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

[A.J. Bonnema]

On 26/10/13 06:42, Basil Chupin wrote:
> On 25/10/13 21:24, Bas Roufs wrote:
>
> 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
>
Basil,

Thank you very much. I have been using Linux for a long time now, but 
always had a separate partition for /home. Your setup eliminates the 
problem of having old configuration files for the graphical environment.
I especially like the way you can set up several systems: I am 
definitely going to use that.

I do have a few points though where things are not completely clear to me:

1. When I partition /home separately, I know my home directory will have 
different file permission from a different user, say, Daniel. So when 
Daniel logs on, he cannot access my files, and I cannot access his files.
If you have one partition for data, this does not apply. How do you do 
that? Or you have only one user on your system? Then it is easy.

2. Some of the directories like .kde have hidden data directories. For 
instance Kontakt by default stores its data somewhere below .kde. Do you 
symlink that separately?

I have also considered using a main data directory from my server (just 
a home server, nothing fancy), because it has a raid setup. But it has 
the same file permission problems that I describe in point 1. I can 
either mount it -o uid=1000,gid=1000 or uid=1001,gid=1001, but not both.

Regards,

Guus.