MX Linux Forum

Posted: **Sat Oct 01, 2022 1:18 pm**

Good afternoon,
I would like to install MX Linux XCFE on a netbook with AMD C70 processor 8 GB RAM and 250 SDD as unique OS.

What is the best Partition Scheme that I can create for MX linux?
I mean is recomended, as in other Linux distribution, to create a /home / booot /root /swap and what size you recomend?
P.S. I'm a newby Linux user :-)

Many thanks

Marco

Posted: **Sat Oct 01, 2022 4:40 pm**

You can use the installer to install to the entire disk, then all the stuff is done for you :)

Posted: **Sun Oct 02, 2022 12:23 am**

Ok but if I want to switch from xcfe to kde MX or to change SO is better to create a /home folder correct and then reinstall the SO without touching the personal data?

Because I see that in the installer you can only indicate how many root space he has to use (by the way, in this case what is the best choice? because the default indication is the entire disk!)
Many thanks

Marco

Posted: **Sun Oct 02, 2022 12:42 am**

I personally like to keep a separate /home partition but note that your dotfiles may affect different installations.

Posted: **Sun Oct 02, 2022 5:22 am**

I take the opposite route and have only root & data partitions. All my data folders are symlinked to folders in /home.

Posted: **Sun Oct 02, 2022 5:24 am**

If you select the full disk install and slide the bar underneath the option, you will get a separate /home partition. For anything more precise you can go custom partitions, and make a few partitions. What partitions are required will depend on the system you are installing it on and whether you opt for encryption.

Posted: **Sun Oct 02, 2022 5:43 am**

MB83 wrote: Sat Oct 01, 2022 1:18 pm Good afternoon,
I would like to install MX Linux XCFE on a netbook with AMD C70 processor 8 GB RAM and 250 SDD as unique OS.

What is the best Partition Scheme that I can create for MX linux?
I mean is recomended, as in other Linux distribution, to create a /home / booot /root /swap and what size you recomend?
P.S. I'm a newby Linux user :-)

Many thanks

Marco

/home is automatically created as a FOLDER in / ("/" = "root partition") if you choose the default installation using the whole disk [CORRECTION: UNLESS YOU USE THE SLIDER AS EXPLAINED BY AK-47], or if you simply choose a custom install scheme without a /home partition.

/home PARTITION is different from /home FOLDER, and it is not really necessary to create a separate partition for /home.

I do not share my /home amongst different distros because of potential conflicting config setups between the distros . That is why I don't have a separate /home PARTITION. Instead, I created [subsequent to installing the first distro on my machine] a separate DATA partition to hold my media, documents, music, data that I can enjoy whatever distro I am booted into. Each distro will have their own /home folder that just holds what config files get created by the apps that I run [IGNORE THIS STATEMENT IF ALL YOU WANT TO DO IS TO HAVE ONE DISTRO ON YOUR MACHINE]

/swap PARTITION is optional for a system with 8GB RAM, unless you are going to doing lots of RAM intensive stuff, eg you open 2 or 3 Virtual machines on your running system.

/boot PARTITION is not needed, I believe, unless you want an encrypted system. However, since I don't use this, other posters should clarify this.

you don't need a separate "/root" partition, which is different from " / " . Just by installing /, you will have a /root FOLDER in /.

Posted: **Sun Oct 02, 2022 7:18 am**

asqwerth wrote: Sun Oct 02, 2022 5:43 am
/boot PARTITION is not needed, I believe, unless you want an encrypted system. However, since I don't use this, other posters should clarify this.

From what I understand, a boot partition is only required when setting up a dual boot with windows, using an encrypted file system or storage schemes like LVM or software RAID.

Posted: **Sun Oct 02, 2022 9:30 am**

siamhie wrote: Sun Oct 02, 2022 7:18 am
asqwerth wrote: Sun Oct 02, 2022 5:43 am
/boot PARTITION is not needed, I believe, unless you want an encrypted system. However, since I don't use this, other posters should clarify this.

From what I understand, a boot partition is only required when setting up a dual boot with windows, using an encrypted file system or storage schemes like LVM or software RAID.

That just needs to stay non-encrypted, therefore, if one is willing to encrypt the main system partition (root) they need to make it separate to leave it non-encrypted (as it's normally just a directory under root: /boot).. no matter you have Windows or not. (And of course one may still make it separate though they're not going to encrypt the root)

Posted: **Sun Oct 02, 2022 10:21 am**

Huckleberry Finn wrote: Sun Oct 02, 2022 9:30 am
... And of course one may still make it separate though they're not going to encrypt the root)

Of course anyone can do so even if no encryption is required, but for what purpose? A separate /boot partition can lead to the problem of old kernels filling up the partition until the mx boot space warning is triggered.

If /boot is just a folder within the main root partition, then as long as the overall root partition has space, there is no issue. [same point for /home]

Posted: **Sun Oct 02, 2022 10:40 am**

asqwerth wrote: Sun Oct 02, 2022 5:43 am I do not share my /home amongst different distros because of potential conflicting config setups between the distros . That is why I don't have a separate /home PARTITION. Instead, I created [subsequent to installing the first distro on my machine] a separate DATA partition to hold my media, documents, music, data that I can enjoy whatever distro I am booted into. Each distro will have their own /home folder that just holds what config files get created by the apps that I run [IGNORE THIS STATEMENT IF ALL YOU WANT TO DO IS TO HAVE ONE DISTRO ON YOUR MACHINE]

This is also my approach, although I only run MX Linux. My OS disk is a 250GB SSD and I have 3 x 30GB partitions for OS installation. My reason for multiple partitions is to try the Beta & RC versions of MX when a new version is coming. My data is all on a second disk but there is 150GB available on the SSD which I could use for this. In fact, I have recently moves my VM files there to see if they run faster. I haven't been able to tell so far!

Posted: **Sun Oct 02, 2022 11:11 am**

When you boot the thumb drive, run gparted first, the red square; red line is target drive.
Expand the installer window to see all of the Choose partition list.
(depending on your browser - right-click on image; open in new tab. close tab when finished viewing)

Take the time to set up two partitions; one for Xfce and one for Plasma.
Give each OS their own swap big enough to hibernate; the size of your memory.
Make the boot partition about 1 gig. (opinions will differ on sizes of partitions, suit yourself)
Set the flags for boot partition boot, esp.

Installer will refresh the Choose partitions list when you exit gparted. I'm using Ventoy. https://www.ventoy.net/en/index.html
Check if the boot/esp partition of your thumb drive is listed and set it to blank.

Thumb drive boot partition set to blank. Partitions set for Xfce.

Complete install. Boot from thumb drive with MX Linux KDE Plasme and repeat instillation.

Let us know how you make out.

Posted: **Sun Oct 02, 2022 2:10 pm**

@MB83
I'm used to using the GPT partitioning scheme, hence some of my suggestions/agreements are GPT scheme
specific, e.g. as @8bit's suggestion to:

Set the flags for boot partition boot, esp.

The boot & esp flags are easy to forget.

Give each OS their own swap big enough to hibernate the size of your memory.

The > or = memory size, if you intend (or accidentally) hibernate (it's disabled by default in MX Tweak>Config Options in MX-21)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
As per: @Gaer Boy Most), All my data folders are symlinked to folders in /home.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
@AK-47 Wasn't aware of the slide bar full disk install option – good to know. Never installed full disk.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
However I disagree with two suggestions in this post, and I could be incorrect, these are the first things that I Googlefooed when I first started using Linux; and it's not my intent to derail this post, but I would like some feedback on one of these – the separate /home partition.

1 - I have always heard that you can share swap with other distros on a rather common install – I have always done that when I had more than one distro installed.

2 - As per: @asqwerth

I do not share my /home amongst different distros because of potential conflicting config setups between the distros . That is why I don't have a separate /home PARTITION. Instead, I created [subsequent to installing the first distro on my machine] a separate DATA partition to hold my media, documents, music, data that I can enjoy whatever distro I am booted into. Each distro will have their own /home folder that just holds what config files get created by the apps that I run [IGNORE THIS STATEMENT IF ALL YOU WANT TO DO IS TO HAVE ONE DISTRO ON YOUR MACHINE]
And the issue where I'd like more feedback is, in the past I have always shared a home partition amongst different distros, I was under the impression that this was fine if you used different user names – that being the key to avoid config problems. I can't say for certain that I never had any problems doing this, because I may not have know what was causing a problem, but from my perspective, I never encountered any problems doing this.
=================================================================================
My suggestions:

I believe that partition order was relevant on HHD's, and even different for different types of HHD's and use, and someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe that the partition order (other than the ESP and maybe boot partitions) does not matter – or is insignificant – in SSD's.

On a GPT partitioning scheme:
Using Gparted first, my preference, many find it easier to open Gparted first, use the GPT partitioning scheme.
Select Custom Installation or Something Else – both the same.
1 - Use or make the ESP partition 512Mib or 1 GiB
2 – (Optional Make a separate 2 – 3 GiB boot partition if encrypting, at least 1 GiB)
(From here on partition order is of no concern – I believe)
3 – Make a /root partition 20 – 30 GiB (30 GiB if I you'll install a lot of apps, yes "a lot" is relevant)
4 – Make a /home partition 10 – 20 GiB. Or bigger, depending on how many distros will share this, and if you save Timeshift snapshots on home. I save my Timeshift snapshots in my data partiton and I create a separate directory/folder in the data partiton and folder in my home folder – symnlinked as per Gaer Boy.
5 – I'm of the habit of creating a swap partition, but as asqwerth said, it's optional with 8 GiB of ram.
This something I'll think about on future installs, maybe zRAM swap or something.
6 – /tmp partition. 5 – 10 GiB. Not sure if necessary, appreciate feedback.
6 – I'd create a separate DATA (any name) partition at /mnt/DATA, you could also use /media/DATA but /mnt/ is not displayed in the file manager (at least it's not in thunar in Xfce) and I don't want it to be displayed because I'd create directories in my DATA partition symlinked from my home folder.

Warning! Check the installer before proceeding, as it does not default to preserve. This is CRITICAL on the DATA partition when installing a second time, e.g. another distro, or reinstalling. Also possibly relevant to the /home partition.

I find this link slightly easier to do by hand than thunar's r-click creating symlinks.https://www.linuxliteos.com/forums/tuto ... -partition
++++++++++EDIT++Link Has Changed++++++++++++++++
https://www.linuxliteos.com/forums/tuto ... 97/#msg997
++++++++++++++++EDIT++++++++++++++++++++
++EDIT++ The above link instructs to use:
Code: Select all
gksu leafpad /etc/fstab
leafpad is not installed, and I believe that gksu is deprecated or not the preferred method to do this, I'd use sudo featherpad /etc/fstab, or thunar > etc r-click the fstab file to Edit as Root.
++++++++++++++++EDIT++++++++++++++++++++
When done, check that you have permission in your symlinks, open them, r-click in thunar F.M. and see if you can create Folders or Documents, if it's greyed out and you can't, you'll probably need to run this afterwards:
Code: Select all
sudo chown -R yourusername: /mnt/DATA
Actually, I don't use Shots I just save my Timeshift Snapshots in /mnt/DATA, it creates a separate directory there.
Code: Select all
username@MX-GVivo:/mnt/DATA
$ ls
Documents  Downloads  lost+found  Music  Pictures  Shots  Templates  timeshift  Videos
P.S. To state the obvious, some of these may be helpful:
lsblk, blkid, cd /mnt/DATA
Possibly have unfallocated space between two partitions that you may need to enlarge later, e.g. root and home.
HTH

Posted: **Sun Oct 02, 2022 2:38 pm**

8bit wrote: Sun Oct 02, 2022 11:11 am...Set the flags for boot partition boot, esp...

Just to prevent confusions: "ESP" (Efi System) partition (when it's uefi) (as in the picture).

Posted: **Sun Oct 02, 2022 3:19 pm**

Many thanks for all this very detailed answer.
I will work on that next week and I will report what I do.
Thanks again

Posted: **Sun Oct 02, 2022 3:55 pm**

MXRobo wrote: Sun Oct 02, 2022 2:10 pm 1 - I have always heard that you can share swap with other distros on a rather common install – I have always done that when I had more than one distro installed.

If one is very careful to keep the newly installed OS from formatting the existing swap. Some installers don't provide that option. Debian is one of the worst; it will glom onto every swap partition on the machine unless specifically told not to.

Posted: **Sun Oct 02, 2022 8:55 pm**

@MXRobo

Root partition is /,
Not /root

And when I install another distro on my machine, I don't even address or point my distro the installer at the pre-existing Data partition. I don't want any installer dealing with it at all.

After install, I boot into that distro and adjust its fstab file to add the data partition entry.

Posted: **Sun Oct 02, 2022 8:56 pm**

8bit wrote: Sun Oct 02, 2022 3:55 pm
MXRobo wrote: Sun Oct 02, 2022 2:10 pm 1 - I have always heard that you can share swap with other distros on a rather common install – I have always done that when I had more than one distro installed.
If one is very careful to keep the newly installed OS from formatting the existing swap. Some installers don't provide that option. Debian is one of the worst; it will glom onto every swap partition on the machine unless specifically told not to.

Agree. I often don't choose swap when installing later distros. After install, I manually add the swap entry to its fstab file.

Posted: **Mon Oct 03, 2022 2:55 pm**

I would like to correct a wrong info that I gave about my netbook, this Aspire One 725 has 4 GB RAM not 8 as I wrote previously.

Posted: **Mon Oct 03, 2022 10:44 pm**

asqwerth wrote: Sun Oct 02, 2022 8:55 pm @MXRobo

Root partition is /,
Not /root

Yes, I should have typed it that way, that was just to write that it was root, for redundant clarification, not to introduce confusion.

asqwerth wrote: Sun Oct 02, 2022 8:55 pm @MXRobo
And when I install another distro on my machine, I don't even address or point my distro the installer at the pre-existing Data partition. I don't want any installer dealing with it at all.

++EDIT++ To separate quote from comment
I've done it both ways successfully with the new MX installer, unfortunately, dozens of times
- any my issue was simply that I needed a newer ahs kernel.
But yes, that makes sense, but for some reason I felt inadequate if I didn't do it with the installer, but I initially felt much more confident doing it manually afterwards.

Side note, can you still edit the fstab file with "Disk Manager"? Thanks

Posted: **Tue Oct 04, 2022 12:04 am**

As a general principle, the best partition scheme, if you have the space, is to create several spare partitions to be used in future installations. Plan ahead. If you have a new computer and are installing MX-21 for the first time in, for example, a 30 GB sda3. Create two or more additional 30 GB partitions sda4, sda5, etc, to be used when you want to first install MX-23, MX-25, etc. without messing up your working system.

Posted: **Tue Oct 04, 2022 1:36 am**

If you only want to install one distribution on a (relatively small) SSD, it's easy, no partitioning, root and /home together, swap I would rather create later as a swapfile. Swap files have the advantage that they can be adapted to current needs at any time.

Although I have relatively modern computers, I do not use UEFI and thus also the GPT scheme with ESP partition (usually between 512-1021MB in size and if you do not have Windows10,11 in dualboot, only a few MB are occupied, the "rest" is wasted space). And since I don't have more than 4 primary partitions on any of my disks, GPT is irrelevant for me.
Additional distributions are (and were) never on the same disk as my work system and my data, I use external disks for that and 4 primary partitions are enough for me, because I don't really need more than the work system + 4 other systems at the same time.
In my distro hopping days, yes, there were times when I had 20-30 distros on one disk ... and that also worked with MBR, you just had to work with extended and logical partitions.
Whereas I don't have the problem with too few disks and too much space, but rather too many disks with too much space ;-}

3.jpg

(no, these are not all the disks, but all the ones I can connect at the same time)

Posted: **Tue Oct 04, 2022 9:31 am**

MB83 wrote: Mon Oct 03, 2022 2:55 pm I would like to correct a wrong info that I gave about my netbook, this Aspire One 725 has 4 GB RAM not 8 as I wrote previously.

No problem. In fact we always request this (as it tells all at once (filtering the private ones)) :

Posted: **Tue Oct 04, 2022 11:32 am**

I am old school, MBR installation, with the Warren Woodford scheme. No windows installed.

I do a small (256G) SSD, partitioned into the maximum four primary partitions.
1. About 30G for /
2. Another 32+G for swap (a bit more than the RAM), though it is seldom used.
3. Another 50G partition for /home
4. The rest of the disk (>100G) for testing.

That 4th partition is for installing MX 23 or a new antiX when they come out. I test the RCs and then the final. After final is validated, I install the new MX over the three first partitions. The testing one stays as a back-up OS in case of problems, and it is overwritten when a new MX or antiX comes out for testing. And the cycle continues...

My /home is small because I don't use it much. All my data and files go on a separate large (1TB) SSD backed up to a 2G rotating drive. It makes back-ups simple, and keeps the data safe when installing or testing a new MX.

Posted: **Tue Oct 04, 2022 3:38 pm**

Well ... I think the only honest answer is: the way you want it to work.

And that sort of depends on your own preferred methods of learning.

If you are a pragmatic-practical type learner well just use the easiest install method
Work with it a few days - shuffle data around, browse websites, create office files, use emails and file what needs to be filed.
make sure you have external copies of your important files

Then! Reinstall MX and tweak the installation to see what happens. Then repeat most if not all of the work on that newer install (well not exactly word for word but most of the day-to-day things you want to do on a computer including VLC videos, chats, gaming and the like).

If you are a theoretical type learner read-up first then try out and re-install if you need to.
The big idea in my opinion, is to make sure your critical data is also stored externally just in case you need it pronto after a fresh install
SSDs are so fast and so cheap they are handier than USB thumb drives.
Whatever approach you take - have fun! Enjoy exploring a new OS

Posted: **Sat Oct 08, 2022 11:00 am**

]First of all I really would like to thanks all of the people that answer at my request
Then I tried to do a "mix" choice on this computer:
During the installation I choose to set the default option but I resize the root partition to 30 GB. Then installed the OS and finally with Gparted and the USBLive create 2 new partitons of 30 GB each 1 for Data and 1 for Test OS as suggested from many other users.

There are mistakes on what I applied in this computer? some improvement that I need to do?
If I want install Flubox in order to test it on the Test partiton what I need to do without compromising the original installation?
Many thanks
Marco

Posted: **Sat Oct 08, 2022 12:23 pm**

You can install it on sda6 "straightforward" if you like: If you don't select boot and home on any partitions, then all will be in root (classic).. Shortly, just select ESP for sda1 and root for sda6 ... (and if you uncheck the grub installation in that stage, just do a sudo update-grub when booted to your real (non-test) MX to make it see the new one)

(Also either during installation or later (with GParted or terminal) you can label the sda6 as MX-Test or so... (without space) then it'll be easy to recognize it everywhere, also in file manager ...)

Posted: **Sun Oct 09, 2022 1:09 pm**

8bit wrote: Sun Oct 02, 2022 3:55 pm
MXRobo wrote: Sun Oct 02, 2022 2:10 pm 1 - I have always heard that you can share swap with other distros on a rather common install – I have always done that when I had more than one distro installed.
If one is very careful to keep the newly installed OS from formatting the existing swap. Some installers don't provide that option. Debian is one of the worst; it will glom onto every swap partition on the machine unless specifically told not to.

Sorry for the delay, busy - Thanks, I wasn’t aware of that, perhaps the swap was not working on some of my earlier installed distros on my multiboot systems.

Posted: **Sun Oct 09, 2022 10:34 pm**

MXRobo wrote: Sun Oct 02, 2022 2:10 pm Documents, if it's greyed out and you can't, you'll probably need to run this afterwards:
Code: Select all
sudo chown -R yourusername: /mnt/DATA

Lots of all kind of great info from many posters, appreciated from myself as well. Post from @8bit should be somehow saved into guides or stickied etc...

When I create separate data partition, I use this command to gain control over it: (I hope it is OK to have it mounted in /media/)

sudo chown -R $USER:$USER /media/DATA

But since I was told, there should always be root owned folder: "lost+found" on it for file system stability (per memory), I then create folder lost+found on it and then run this command:

sudo chown root:root lost+found

Posted: **Mon Oct 10, 2022 12:08 am**

@Buck Fankers

(I hope it is OK to have it mounted in /media/)

Using /media, the partition will be displayed on the left side in Thunar and Xfce (not sure with other F.M.’s or desktops), whereas using /mnt it will not, and since I symlink the directories/folders created in the DATA partition from my home folder, I don’t really need them to be displayed.

Thanks for

But since I was told, there should always be root owned folder: "lost+found" on it for file system stability

I’ll bookmark this and Googlefoo that and 8bit’s swap comment on my next installation.

The link that I provided earlier changed, so I'll edit the above link to:
https://www.linuxliteos.com/forums/tuto ... 97/#msg997

Posted: **Tue Oct 11, 2022 2:27 am**

After running MX Linux for a couple of years without clearing cache or temp files/folders, this is the usage I got for the following partitions (in %, rounding off):

root 5%
home 40%
usr 10%
var 33%
tmp, usrlocal, opt and srv 3% each

It may look dumb and stupid, and not precise at all, but for my needs and style of using my resources, I am yet to run out of space, as it happened in the very beginning following an advice.

I always use it as reference for new installs.

You can monitor your usage for a while as well, like I did to get my figures.

Your mileage may (or rather will) be otherwise...

My 2 cts.

Posted: **Tue Oct 11, 2022 11:16 am**

Great partition tips and tricks in this thread.

Thank you all for sharing this wealth of information.

Will save it for my reference.

Posted: **Mon Oct 17, 2022 9:15 am**

MXRobo wrote: Mon Oct 10, 2022 12:08 am @Buck Fankers
(I hope it is OK to have it mounted in /media/)
Using /media, the partition will be displayed on the left side in Thunar and Xfce (not sure with other F.M.’s or desktops), whereas using /mnt it will not, and since I symlink the directories/folders created in the DATA partition from my home folder, I don’t really need them to be displayed.

Yay, didn't know this. And it is exactly what I need, thank you.

MXRobo wrote: Mon Oct 10, 2022 12:08 am https://www.linuxliteos.com/forums/tuto ... 97/#msg997

Good information, thanks for sharing!

Posted: **Mon Oct 17, 2022 10:24 am**

MB83 wrote: Sat Oct 01, 2022 1:18 pm ...hat is the best Partition Scheme that I can create for MX linux?...

My suggestion is just use what the installer recommends for you, for now. You can delve into granular control of your partitions later as you learn more. For example, I recommend using lvm2, separating /home, /opt and /var partitions for several reasons. I also recommend using btrfs instead of ext4.

As with anything, I wouldn't spend too much time pondering on it if you're a brand new computer user. Learn how to backup and restore your system first and foremost (MX has tools for that!) - then you can tweak, play all your want with little down time if you want to change partition schemes and experiment (although using virtual machines might be better for play / learning).

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