MX Linux Forum

Posted: **Thu Dec 12, 2019 6:13 am**

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!

Posted: **Thu Dec 12, 2019 6:23 am**

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

Posted: **Thu Dec 12, 2019 6:28 am**

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.

Posted: **Thu Dec 12, 2019 6:28 am**

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.

Posted: **Thu Dec 12, 2019 6:34 am**

JayM wrote: Thu Dec 12, 2019 6:28 am 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)

Posted: **Thu Dec 12, 2019 6:38 am**

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..

Posted: **Thu Dec 12, 2019 6:47 am**

Huckleberry wrote: Thu Dec 12, 2019 6:38 am 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" ?

Posted: **Thu Dec 12, 2019 6:48 am**

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.

Posted: **Thu Dec 12, 2019 6:50 am**

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" :)

Posted: **Thu Dec 12, 2019 6:54 am**

Huckleberry wrote: Thu Dec 12, 2019 6:50 am 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

Posted: **Thu Dec 12, 2019 6:55 am**

Yeah, perfect.

So, it's a Uefi Machine.. And all you need is "New" "Partition Table" : "GPT" and create first an Efi partition at the beginning (100MB "Primary" then format to fat32) as mentioned .. and Flag both boot, esp .. all on Gparted on live session .. (Generally right-click does the job..)

Then gor MX an ext4 formatted one.. And the rest is up to your liking: Another ext4 for data storage etc..

Don't worry about Swap etc. it's done by a swap file and swap partitions are rarely used (you can even click "none" on installation) ..
____________________________________________________________________________

These may be helpful:

https://www.linux.org/threads/gparted-p ... ags.11640/
https://gparted.org/

Posted: **Thu Dec 12, 2019 7:08 am**

So I did the gpt part in Gparted, now I can run installation normally nothing else to do?

Posting QSI again after installation...

Posted: **Thu Dec 12, 2019 7:11 am**

Yes, but you must either choose "Auto-install using entire disk" or partition during installation (Modify Partitions)..
The first one is easy and will do all what's required..

https://www.dedoimedo.com/images/comput ... ection.jpg

Posted: **Thu Dec 12, 2019 7:25 am**

Huckleberry wrote: Thu Dec 12, 2019 7:11 am Yes, but you must either choose "Auto-install using entire disk" or partition during installation (Modify Partitions)..
The first one is easy and will do all what's required..

https://www.dedoimedo.com/images/comput ... ection.jpg

Hmm the installation was successfully, but on reboot the SSD is not showing up under EFI...only thing which is showing is "EFI PXE Network" <.<

AHCI is enabled and Boot mode is UEFI
Secure Boot is disabled btw

Posted: **Thu Dec 12, 2019 7:27 am**

sfxmx wrote: Thu Dec 12, 2019 7:25 amon reboot the SSD is not showing up under EFI

? You mean, it doesn't boot or black screen?

"AHCI is enabled and Boot mode is UEFI, Secure Boot is disabled btw" All so good .

Posted: **Thu Dec 12, 2019 7:31 am**

Huckleberry wrote: Thu Dec 12, 2019 7:27 am
sfxmx wrote: Thu Dec 12, 2019 7:25 amon reboot the SSD is not showing up under EFI
? You mean, it doesn't boot or black screen?

it doesn't boot over the SSD after installation was successfully and it rebooted...
It doesn't detect the SSD with UEFI on...<.<

partitions are the following after install:

/dev/sda1 - ESP fat32 SIZE: 256MiB
/dev/sda2 - primary ext4 SIZE: 116.96GiB
/dev/sda3 - primary linux-swap SIZE 2GiB

Posted: **Thu Dec 12, 2019 7:33 am**

How does it look on Gparted on live session? (You can also take a screenshot using the default utility)

Posted: **Thu Dec 12, 2019 7:34 am**

Huckleberry wrote: Thu Dec 12, 2019 7:33 am How does it look on Gparted on live session? (You can also take a screenshot using the default utility)

/dev/sda1 - ESP fat32 SIZE: 256MiB
/dev/sda2 - primary ext4 SIZE: 116.96GiB
/dev/sda3 - primary linux-swap SIZE 2GiB

The flags part is empty...

Posted: **Thu Dec 12, 2019 7:37 am**

And also no Grub menu, right?

Though it should be automatically done, you can check (or flag) boot and esp flags on Efi partition on live session.

Posted: **Thu Dec 12, 2019 7:38 am**

Huckleberry wrote: Thu Dec 12, 2019 7:37 am And also no Grub menu, right?

Nothing, the SSD not getting detected after reboot with Boot mode "UEFI"

Posted: **Thu Dec 12, 2019 7:41 am**

Then it's something that it can't detect the drive. You can change Ahci back to previous one in Bios and try..

Posted: **Thu Dec 12, 2019 7:52 am**

Huckleberry wrote: Thu Dec 12, 2019 7:41 am Then it's something that it can't detect the drive. You can change Ahci back to previous one in Bios and try..

Well what can it be? I used gpt and the installation worked normally, then I rebooted after finished installation like normally. After that it showed the gnub munu again for installation (from my bootable USB stick), but not the SSD in boot options

With Sata Controller mode to "Compatible"(instead of AHCI) and Boot mode to "legeacy support" it showing the SSD, but why not with UEFI and AHCI on?

Posted: **Thu Dec 12, 2019 9:57 am**

sfxmx wrote: Thu Dec 12, 2019 7:52 am
Huckleberry wrote: Thu Dec 12, 2019 7:41 am Then it's something that it can't detect the drive. You can change Ahci back to previous one in Bios and try..
Well what can it be? I used gpt and the installation worked normally, then I rebooted after finished installation like normally. After that it showed the gnub munu again for installation (from my bootable USB stick), but not the SSD in boot options

With Sata Controller mode to "Compatible"(instead of AHCI) and Boot mode to "legeacy support" it showing the SSD, but why not with UEFI and AHCI on?

Please show partition layout by running this command when booted with LiveUSB in UEFI-mode:

Code: Select all

sudo parted --list

Code: Select all

sudo lsblk -f

Do also show the UEFI entries this way:

Code: Select all

sudo efibootmgr -v

Posted: **Thu Dec 12, 2019 11:11 am**

Is it non-booting because of the lack of a Flag concerning ESP?
Was asked before but did I miss something ... ?

Posted: **Thu Dec 12, 2019 11:48 am**

sfxmx wrote: Thu Dec 12, 2019 7:52 aminstallation worked normally, then I rebooted after finished installation like normally. After that it showed the gnub munu again for installation (from my bootable USB stick), but not the SSD in boot options

... Or, Did you leave the usb attached at first reboot after installation?

Posted: **Thu Dec 12, 2019 11:54 am**

Route99 wrote: Thu Dec 12, 2019 11:11 am Is it non-booting because of the lack of a Flag concerning ESP?
Was asked before but did I miss something ... ?

As mentioned, @sfxmx please provide information requested in my post above.
Thanks

Posted: **Thu Dec 12, 2019 12:59 pm**

Maybe it his handy for to have a complete story how to handle UEFI et al...
It is for Ubuntu but for this story that's ok, its quite similar to MX-Linux using apt.
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/UEFI

Posted: **Fri Dec 13, 2019 4:39 am**

Nicely explained,
In this article it is written that Ubuntu is able to be installed in two modes 1. BIOS/CSM/legacy mode 2. UEFI/UEFI mode.

Does the same choice of automatic installation path apply to MX?

For a disk of 128 GB, on an laptops with BIOS (not UEFI), things'd go great with
1. 30 GiB for system '/' + ext4 (boot flag) (as someone said before SSD need some bufor free space to work properly, the mentioned bufor is within this 30 GiB)
2. 8 GiB for '/Swap' + ext4 (so all your Ram Memory could dump into Swap. Less would work in some cases)
3. rest (128 - 30 - 8 = 90 GiB) for '/home' + ext4

If we would add here UEFI than create one more partition at the beginning
0. 200 mb '/boot/efi '+ fat32 (boot flag) (instead of '/')

https://askubuntu.com/questions/221835/ ... -with-uefi

Posted: **Fri Dec 13, 2019 4:54 am**

hkjz wrote: Fri Dec 13, 2019 4:39 am Nicely explained,
In this article it is written that Ubuntu is able to be installed in two modes 1. BIOS/CSM/legacy mode 2. UEFI/UEFI mode.

Does the same choice of automatic installation path apply to MX?

https://mxlinux.org/manuals/ will tell you.

MX Linux Forum

Partitioning question // 128GB SSD

Partitioning question // 128GB SSD

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Re: Partitioning question // 128GB SSD

Re: Partitioning question // 128GB SSD

Re: Partitioning question // 128GB SSD

Re: Partitioning question // 128GB SSD

Re: Partitioning question // 128GB SSD

Re: Partitioning question // 128GB SSD

Re: Partitioning question // 128GB SSD

Re: Partitioning question // 128GB SSD

Re: Partitioning question // 128GB SSD

Re: Partitioning question // 128GB SSD

Re: Partitioning question // 128GB SSD

Re: Partitioning question // 128GB SSD

Re: Partitioning question // 128GB SSD

Re: Partitioning question // 128GB SSD

Re: Partitioning question // 128GB SSD

Re: Partitioning question // 128GB SSD

Re: Partitioning question // 128GB SSD

Re: Partitioning question // 128GB SSD

Re: Partitioning question // 128GB SSD

Re: Partitioning question // 128GB SSD

Re: Partitioning question // 128GB SSD

Re: Partitioning question // 128GB SSD