Ask TWIL: Creating a separate /home partition on Ubuntu / Linux

[punisher129]

Any chance of you doing some video on partitioning in Fedora?

[Rayne474]

I've been looking for a clear tutorial on how to do this, thank you! :D

[vimalprasath]

.hii i want to know whether i can create more partition like in windows i hav a dual boot windows and ubuntu i hav only the root partition i dont know how to make more partitions to save my data on ubuntu pls help me out .

[8VMikeMaxtD]

will 1 GB be enough swap for a 500 GB drive on a modern machine?

[thisweekinlinux]

@8VMikeMaxtD that depends on how much RAM your system has, and whether you let it go to Standby or Hibernate. If you have 2gb or more of ram, and you never hibernate/standby, you might not need swap at all. If you DO hibernate/standby, you'll need at least 1.5-2x the amount of RAM you have.

If you have less than 2gb of ram, it's usually best to keep at least 1.5x the amount of RAM you have as swap.

[8VMikeMaxtD]

@thisweekinlinux

Hey, thanks for the tips! I gave it 4.77GiB swap (I have 4GB RAM) on my new install of kubuntu 64bit. Only problem is, I disconnected my 1 TB drive that had ubuntu 32 bit without separate partitons as to avoid erasing it ( I used the whole drive) and now I can't get it to boot it. I get a grub rescue> prompt. Please help me. I've researched this online and I'm confused. I can still mount the drive and get files I need, but I can't get it to boot.

Please help me!

[8VMikeMaxtD]

I have a GIGABYTE GA-MA785GM-US2H DDR2 2x2GB @800MHz mobo, if that helps.

[thisweekinlinux]

@8VMikeMaxtD so you've got Kubuntu 64-bit on one drive, and Ubuntu 32-bit on another? Which one is hooked up when you get the grub rescue prompt? Is it the master or slave?

[8VMikeMaxtD]

@thisweekinlinux

I didn't know there was a master and slave configuration for SATA drives. Wasn't that for PATA drives only?

Anyway, I get the prompt after I try to set up boot priority in BIOS to the 1TB drive with the 32 bit Ubuntu/Kubuntu.

[thisweekinlinux]

@8VMikeMaxtD I think you're right about the master/slave thing. I haven't dealt with it in a long time.

Out of curiosity, how did you have it set up before installing Kubuntu 64-bit? Did you happen to have Grub installed to that drive, or to the 1Tb one?

[8VMikeMaxtD]

@thisweekinlinux

sorry, I don't know if I installed GRUB or no. :/ I just burned the images and installed from the live CD.

Doesn't GRUB just get installed by default if Ubuntu/Kubuntu needs it?

[thisweekinlinux]

@8VMikeMaxtD it does install by default. I was just trying to figure out your old setup. If you installed Grub to your first hard drive (the one that's not the 1tb with ubuntu 32-bit on it) when you wiped it out to put Kubuntu 64-bit on it, it would replace grub, leaving the 2nd drive unbootable.

[8VMikeMaxtD]

@thisweekinlinux

Ok. So I need to reinstall Grub on my 1TB drive that has 32bit ubuntu - (That's the one that won't boot and has most of my stuff on it). So, I'll need to use my 32 bit live Ubuntu CD, boot from it, and reinstall Grub to the 1TB drive with Ubuntu 32 bit.

Thank you! :)

[8VMikeMaxtD]

TWIL man,

You are the Man! People with home-built towers may want to disconnect their used drives they don't want to erase if there's an accident. Key drives are also so easy to back up to. I erased a volume I didn't want to erase, but it wasn't my primary drive, it was a try out of Kubuntu. Now I'm installing Kubuntu 64bit again with your professional instructions successfully. Keep up the great instructions! Us noob need you man!

Bless your heart and take your vitamins!

[thisweekinlinux]

@8VMikeMaxtD thanks a ton, man! :)

[makhdoom5]

how to make partition in ubuntu after it is installed and also the data should not delete

[thisweekinlinux]

@makhdoom5 that's somewhat complicated. It requires resizing your "/" partition, creating a new one, copying your home directory over, and editing your /etc/fstab file to point to the new /home directory. I'll put that on my list to make a video about.

[Dreamlgider]

When installing a new distro do you tell it that there is a /home partition already on the drive (select the /home partition and not selecting "format") and then just continue installing?

And is it posible to use one /home partition for two distros?

[thisweekinlinux]

@Dreamlgider yes and yes. Just don't select the "format" option when installing a new distro.

However, if you're sharing the /home partition between two distros, you might have issues if you use the same username. (for example, going between Ubuntu and Mint, mint has different themes/applets than Ubuntu does).

[NickJonasRocks26]

your awesome! thanks for the help!

[experimental0000]

this helps alot as I heard theshowthatsux talk about /home partitions before and such. this seems a really good way to go in order to keep your important data (always backup of course) while upgrading or changing your OS. I will see about trying it out on virtual machine when the computer is running at full speed again.

[vancityguy]

A question, Jordan. Looking at the Linux Mint 9 manual, it says I need to have at least one EXT3 partition. Do I need to set an EXT3, or can I just go all out with EXT4?

[thisweekinlinux]

@vancityguy It's possible they just haven't updated their manual yet. I've been using Linux Mint 9 with EXT4 only ever since it came out.

[vancityguy]

@thisweekinlinux Seems to be that way... I followed your advice, and I am now completely using Linux Mint 9! It is an awesome operating system. As usual, Jordan, thanks for your help and keep up the great work!

[thisweekinlinux]

@vancityguy Congrats, man, and thanks so much!

[Emoobia]

Hey, I really love this video. I used this, and I figured I would thank you now. So thanks for a great video that helped me.

[thisweekinlinux]

@Emoobia awesome! thanks so much for the comment.

[t2491tom]

@thisweekinlinux your how to videos are the shit. the stuff you do is so professionally done

[thisweekinlinux]

@t2491tom thanks very much! :)

[ValueLaVerdad]

Question! (great vid btw) , what do you recommend for / to /home partition size ratios? i'm going to be using ubuntu as my main OS on this hd for ~4yrs maybe more, so i allocated around 100gigs? about how much of the 100 should i allocate to /home & / each? ~thanks a lot

[thisweekinlinux]

@ValueLaVerdad I normally don't recommend a ratio. generally, unless you're installing some REALLY large programs, you shouldn't need any more than 15-20gb of space for /. If you're just going to be installing smaller programs, you might be able to get away with 10gb or less. I think I'm using 4-5 gb on my laptop and a little over 5gb on my desktop, so 10gb is safe for me. Good luck!

[Laoch111]

Does the root have to have, lets say 75% free space or something like that? So lets say I had a separate root partition of 30GB. Would it be advised to stay under 22.5GB {75% of 30 = 22.5}.

Note that I am just guessing at 75%, perhaps even 80% would be okay.

I know that in Windows you are advised not to go above 80% HDD space usage. I presume that the Linux home directory also should have a certain amount of free space?

[thisweekinlinux]

@Laoch111 I don't believe there's any requirement to have a certain amount of space reserved. With NTFS (Windows) you're supposed to keep at least 15% free so you can defragment.

[Laoch111]

@thisweekinlinux Ah yes, I forgot about defragmenting. This is good to know. Thanks.

[vancityguy]

I am planning on installing Linux Mint. When creating a partition like you have in this video, I see the option using your account password to decrypt your Home partition as well. When the time comes to eventually install an upgraded version of the Mint OS, what will be the result of the encrypted Home partition, if I just wiped out the root partition and left the Home folder in tact? Will there be any conflicts? This is out of curiosity and I would - of course - back up my data.

[thisweekinlinux]

@vancityguy I have never, and will never, recommend encryption. I believe if you wipe out the root partition, the encryption information will be lost and therefore your encrypted directory will become inaccessible.

That said, I'm not 100% on that. It's probably best to check the Mint forums to see if anyone has experience with encryption and reinstalling the OS.

[vancityguy]

@thisweekinlinux Thanks for the recommendation. I had a strong suspicion that, that would be the outcome. I'll definitely inquire with the Mint team on that as well. When I get Mint going, I'll definitely not enable that option. Just want to also add that I love this channel and to keep up the great work. Open Source all the way!

[thisweekinlinux]

@vancityguy Thanks so much, and good luck with encryption on Mint!

[sosroli]

We would need more info about the swap. I've heard that it must be at least as much capacity as the RAM memory. I have 10 GB swap (memory 2GB), but anyways if i use the command "free", i see no swap is used, evar.

[thisweekinlinux]

@sosroli whoa, 10Gb of swap?? The maximum I think you should ever need (with any halfway modern system) is the exact amount of normal ram that you have (in your case, 2Gb), just in case you want to make your system hibernate. If you don't hibernate your system, and you don't use anything too RAM intensive, you might not even need swap at all...

[sosroli]

@thisweekinlinux yes 10 GB cause my friend told me to put as much as i can, minimum 4 (dunno why) anyhow, i have 1.5 TB so no worries

:)

[Laoch111]

Example scenario:

If someone had installed Ubuntu 9.10 with just a root partition of 10GB and a home partition of 90GB and no swap partition. How would things work out when they pop in Ubuntu 10.04 and install it? Could you do a video on that?

[cavibird2005]

If you could... Review Foresight or Rpath and the Conary Package manager???

[thisweekinlinux]

@cavibird2005 That's an EXCELLENT idea! Adding it to my list. :)

[cavibird2005]

@thisweekinlinux yea, I've been using Foresight for awhile and , I like it, but it seems Conary gets bad press or worse yet none at all

[thisweekinlinux]

@cavibird2005 There are definitely some bugs in conary (or at least the last version of it I used) but it was one of the most amazing package managers I've ever used, and I actually did packaging for Foresight for several months

[VueltaAlPasado]

gparted ftw

[thisweekinlinux]

@VueltaAlPasado Gparted is awesome. Personally I'm not a huge fan of the partitioner they use in Ubuntu, it's kinda slow, so I try to use Gparted whenever possible.

[VueltaAlPasado]

@thisweekinlinux I thought that the partition manager used in the ubuntu installer was some riped off version of gparted :S

[thisweekinlinux]

@VueltaAlPasado The LiveCD comes with a copy of gparted on it, but the one integrated into the installer is something different (just reading on the Ubuntu Help pages now about it)

[Laoch111]

How much do you allocate to your own main OS root partition?

[thisweekinlinux]

@Laoch111 Personally, I normally allocate between 10 and 20gb for my root partition. If I've got 80-100gb of hard drive space or more, it's always 20gb. I've never found myself using any more than 8-10gb, but I like to know that I can install an entire other desktop environment if I choose to (along with all sorts of applications).

[Laoch111]

@thisweekinlinux Thanks for the info Jordan.

[therealkedmanee]

You taking to fast!

You dont make brakes!

I stopp this watching after 90 sec.

[zhoulingyu]

Making /home a logical partition also allows you to do the same thing: reinstalling / partition while leaving /home partition intact. I did this.

[thisweekinlinux]

@zhoulingyu A very good point. I usually make it primary out of habit.

[davexunit]

I have a strange technique for keeping my data on a different partition. I use windows and linux so I wanted both of them to have access to the same data. Soo in addition to windows and linux partition I created a 3rd partition for everything else. Now when I reinstall an OS I simply set up symbolic links to point the folders in home (music, videos, etc) to the appropriate places on my 3rd partition.

[thisweekinlinux]

@davexunit That makes good sense. I used to keep a Fat32 partition when I used windows regularly, but that was before NTFS became easier to use in Linux. Now if I have windows/linux on the same system, I just connect to the ntfs partition if I need something from the Windows drive. :)

[faillas]

very good tutorial!

[thisweekinlinux]

@faillas Thanks very much! :)

[korwinblue]

Are there any situations where I would want a separate /boot partition? Can I put my /home partition on a separate Hard drive?

Just to make it clear; let's say I have more than one Linux distro on one computer. They will all just use that one swape? I don't have to make another one?

Thanks for the video. Really cleared up the partition options. Ever thought of making an Intro to Linux Advanced series?

I'm gonna reformat my HDD now ;)

[thisweekinlinux]

@korwinblue I haven't found a good reason to create a separate /boot partition. Perhaps if you somehow used the same kernel boot information between different distros?

As far as using the same swap between distros on the same machine, absolutely. The system just looks for a swap partition, and it's always emptied on reboot.

I had thought about doing an Intro to Advanced Linux, but hadn't planned it out yet. Thanks for the suggestion though. :)

[thisweekinlinux]

@mh3rn4nd3z3 It doesn't have to be logical, I just wanted to mention that it was an option (in case you have too many primary partitions). Honestly, when I was making the video, that's the option the installer picked, and I didn't bother to change it.

[FlamingLinux]

awesome. I will use this when i get a different computer

[thisweekinlinux]

@FlamingLinux Nice! :)

[cusinndzl]

Nice tutorial. I always like messing around with Linux partitions. I have a 255MB ext3 boot partition, a 100GB encrypted ext4 root partition where the programs are installed as well as the OS, and a 214GB encrypted ext4 home partition where all my files are stored. I had a similar setup when I used Windows. I'm really into encryption right now and Ubuntu 10.04 really made the mounting and everything run smoother.

[thisweekinlinux]

@cusinndzl I've never been big into encryption, personally. I guess I've just seen too many times where people lose the password and everything ends up lost

Nice that you're so familiar with partitioning though.

[thisweekinlinux]

@TheLinuxWizKid Thanks dude. :)

[steigerjb]

How would you upgrade to a new Ubuntu version when it is partitioned like that?

[thisweekinlinux]

@steigerjb exactly the same way as you would upgrade normally. If you were doing a clean install, you would do the manual partitioning again, but tell it not to format the /home directory

[steigerjb]

@thisweekinlinux how do I tell em?

[thisweekinlinux]

@steigerjb Go into the manual partitioner like I showed in this video, select the partition that was your / before, edit it, and tell it to mount at / again and to format, then select the one that was /home, tell it to mount at /home again, but NOT format. :)

[steigerjb]

I still wonder about ReiserFS. I hear it is faster than Ext4

[thisweekinlinux]

@steigerjb there's a Phoronix article comparing the two. It looks like reiserfs might be a little slower overall.

[MalcolmLC]

THANK YOUUU i was woundering how to make a separeate home partition for storying my P.... I mean important documents

[thisweekinlinux]

@MalcolmLC hehe, nice. thanks for watching. :)

[roccoscirocco]

Thanks so much for this. Its the one thing I've wanted to understand since installing Ubuntu. Finally, a VERY easy to follow tutorial on this!

[thisweekinlinux]

@roccoscirocco I'm glad it helped. :)

[leonlim2008]

Thanks for the video, an off topic question: Is reiserfs have better performance compare to ext4 in linux partition? I heard from my friend that reiserfs will have better performance , is it true? Cause i am using ubuntu and it just setting ext4 by default... and my friend come and tell me : use reiserfs.

[thisweekinlinux]

@leonlim2008 Not sure, I haven't used ReiserFS. If you google for reiserfs vs ext4, phoronix has an article comparing those two with btrfs and reiser4 also. It looks like reiser4 might be better, but ext4 seems to outperform reiserfs in a lot of ways

[Laoch111]

I set an option in Ubuntu Tweak for Ubuntu to remember the applications I have left open. Then whenever I reboot, the same applications are left open. Would swap be required for this?

What exactly is the difference between a swap partition and a swap file?

[thisweekinlinux]

@Laoch111 I believe that's a gnome setting that Tweak is bringing to the front. If I remember correctly, that setting actually changes your startup applications to be whatever you were running previously with the same saved state, so it should be saved on the hard drive somewhere.

I dont' have swap, so I'll install Tweak this afternoon and give it a shot.

[Laoch111]

@thisweekinlinux Thank you Jordan. ^_^

[Laoch111]

@thisweekinlinux Btw that Ubuntu-Tweak setting is under 'Session Control' and I ticked the box that reads 'Automatically save open applications when logging out'.

[Donflorgon]

Thank you so much for doing this video.

I know I asked you about this. I was just about to check your older videos to find when you covered this before. & I saw that you did a whole new video covering it. THANK YOU!

Also, I wasnt the only one who wasnt clear on this! Thanks again!

[thisweekinlinux]

@Donflorgon Glad I could help. Thanks for the comment!

[H4x0r18]

Would I really need to increase my swap if I am running 4gb ddr2 800mhz ram?

[thisweekinlinux]

@H4x0r18 If you want to do Hibernation, yes. If you never hibernate (I've never needed to hibernate) you could pretty much do away with it, unless you do something that actually takes up your whole ram.

[dekaband]

this was an awesome video, finally I don't have to keep formatting my home partition anymore. Looking forward to your distro reviews man. Try the RC of Linux Mint 9 isadora if you get the chance! Keep up the great work =)

[thisweekinlinux]

@dekaband Glad it was helpful. :)

Mint is definitely on the list. Thanks for mentioning it!

[3ombieautopilot]

Nice video! But what if I going to increase space of /home? How can I do that?

[thisweekinlinux]

@3ombieautopilot if you have enough space in you / partition, you can use a Gparted LiveCD (Ubuntu's LiveCD comes with Gparted also) to shrink the / partition, move the /home partition and increase its size to fill the remaining space.

[AndresBarrios1990]

so is this the way to easily upgrade the operating system by creating a separate Root, Home, and swap partition? I had ubuntu 9.10 about a week ago and i decided to upgrade to 10.04 and didn't(and still don't) have the drive partitioned separately as demonstrated in this video and it created several errors. One of which forced me do do a clean install. My question is, if i partition the drive this way, will it prevent errors from happening?

[thisweekinlinux]

@AndresBarrios1990 This may not fix problems with upgrading. I know lots of people have issues upgrading Ubuntu. However, if you have to do a clean reinstall, this can help you keep from having to format your /home and losing all of your personal data and some configuration files.

[ACPCalin]

Hey! Great video! I always wondered how to do that :P By the way, what is a swap partition?(what is swap and why is it useful?) Thanks!

[thisweekinlinux]

@ACPCalin There's a comment below where I go into a bit of detail about it. Basically it's what your system uses when your ram fills up. With newer computers, it's only really necessary if you're using extremely ram-intensive applications.

[ACPCalin]

@thisweekinlinux so is a swap partition gonna make my computer faster? (I think I have enough ram, I have 2 GB, but anyways)

[thisweekinlinux]

@ACPCalin You probably already have a swap partition (if you used a default layout for your install, you should). You can check how much swap is being used by looking in your System Monitor

[ACPCalin]

@thisweekinlinux oh, I have 5.8 GB of swap by default :P Thanks for the help!

[thisweekinlinux]

@ACPCalin Wow, that's a ton of swap! The old standard was to do 1.5x the amount of ram you had. That's no longer the case, because so many computers now have tons of ram (my new one has 8gb!)

[thisweekinlinux]

@ACPCalin One thing to mention also, if you hibernate your system, make sure you have at least as much swap space as you have physical ram.

[ACPCalin]

@thisweekinlinux Thanks for the advice! And thanks for clearing the whole swap thing out for me! You're a great guy! Respect!

[scouser73ubuntu]

Now this is something that I've wanted to know about for a while now, having installed Ubuntu lots of times and setting everything up again, but your video has answered it. Thanks mate

[thisweekinlinux]

@scouser73ubuntu Awesome! I know I used to switch distros really often, and having a separate /home partition really made life easier.

[Laoch111]

Excellent guide Jordan. Clear and concise.

[thisweekinlinux]

@Laoch111 Thanks. :)

[alexandr1us]

What does swap do?

[thisweekinlinux]

@alexandr1us Swap is the equivalent of the pagefile in Windows. when you run out of physical ram, the system uses the swap partition as extra memory until your physical memory clears up. Not 100% necessary at this point, since newer systems come with so much ram. Actually, on my old desktop with 1.5gb of ram I have no swap and it runs fine.

[alexandr1us]

@thisweekinlinux

Wow, didn't know that. So theoretically you can use hard drive space as RAM?

[thisweekinlinux]

@alexandr1us Technically, yes. It's much slower than physical ram though, so if you've got the ram, it's always better to use that.

[IckleBanana]

It says 1 megabyte is 1000000 bytes so I think 10GB would be 10000 as it's not using the 1024 system.

[thisweekinlinux]

@IckleBanana Aha, I completely overlooked that. However, after I made that 10240mb partition, did you notice the partitioner says it's "9.5gb"? Weird...

[IckleBanana]

@thisweekinlinux They really need to make a standardized system for bits and bytes. I always thought it was 1024 bytes in a kilobyte and so on and then in college I was told it was 1000 bytes (and my lecturer would not listen to any arguments) but then certain operating systems would show 1000 kilobytes as less than 1 MB and so on. Its so confusing.

[thisweekinlinux]

@IckleBanana the standard is 1024bytes = 1kb, 1024kb = 1Mb, and so on. The problem is, hard drive manufacturers are cheap / dumb, so rather than making a 1Tb hard drive that has 1099511627776 bytes, they round it down to 1000000000000 bytes. Fail. :(

[IckleBanana]

@thisweekinlinux I had to use the 1000 system in my college exams because thats what my lecturer said was true. Now the external examiner will probably mark me down for counting my bytes wrong. :( I think some OS use 1000 bytes in a kilobyte too. Think it could be Mac OSX.

[hg314]

@IckleBanana There is a standard system (sort of ) 1024 bytes is called a kibi-byte or KiB, similarly 1024 KiB is a mibi-bye (MiB) and so on. The idea is to avoid ambiguity but I don't know if anyone actually uses it.

[IckleBanana]

@hg314 Yeah I'm aware of that system but not every system uses it. I think Windows does but Mac OSX doesn't and then all different mobile OSes etc. I think that system is used most but people still use the words megabyte, kilobyte and so on. They need to all stick to one or the other. I think the 1000 system is best for simplicity reasons.