Partitioning question // 128GB SSD

[sfxmx]

Hallo,
i want to install MX Linux and test it for a longer period of time. My question is now, what the "most" optimized partioning for my 128GB SSD?

The device is a Lenovo Notebook G50-45.
-Ram = 8 GB

Thanks for your kind answers!

[philotux]

I use to partition my disk for an installation in UEFI mode as follows:
EFI system partition (ESP) FAT32 100 MB
/ partition EXT4 25-30 GB
/home partition up to you
swap partition the size of RAM

[Route99]

How much room do you need for your data? Take enough...
I always prefer a separate data partition, the moment the system partition may crash.... your data partition does not need to crash. Of course you have at least a double, separate backup of your data...

My clean, fully updated MX installation with only as extra, Opera browser and XFE filemanager, uses only 6.3 GB size in total. My data are elsewhere.

[JayM]

If you don't plan to hibernate, automatic installation using the entire disk is the best option. Otherwise it depends: if you want an encrypted installation you'll need a separate unencrypted /boot partition. If you want a separate partition for /home you'll have to create that. If you plan to hibernate the computer you'll need a swap partition at least as large as your 8GB of RAM. It's ultimately your choice. I would recommend at least 30GB for the root (only) partition though, to have plenty of frəe space for updates, temp files, etc. and much more if you plan to leave /home under root rather than in its own partition, like everything available other than your 6GB or greater swap partition (again. if you plan to hibernate.)

The manual is the best place to start. There's a section there on pre-installation as well as one as the installation process itself.

[sfxmx]

If you don't plan to hibernate, automatic installation using the entire disk is the best option. Otherwise it depends: if you want an encrypted installation you'll need a separate unencrypted /boot partition. If you want a separate partition for /home you'll have to create that. If you plan to hibernate the computer you'll need a swap partition at least as large as your 8GB of RAM. It's ultimately your choice. I would recommend at least 30GB for the root (only) partition though, to have plenty of frəe space for updates, temp files, etc. and much more if you plan to leave /home under root rather than in its own partition, like everything available other than your 6GB or greater swap partition (again. if you plan to hibernate.)

The manual is the best place to start. There's a section there on pre-installation as well as one as the installation process itself.

Is swap worth to use if I don't hibernate my computer?
I've read without hibernate the swap part should be half of the RAM (so in my case 4GB)

[Huckleberry Finn]

You can try and use MX on live-session for almost everything. If you can start live session and post QSI (as in my signature below) it's possible to help more.

You can also use Gparted on MX live session.

Shortly:

Changing sata mode to AHCI in Bios is recommended for SSDs to work better.

• If it's a Uefi device, then on Gparted: Partitioning Table: GPT
  
  And a fat32 formatted 100MB Efi Partition. Flagged both as "boot" and "esp"
  The rest is up to you (roughly).

• If it's a Legacy (or non uefi) machine, then : Partitioning Table: MBR
  
  (Boot flag is needed only on Windows partition, if there'll be any)
  
  It will let 4 Primary partitions at most. So (just a suggestion) you can make one of them a big "Extended" partition, say 3 Primary with enough sizes only, and the remaining whole: A big Extended.. Then you can create many sub-partitions (Logical) and also install MX and any other distros at the same time as much as you like..

[sfxmx]

You can try and use MX on live-session for almost everything. If you can start live session and post QSI (as in my signature below) it's possible to help more.

You can also use Gparted on MX live session.

Shortly:

Changing to AHCI in Bios mode is recommended for SSDs to work better.

• If it's a Uefi device, then on Gparted: Partitioning Table: GPT
  
  And a fat32 formatted 100MB Efi Partition. Flagged both as "boot" and "esp"
  The rest is up to you (roughly).

• If it's a Legacy (or non uefi) machine, then : Partitioning Table: MBR
  
  (Boot flag is needed only on Windows partition, if there'll be any)
  
  It will let 4 Primary partitions at most. So (just a suggestion) you can make one of them a big "Extended" partition, say 3 Primary with enough sizes only, and the remaining whole: A big Extended.. Then you can create many sub-partitions (Logical) and also install MX and any other distros at the same time as much as you like..

Whats the command again to get QSI?

Something like "sudo lshw -short" ?

[Route99]

Maybe it is indeed good to read the manual fist and then come back with improved question when it still needed.
The moment 120 GB really becomes too small and you do not wanna miss something, and you really can miss the money, you can think of a larger SSD, 500 GB < 50 euro, but do not know your situation. NOK, it will be a sport to deal with it if you have lots of data.

Tip: As SSD's wear in high rate when there is very little space left on the SSD. Please notice that it is preferable to keep 20-30% of your SSD as free space on your EXT4 partition (so NOT as unallocated space!). This may reduce the loss of data due to the wear significantly.

[Huckleberry Finn]

You only start it from the "Menu". ( "Start menu" in Windows language :) )

Once it's started, it gives the summary of your system and nothing needed to copy (automatic). Just come here and right-click "paste" :)

[sfxmx]

You only start it from the "Menu".

Once it's started, it gives the summary of your system and nothing needed to copy (automatic). Just come here and right-click "paste" :)

ye, found it

Code: Select all

[code]
System:    Host: mx1 Kernel: 4.19.0-6-amd64 x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 8.3.0 
           parameters: BOOT_IMAGE=/antiX/vmlinuz quiet splasht 
           Desktop: Xfce 4.14.1 tk: Gtk 3.24.5 info: xfce4-panel wm: xfwm4 dm: LightDM 1.26.0 
           Distro: MX-19_x64 patito feo October 21  2019 base: Debian GNU/Linux 10 (buster) 
Machine:   Type: Laptop System: LENOVO product: 80E3 v: Lenovo G50-45 serial: <filter> Chassis: 
           type: 10 v: Lenovo G50-45 serial: <filter> 
           Mobo: LENOVO model: Lancer 5B2 v: SDK0F82993 WIN serial: <filter> UEFI: LENOVO 
           v: A2CN45WW(V2.13) date: 08/04/2016 
Battery:   ID-1: BAT1 charge: 26.6 Wh condition: 26.6/28.5 Wh (93%) volts: 16.3/14.4 
           model: LENOVO PABAS0241231 type: Li-ion serial: <filter> status: Full 
CPU:       Topology: Quad Core model: AMD E2-6110 APU with AMD Radeon R2 Graphics bits: 64 
           type: MCP arch: Puma family: 16 (22) model-id: 30 (48) stepping: 1 microcode: 7030105 
           L2 cache: 2048 KiB 
           flags: avx lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 sse4a ssse3 svm bogomips: 11977 
           Speed: 998 MHz min/max: 1000/1500 MHz Core speeds (MHz): 1: 1000 2: 999 3: 1090 
           4: 1013 
           Vulnerabilities: Type: l1tf status: Not affected 
           Type: mds status: Not affected 
           Type: meltdown status: Not affected 
           Type: spec_store_bypass 
           mitigation: Speculative Store Bypass disabled via prctl and seccomp 
           Type: spectre_v1 mitigation: usercopy/swapgs barriers and __user pointer sanitization 
           Type: spectre_v2 mitigation: Full AMD retpoline, STIBP: disabled, RSB filling 
Graphics:  Device-1: AMD Mullins [Radeon R2 Graphics] vendor: Lenovo driver: radeon v: kernel 
           bus ID: 00:01.0 chip ID: 1002:9852 
           Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.4 driver: ati,radeon unloaded: fbdev,modesetting,vesa 
           resolution: 1366x768~60Hz 
           OpenGL: renderer: AMD MULLINS (DRM 2.50.0 4.19.0-6-amd64 LLVM 7.0.1) 
           v: 4.5 Mesa 18.3.6 direct render: Yes 
Audio:     Device-1: AMD Kabini HDMI/DP Audio vendor: Lenovo driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel 
           bus ID: 00:01.1 chip ID: 1002:9840 
           Device-2: AMD FCH Azalia vendor: Lenovo driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel 
           bus ID: 00:14.2 chip ID: 1022:780d 
           Sound Server: ALSA v: k4.19.0-6-amd64 
Network:   Device-1: Qualcomm Atheros QCA9565 / AR9565 Wireless Network Adapter vendor: Lenovo 
           driver: ath9k v: kernel port: 3100 bus ID: 01:00.0 chip ID: 168c:0036 
           IF: wlan0 state: down mac: <filter> 
           Device-2: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet vendor: Lenovo 
           driver: r8169 v: kernel port: 2000 bus ID: 02:00.0 chip ID: 10ec:8168 
           IF: eth0 state: down mac: <filter> 
           Device-3: Qualcomm Atheros AR3012 Bluetooth 4.0 type: USB driver: btusb 
           bus ID: 2-1.3:5 chip ID: 0cf3:3004 
Drives:    Local Storage: total: 149.05 GiB used: 25.4 MiB (0.0%) 
           ID-1: /dev/sda vendor: Transcend model: TS128GSSD370S size: 119.24 GiB block size: 
           physical: 512 B logical: 512 B speed: 6.0 Gb/s serial: <filter> rev: 5G 
           ID-2: /dev/sdb type: USB model: UFD USB Flash Drive size: 29.81 GiB block size: 
           physical: 512 B logical: 512 B serial: <filter> rev: 1100 scheme: MBR 
Partition: ID-1: / raw size: N/A size: 5.36 GiB used: 25.4 MiB (0.5%) fs: overlay 
           source: ERR-102 
Sensors:   System Temperatures: cpu: 44.2 C mobo: N/A gpu: radeon temp: 43 C 
           Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A 
Repos:     No active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list 
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/antix.list 
           1: deb http://iso.mxrepo.com/antix/buster buster main
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/debian-stable-updates.list 
           1: deb http://deb.debian.org/debian buster-updates main contrib non-free
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/debian.list 
           1: deb http://deb.debian.org/debian buster main contrib non-free
           2: deb http://deb.debian.org/debian-security buster/updates main contrib non-free
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mx.list 
           1: deb http://mxrepo.com/mx/repo/ buster main non-free
           No active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/various.list 
Info:      Processes: 196 Uptime: 1m Memory: 6.77 GiB used: 599.7 MiB (8.7%) Init: SysVinit 
           v: 2.93 runlevel: 5 default: 5 Compilers: gcc: 8.3.0 alt: 8 Shell: bash v: 5.0.3 
           running in: quick-system-in inxi: 3.0.36