Installing Ubuntu - MOUNTS???

[aSystemOverload]

Hi guys

Just installed Ubuntu and got a little confused about 'mounts or mount points'


I've got 1 * 250 and 2 * 500GB HDDs. I mounted the 250 as '/' and 1 * 500GB as '/home'.

What should I mount the final 500GB as (and how do I mount it after I've now installed it). I only want the 500GB as general storage.

Also is it worth repartitioning the 250 with a dedicated section for 'swap' etc???

Any advice welcomed.

[jayd512]

The final 500 GB drive, if it's for general stuff, could be named anything, really.
You could actually make a directory named 'General' and mount it there.

Also is it worth repartitioning the 250 with a dedicated section for 'swap' etc???

Depends on your usage habits. How much RAM do you have?
If you have more than 3 or 4 gigs, and don't do anything really resource intensive, then you might not even need a swap partition.

[aSystemOverload]

So I'd make a 'directory' called general under '/' and then mount it there?

I've got 2 GB, only thing that kills my memory is firefox after a few hrs etc...

[jayd512]

That directory should work just fine.
And for the SWAP, a 1 or 2 gig partition should do you just fine.

[aSystemOverload]

Is there a graphical default tool within ubuntu for partitioning or should I try to learn the commands?

[jayd512]

I've always had great results with either GParted or Parted Magic.
Both are graphical, and very easy to use.

[aSystemOverload]

Excelent, thanks. I'll be having a Linux evening tomorrow, gonna try get SpiderOak up and running to sync all my machines.

[ptkobe]

Please let me just add some suggestions:

Note my system except /home occupies 10G. So a primary partition for / (say, 50G, you'll need some slack for temps on /var) will be more than enough. Add /home as an extended/logical partition at the same disk or put it on the 500G.

I agree about swap with jayd512. I always use a swap partition though, its to small to make a difference on modern disks like yours.

I'll leave the two 500G disks out for now (or not). You may enjoy using them to try raid with mdadm (or even LVM if you feel up to it).

Also, you may want a free 100G primary partition on the first disk to try another OS later (even if other linux)

Unlike windows, adding space (like new partitions) to your file tree is quite easy and transparent for the user (read about fstab, and mount).
So having free space on your disk is not a bad idea necessarily.

You may also note that all this is just one possible opinion and a starting point.

Other thing is the filesystem. ext4 will be fine, I think, I use XFS for most things.

About where to mount, there is a FHS Spec, but it's not to be fully followed, so /general will not hurt me.

Any way, some other ideas are
if it is data just for you, put it under /home/you/...
other good mount pointrs to check are /usr/share, under /var and /opt. Others yet are /mnt and ubuntu /media.

Sorry if that was too long, I'll just leave a last footnote
Regards
Luis

PS: My system really has only 10G used. But then home is out and I need free temp space on var to create DVD, for example.
Backup, archive and other specific things (VM, for instance) have their own partitions, and are not on that figure.

[aSystemOverload]

Is it easy to move my /home from the 500GB (1) where it is now, to the 250GB so I can play about with raid as you suggested on the two 500GBs?!? My 'documents', ie, the person items to me, not including media are under 1GB, so the partition would only need ot be 10GB?

[aSystemOverload]

Ignore my last comment, as I've only installed Ubuntu the other day, it's easier just to reinstall with root, home and swap on the first drive, then i can do whatever with the two 500s :P