Home Folder in external disk "not supported" by Apple

[toke lahti]

Here's the problem:
Home Folder in ext disk "not supported" by Apple
diskutil resetUserPermissions / `id -u`

Long story short: I tried to avoid apple tax by buing mini with small int ssd.
Seems to be that at least for 10.14., You have to have your home folder in startup drive, otherwise you can't repair permissions, if needed. It took Apple's support about 3 months to say that to me.
In the meantime, they also updated the instructions.

Support said, that I needed to move home folder to internal and since I can't do that, I yesterday decided to make the opposite, install system to external.
But those systems (internal and external) can't share the same home folder.
Anybody know why? UUID? I did set same User IDs to both systems to this home folder (502).
Is there any "official" documentation about these things?
I already duplicated the home folder, to run the second when booting from external.
But it's a permission mess. All user settings are gone, from Finder settings to widgets, including everything in System Preferences.

Is there some user settings outside the home folder?
Let's start with user icon, why doesn't the second home folders user settings pick the old icon?
How does the system pick witch accounts to show after bootup?

So, I have 2 home folders in ext ssd. Actually there's third also, in Previous Content, since I used a same account name at one try. This is where APFS comes handy, a new duplicate of almost 300GB home folder takes almost no space at all, since the content is pretty identical.
The old home folder is like before, all content and settings for the last 15 years and those permission issues. New home folder is a mess, I guess I delete it.
What is the best way to import that old home folder (when booting from int ssd) to the system of booting from ext ssd?

Of course, more to follow...

 

[toke lahti]

Looks like TM doesn't understand APFS duplication so well, since it wiil take TM for about 10 hours to "prepare for backup"...

Funny thing here is, that I can't just copy the user folder in EXTssd, which I have been using with INTssd.
When I boot with EXTssd, I can't use Migrate Assistant to migrate an account which I've been using when booting from INTssd, since it's already in EXTssd. Migration Assistant said something about "moved location" from the point of view of INTssd. So, I guess, I'll have to install both system and migrate home folred to 3rd diks and then, because finally they (system & home folder) are in the same disk, I can boot with EXTssd and migrate my original home folder to boot with EXTssd.

Easy and simple.

And the super fast and super expensive, but oh so small INTssd will be, well left alone...?
[doublepost=1564344357][/doublepost]Still wondering, that if I'd buy macOS Server, could then that one home folder (in EXTssd) serve two systems, one booted from INTssd and the other from EXTssd?
Is there still a centralized home folder server funcion in macOS Server?

 

[Brian33]

Is there some user settings outside the home folder?
Let's start with user icon, why doesn't the second home folders user settings pick the old icon?
How does the system pick witch accounts to show after bootup?

To answer your side question: some user settings are maintained by Directory Services. Things like the user's Group ID, password, and location of his home folder, but also I think what you're referring to as "user icon." At any rate, it includes something called "JPEGPhoto" that I think is used as the image on the login screen.

You can see a user's Directory Services info with the following Terminal command (replace 'brian' with your username):

dscl . -read /Users/brian

Each bootable system will have its own Directory Services information, and those are the users it shows on boot up.

As far as your bigger question, I don't know of any way to have "one home folder (in EXTssd) serve two systems, one booted from INTssd and the other from EXTssd." I really would avoid that.

 

[toke lahti]

As far as your bigger question, I don't know of any way to have "one home folder (in EXTssd) serve two systems, one booted from INTssd and the other from EXTssd." I really would avoid that.

I guess we don't know why it wouldn't work.
It would just be the optimal use of the system's storage space: OS runs in the fastest (int) storage and homedir is in the 2nd fastest, etc.
And for repairing/maintenance every external disk used for homedirs should have a "local admin", so there should also be a "local os".
Last time I was just trying to move from "System1 = int startup + ext homedir" to "System2 = ext startup + homedir in same ext". And there was a conflict in UID numbers.
But it would also nice to experiment, can same homedir be in 2 systems (int & ext).
Here
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/250595435
it was discovered that maybe you can repair homedir permissions outside of strtup drive, even if Apple doesn't support it.
Remains to be seen. I don't have enough drives to test these things now. Maybe if I'd get a lot of small used ssd's from some flea market...
As I've grown older, I don't love so much "useless tinkering" as I did, maybe I'm thinking too much of the value of it.
This time all I wanted was just an economic way to run new mini.

Is there a dccl command, which would add an existing home folder to Directory Services?
This could be a very fast manual shortcut for using Migration?