Scribbles for my bad memory

Background

Yesterday, my PopOS system broke unexpectedly. The refresh install option failed, and attempting to reinstall while preserving the old /var and /home partitions was unsuccessful.

Solution: Fresh Custom Installation

Performed a clean custom installation with:

• /boot/efi - formatted
• / - formatted
• /recovery - formatted

This approach worked successfully, then migrated data from old partitions.

Partition Migration Process

Tools Used

parted --list    # Get partition information
blkid           # Get partition UUIDs

Note: Couldn't stop GDM or enter single-user mode (system would hang). Performed migration on running system instead.

1. Home Partition Migration (/dev/nvme0n1p8)

sudo mv /home /home.bak          # Backup current home
sudo mkdir /home
sudo mount /dev/nvme0n1p8 /home
ls /home                         # Confirm correct partition
sudo blkid /dev/nvme0n1p8       # Get UUID
sudo vi /etc/fstab

Added to /etc/fstab:

UUID=32e4ed56-6ed9-4f14-9585-ffff54f997b2 /home ext4 defaults 0 2

Rebooted to verify system stability.

2. Backup Partition Setup (/dev/nvme0n1p10)

sudo parted --list
sudo blkid /dev/nvme0n1p10
sudo vi /etc/fstab

Added to /etc/fstab:

UUID=8aba0dd5-7058-4036-8a08-fcd1e0e002bc /backup ext4 defaults 0 2

sudo mount -a                   # Test mount configuration

3. Var Partition Migration (/dev/nvme0n1p7)

# Mount old var partition and backup data
sudo mkdir /mnt/var
sudo mount /dev/nvme0n1p7 /mnt/var
sudo tar -czpvf /backup/old-var-backup.tar.gz -C /mnt var

# Prepare new var partition
sudo umount /mnt/var
sudo mkfs.ext4 /dev/nvme0n1p7   # Format old var partition
sudo mkdir /mnt/new-var
sudo mount /dev/nvme0n1p7 /mnt/new-var

# Copy current var data to new partition
sudo cp -av /var/* /mnt/new-var/

# Update fstab and switch to new partition
sudo blkid /dev/nvme0n1p7
sudo vi /etc/fstab              # Add var partition entry
sudo mv /var /var.old && sudo mkdir /var && sudo mount -a

Key Lessons Learned

• Fresh installation with custom partitioning was more reliable than trying to preserve old partitions during install
• System migration on a running system worked fine when rescue mode wasn't accessible
• Always backup critical data before formatting partitions
• Test each partition mount configuration before proceeding to the next step

Status: Migration completed successfully. System running normally with all data preserved.