# question to migrate from linux to bsd



## emamarro (Aug 7, 2010)

Hallo,I'm testing freebsd since few days and ask myself if is there a way to install on a linuxbox with (/,/swap,/home) not deleting my data in /home
I'm using archlinux at the moment

Hower,it is not clear to me comparing /home in linux and /home in bsd
I see that bsd autoslicing allocate the most size to /usr so I believe this is the partition where personal data will be store?

What happen if I have to reinstall and keep my /home in bsd?

I overread the wiki but not much clear to me..
Thank you
Ema


----------



## UNIXgod (Aug 7, 2010)

you may be able to share swap.

you won't be able to share / because it is a different OS and the hier is different as well as file system and programs (bsd core is different than gnu core)

I would suggest backing up /home before attempting to explore bsd with different linux type of file systems.


----------



## aragon (Aug 7, 2010)

Swap is easy.  You just need to mod linux's startup scripts so that mkswap is called before activating swap.


----------



## fronclynne (Aug 7, 2010)

You can share /home/ if it is ext2 or ext3, but I'm not sure how well it will work.


----------



## Crabb (Aug 15, 2010)

Create a subslice in to slice FreeBSD, ok, easy and secure


----------



## vermaden (Aug 15, 2010)

@emamarro

FreeBSD needs just ONE primary partition, everything can be setup there without touching other partirions.


----------



## gcooper@ (Aug 15, 2010)

I highly suggest not using a shared /home though because you'll run into issues if you use the same application between FreeBSD and Linux, they happen to read/write to the same files and don't have a common language; for example, the XFCE4 version isn't equivalent between FreeBSD and Linux distributions (if it was I would be surprised as `our' coordination ..), so you'll run into an issue with settings, paths, etc.


----------



## emamarro (Aug 16, 2010)

Thanks for replies,basically what I would like to do is back-up my /home reisefers on a usb disk and copy it on a new pc with a dedicate hd to freebsd as only OS.
I am wondering  if this can work being different filesystem..
ciao
em


----------



## shitson (Aug 17, 2010)

You could try and install Virtual Box and Virtualise FreeBSD. This is an option if your only wanting to test out freeBSD


----------



## gcooper@ (Aug 17, 2010)

Yes, you can to a large extent (you'll have better luck with ext2/ext3), but just beware of shared configuration / metadata files between FreeBSD and your Linux distro.


----------

