home directory problems with Fedora 8

[Matthew Gillen]

Chris Howard wrote:
> I have previously existing home directories under /u01/home.
> I did this because upgrading from FC6 to Fedora 7 caused me trouble
> and I want to avoid having to recreate my home directory.  So I copied
> the whole system into /u01 before doing a fresh Fedora 8 install.  I
> do not have a separate home-only partition.
> 
> SELinux prevents me from making a symbolic link like this:
> 
> /home--> /u01/home  or like this
> 
> /home/chris--> /u01/home/chris.

I wouldn't do symlinks like that unless you have some strange reason to.  Just
have /etc/passwd point to the actual directories under /u01/home.

> If I setup a dummy user with home at /home/chris, then
> edit /etc/passwd to change the home to /u01/home/chris... that doesn't
> work either.
> 
> nor if I create a new user like so:
> 
> useradd -d /u01/home/pete  pete
> 
> Is there something magic about the string '/home' ?
> that keeps me from creating home directories anywhere else?
> 
> I'd really love to keep from smashing /home on every OS reload.
> 
> For now I have SELinux in Permissive mode so I can at least use the
> system.

Here's how I /think/ it works:
a) If you've got an empty /u01/home, and you want to add new users, do this:
Set the type of /u01/home to home_root_t:
  chcon -t home_root_t /u01/home
and then useradd -d /u01/home/pete will do the right thing.

b) Supposing you already have some use home dirs there (ie the homeidrs in
/etc/passwd point to /u01/home/*), I think you can just run 'genhomedircon'
and then run:
 restorcon -R -v /u01/home

In the case of (b), it doesn't hurt to do the chcon operation first, but I
don't think it's necessary.

(note: I'm not an expert myself, but if these steps don't work for you, they
should at least point you in the right direction).

HTH,
Matt