Can I get system update (synaptic) to use non-root filesystem?

[Derek Broughton]

Chris G wrote:

> I have eeebuntu installed on an Eee PC, it doesn't have much
> memory/disk so update manager can't do updates at the moment.
> 
> I can plug in an SD card to give it some working space but I can't
> see any way to tell Update Manager to use the SD card rather than /.

Of course not.  What do you think it would put there?

Generally, the config files (/etc) and system executables (/bin, /sbin) MUST 
go on the root filesystem.  You can move practically anything else to other 
filesystems, but you still need to keep the names the same - Debian/Ubuntu 
use a standard naming system - that means you have to use "mount" to put 
your new filesystems in the right place.  Methinks that's probably too 
advanced for you.

First, in synaptic go to Settings/Preferences/Files and click on "Delete 
Cached Package Files", this should free up a lot of space.  Then you can 
choose to "Delete Downloaded Packages after Installation", which will stop 
the package cache from growing in future.

It might be very useful for you to put /tmp on the SD card, but I doubt it 
would be a very good idea to use it for anything else.
-- 
derek