etc\/crypttab<\/code> file via command:<\/p>\n
sudo gnome-text-editor \/etc\/crypttab<\/pre>\n
Also replace gnome-text-editor<\/code> with nano<\/code> for non-GNOME desktop.<\/i><\/p>\n
Finally, add new line to tell your Linux to unlock it (will ask you to type password) on every startup.<\/p>\n
home_crypt UUID=xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx none luks,retries=3<\/pre>\n
Here home_crypt<\/code> specifies the mount point under \/dev\/mapper<\/code>, you can change it to whatever as you want. And, replace the UUID according to the encrypted partition (the top half in GNOME Disk, marked as device \/dev\/sdXY or \/dev\/nvmeXnYpZ).<\/strong><\/p>\n
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When done, save the file. And restart your computer to verify.<\/p>\n
How to Restore<\/h3>\n
To restore the changes and use \/home<\/code> inside your root partition, boot your Linux and login.<\/p>\n
Then, re-edit the \/etc\/fstab<\/code> and \/etc\/crypttab<\/code> files and remove the lines you added in the last step.<\/p>\n
Next, restart your computer. Press Ctrl+Alt+F3<\/code>(or F4\/F5\/F6) to switch to TTY command line console, since the login screen may refuse to let you in without \/home directory content.<\/p>\n
In the TTY console, login with your username and password, then run the command to restore backup:<\/p>\n
sudo rm -R \/home && sudo mv \/home_backup \/home<\/pre>\n
If you have deleted the backup, and there’s nothing to restore, then you may choose to re-generate a clean user home by running command:<\/p>\n
sudo mkhomedir_helper ji<\/pre>\n
In command replace ji<\/code> with your username, and re-run this command again and again for other users if any.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
This tutorial shows how to separate \/home from an existing Ubuntu file-system, to individual disk partition or even USB stick, while preserving all personal data. Linux can have separate \/home partition, which is useful for re-installing system, or even trying different Linux distributions without losing most of custom settings, configurations, downloads, etc. While installing Linux, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":35890,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-47038","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-howtos"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47038","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47038"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47038\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35890"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47038"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47038"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47038"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}