On 2/14/21 11:40 AM, Doug McGarrett wrote:
It does appear that my own stuff is in /home, but is this just the CONTENTS of the apps, or the entire installed app? That is, do I have to look up and install all the apps over again?
In general, /home contains only the data that the apps process. Apps are usually installed in system areas, which allows multiple users to use them. There are some apps that are self-contained in /home, but they're outnumbered by the others.
I have an outboard H/D with nothing on it, which gparted calls /dev/sda1, formatted ntfs at present. I want to copy the entire /home directory to this, and then copy it back to the cleaned up and reinstalled system.
Should I leave the ntfs format, or should I change it? If so, to what? ext4?
In general, I prefer the XFS filesystem, or maybe ext4. I certainly wouldn't use NTFS unless you need a Windows machine to access the data.
What should I be doing to get all this done, neatly and cleanly?
Is a full re-install really necessary? It may seem as if you're having lots of independent issues, but frequently there's one problem that creates a cascade of seemingly unrelated errors. The trick is finding that one core problem. The Mother of All Problems.
Before you go: There MAY be a problem with the eset AV program. Is this something (which I paid for) that I have to eliminate, and if so, what can I replace it with? It seemed that before I went for eset I tried to install something free, but unsuccessfully.
From past experience, AV programs are frequently the Mother of All Problems. I suggest trying to uninstall your AV and see what happens before tearing everything apart. I'm currently having big problems with McAfee AV, which I'm required by management to install. It causes random system crashes and self denials of service. On the grand scale, why do you think you need AV on Linux in the first place? It's generally only used on servers that host Windows files. But even the Windows world is moving away from third-party AV, the Microsoft Defender system, included with Windows, generally does a better job of protecting Windows systems than aftermarket AV. Yes, viruses for Linux exist, but they are rare, and if you keep your Linux box up-to-date with security updates and practice good backup practices you should be safe enough. You can also run security packages like "aide" and "rkhunter". They're open-source and included in the openSUSE repositories, and they won't gum up your system. These are my own opinions, take them for what they're worth, and Have a Lot of Fun! Regards, Lew