Fresh install Kubuntu 13.10: how best to partition the HD for optimal, smooth Kontakt & Akonadi

[Basil Chupin]

On 25/10/13 21:24, Bas Roufs wrote:
> Dear Everybody,
>
> thanks for all the input so far - clear enough to work with it!
>
> For now, one question remains. Do I need to create ONE or TWO /home 
> partitions? Background of this question: in the thread 'Still 100% CPU 
> when using Kontact and Akonadi ', there was a suggestion like this one:
>
> > Today I started from scratch an rebuilt my entire $HOME disk, with
> > a lot of referencing to my old one to determine settings for KMAIL
> > and desktop frills.  Now things are working like a charm.
>
> Another similar suggestion seems to work out this in more detail:
>
> > You mean that it is not possible in Kubuntu to create symlinks - for 
> kmail,
> > whatever - to where you have your directories/data stored?
>
> > For example, I have had my irreplaceable data (like Thunderbird mail 
> directories > and Firefox config files) sitting on a second HDD in a 
> directory called Special
> > and my Documents, .thunderbird, .mozilla, Downloads, etc etc are all 
> symlinked > to Special.
>
> > When I install a new version I don't have to worry about losing these
> > directories/data because they are never overwritten by the new 
> installation. All I > do is create the symlinks in the newly created HOME.
>
> This approach interests me. However, I have just one HD on each of the 
> 2 laptops where I want to carry out the fresh installation of Kubuntu 
> 13.10. That's why, I am wondering whether I need to create a second 
> data  partition with 'symlinks' to Home and with some user specific 
> data from Kontact and Firefox. Is it that partition that needs to stay 
> untouched when carrying out next fresh installs with 14.04, 14.10, etc.?
> And: what exactly from Home do I need to 'symlink' to that extra data 
> partition?
>
> Have a good weekend,
> Bas Roufs.
>

In your first post you mention that you have 2 computers one with a 
250GB HDD and the other with 500GB.

Now, that's a lot of space to play with. And this is fine - and it now 
comes down to how best utilise this space (on either of your computers - 
and how you do it is now up to you following what I state below).

Firstly, forget about using the "/" (root) and the separate /home 
partitions. Like Felix said about the swap partition size this is now an 
anachronism. Just create a partition which is simply "/" (root) - and 
that's it. /home will be inside "/" and that's all you want.

Now, I have yet to see a normal, home user's, system which requires a 
"/" partition of more than 20GB - but to play it safe I always create a 
30GB partition for "/". With this figure in mind, you can now see that 
you can have something like 8 Linux systems installed on the 250GB HDD - 
if you were that way inclined of course :-) .

While I suspect that in your case you wouldn't want 8 systems (I have 6 
systems installed btw) on your computer I would suggest creating space 
for two (2) systems: one which will the current version of your system 
and the second will be the beta/rc/whatever of the NEXT version of the 
system. You can play around with the new version but you still have your 
current and fully working version available to use every day. And when 
the new version is released and finalised and you start using it on a 
daily basis and something goes wrong, you then have the "old" one to 
fall back on.

OK, so you have all this space - how to utilise it? Here is my suggestion:

* Create a SWAP partition of 4GB (probably totally unnecessary but you 
do have a lot of disc space to play around with);

* Create a 30GB partition for your system, format it in ext4 and make 
this "/" (root);

* Create a second 30GB partition and you can either format it as ext4 
but do NOT mount it (in fstab) - this will be your spare partition for 
your second system;

* Create a third partition of, say, 100GB and call this partition 
something like "Data" (which is what I call mine). This is where your 
will have your important folders in your real /home sysmlinked to. 
Format it in ext4;

* Format the balance of your space in ext4 and call it, say, 'Spare'. 
This partition will be used to store any backups of files and whatever 
else you may think of. (Eg, I backup up my Firefox and Thunderbird files 
here as well as to an USB memory stick; also, copies of the Live CDs go 
here in case I need them at some later stage or if not then I simply 
delete them --- but you get the idea.)

Of course you are free to play around with the sizes and the number of 
partitions I mention above - just adapt the idea to suit your 
requirements and needs.

Now, re creating symlinks.

To make so much easier for your self, install mc (Midnight Commander). 
mc has the ability to create sysmlinks for you: you simply type in where 
the symlink is to go and the name of file/folder you want the symlink to 
apply to.  When you have installed mc click on the "box" (uppermost 
left) FILE and in the drop-down menu you will see Symlink - use this to 
create symlinks. (Of course there is a cli command which creates 
symlinks but it is a heck of a lot easier in mc as you can see both the 
source and the destination of the symslink (because mc has a split 
'screen').

Which directories/folders to symlink? Anything which you consider as 
something which is not to be wiped out when you install a new version of 
the system. (BTW, using this symlink idea you can have several systems 
access the same data - eg, as I said I have 7 systems installed and 6 of 
them use the same data in the partition which I called Data [but a bit 
more on this below]). To be more precise, you would want to symlink 
/Documents, /Downloads, /.mozilla, /.thunderbird and anything else you 
want to keep without being disturbed or overwritten when a new version 
is installed.

But do NOT keep any configuration files (eg /.kde4, /.thumbnails, etc - 
that is anything which may be considered as baggage which may stuff your 
installation  of the new system.

Juat a bit more about the partition called Data which will contain your 
important folders (Documents, Downloads,....).

In the partition called Data create a folder called, say (it's up to 
you), Alpha. When you create a symlink in your real /home folder the 
symlink will point to /Data/Alpha/<folder_name>. Let's take an example - 
you are creating a symlink for the folder Downloads in your real /home. 
The symlink would point to /Data/Alpha/Downloads and in your real /home 
there will be an entry '~Downloads'.

(There is a "catch" when creating symlinks: you need to delete the 
folder called Downloads before you can create the symlink otherwise the 
process will abort and tell you that such a directory/folder already 
exists. Here the thing to remember is to copy, or move, Downloads to 
Alpha then delete Downloads in /home and then create the symlink. IF 
this sounds complicated it isn't - it's just a bit messy trying to write 
it all down :-) . When it comes the time just ask and the "mystery" will 
be explained :-) .

BC

-- 
Using openSUSE 13.1, KDE 4.11.2 & kernel 3.11.6-2 on a system with-
AMD FX 8-core 3.6/4.2GHz processor
16GB PC14900/1866MHz Quad Channel Corsair "Vengeance" RAM
Gigabyte AMD3+ m/board; Gigabyte nVidia GTX660 OC 2GB DDR5 GPU