this post was submitted on 24 Mar 2026
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Want to switch from Manjaro to CachyOS wtihout losing /home (lemmy.dbzer0.com)
submitted 6 days ago by tinylightshow@lemmy.dbzer0.com to c/linux@lemmy.world
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Salutations!

I've been running Manjaro on my T495 without a hitch for a long time, now. With all the chatter about Manjaro possibly not being maintained, I wanted to explore jumping to a different distro like CachyOS. The problem is, when I installed Manjaro on a BTRFS filesystem, I didn't make a separate /home partition. Is there a way to migrate to CachyOS without deleting /home?

I realize BTRFS uses subvolumes instead of "real" partitions, but I'm not sure how to proceed. In my initial searches, there is a process to rename the subvolumes to something else, install CachyOS, then use rsync to restore my files, but I don't know WHERE to do this. In the LiveUSB environment? During the installer? (See post Here)

Or am I better off just using rsync to backup the whole /home folder to an external drive, install CachyOS fresh, then rsync my files over when the installer is completed but before I boot for the first time?

Apologies if this is some basic stuff, I just don't want to lose any data, especially my Docker containers and pictures.

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[โ€“] tinylightshow@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Thank you, everyone!

I'm thinking rsync is going to be my best bet, then I can restore things as needed without messing anything up in hidden folders. I have a spare hard drive I can use as a lifeboat but should that be in ext4 or btrfs? Or does it even matter?

[โ€“] PancakesCantKillMe@lemmy.world 1 points 5 days ago

It shouldn't matter, but I would use ext4 for simplicity's sake. I bring that concept up again because if you can make a process more simple, it is obviously easier to understand and you'll then have time for the complexities that inevitably pop up. And they will.