Wait a minute. So why does Linux lack a superior installion folder(s) like in Windows? Why can't I choose where in or what partition I want a specific program on? Is the linux way faster hogging everything in root? And if so how big should my root partition be? Been seeing different uses commenting and saying 30 GB is enough. 30GB for all programs? They even partition the home directory. But isn't home in the root folder? What is stopping me from making just one huge 900GB root partition (aside from Swap and UEFI)? And what is GRUB? And why doesn't Arch Wiki mention it in the installation guide? I found it in some subwiki after reading about GPT/UEFI. Seems important.
My god I feel like I haven't gotten far at all. I could just blindy follow some moron on youtube without understanding any of it, but I want a perfect install for my first Linux run.
30gb is more than enough for a basic system and applications. It seems like you're confused about how Linux handles partitioning - yes, home is inside root, but Linux can mount partitions as directories (so /home can be, purely, the contents of /dev/sda2 while / is just /dev/sda1). If you're installing things like large steam games, under Linux philosophy, this would be installed in your home folder or another specified directory anyway.
There is nothing stopping you from making a giant partition for everything. You can do this however you want, that's why Linux is great. Having a separate root partition (or rather, a separate /home partition) is most useful for users who know they will distrohop and want to keep their home folder and data intact.
Caleb Harris
You can decide where programs are installed, but typically not if you use your distro's package manager.
GNU/Linux (and Unix-like systems in general) mount the partition where the OS is installed as root. You can mount other partitions, whether from the same disk or another one, using the mount command. For example, the main data partition of your 2nd HDD (let's say appearing as /dev/sdb) can be mounted under a folder /storage using mount /dev/sdb /storage
You can then install any program you want into /storage/$PROGRAM_DIR using e.g. make && make install or by copying the binaries there.
Anthony Williams
So how much space does Arch on a clean install take from my root partition of about 30GB? And seeing that if I were to install games and other large programs wouldn't it be wiser to partition a huge /bin if I were to distrohop?. I hear all programs from the package manager go in there.
Sebastian Campbell
You don't save the programs themselves, you save the configuration and data - these go to your /home/ directory, which is why /home is separated in the first place. /bin only stores the binary files, this is not important enough to separate as these can always be reinstalled later.
Arch with a full set of basic programs, desktops, etc will use under 10gb of space. If you're distrohopping, you want to only keep the user data from /home as distros may install programs differently, but these programs almost always refer to /home for their configuration.
David Howard
Regarding the packages, in theory that could work, but distros ship different versions of programs and libraries so unless the two distros are pretty closely related it's improbable that the versions would line up. You can get around this by using distros where stuff is all compiled. There are plenty but the most popular is Gentoo.
Hunter Bennett
>900GB root partition (aside from Swap and UEFI) If you like having as few partitions as possible, you could even use a swap file instead of a swap partition. >GRUB? And why doesn't Arch Wiki mention it in the installation guide? The 'Boot loader' section links to a comparison of boot loaders, including GRUB.
Nicholas Reyes
>Arch Dont beat your head against the wall if you dont understand how linux works. You will never get it perfect your first time through, and arch is not forgiving purely because it wont let you do anything until you set it up right. How much space do you have for your hard drive? How much space are you planning on using for work and games and such?
Jaxson Parker
So in your wise opinions what would be the best most efficient way to set up partitions on a 1TB NVMe SSD?
>0.6 GB UEFI >50 GB root (I want to be a little generous here still dont understand why File-, Window- and Desktopmanagers are installed here instead of /bin) >10 GB swap (Made 10 GB virtual memory on Windows 10 cuz I can and won't miss the storage) >rest GB home
>And if so how big should my root partition be? On a single user workstaion/desktop its retarded to make separate partitions for everything. Just make a swap and a main partitions and call it a day.
Jonathan Reed
No games only work!
Here
Jordan Sullivan
You can dumbass. You will learn how after using Linux for a while. You can put anything anywhere. Where it goes by default is described in the Configure script and by proxy the Makefile.
Just install the OS and learn to use it from within it. You're wasting your time. Not to mention none of this matters anyway for a non-server and even then it doesn't thanks to containers.
Connor Roberts
This is good enough, I personally like a btrfs / for snapshots (so you can rollback whenever an update fucks your system) but only openSUSE manages this right out of the box. Check this graph as reference, I have an entire separate disk for /home on my setup, and notice how nvme disk are called, the special naming will bite you in the ass if you're not careful.
Thx for this pic. But NVMe PCie are supported since Kernel 4.1 in Arch. When partitioning can I still use # mkfs.ext4 /dev/sdX1 or would it now have to be... # mkfs.ext4 /dev/nvmeOn1X1 ?
Haven't found that in the wiki. Also not in the wiki will PC300 sk Hynix (hynix SSDs in general) be supported?
wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Solid_state_drive/NVMe I Have tried dozens of SSD's on linux from good brands to chink shit and they all work fine out of the box. On linux sata disk are called /dev/sdX and IDE disk are called /dev/hdX, so you might think nvme disks are called /dev/nvmeX, but that is not the case, /dev/nvmeX exist but I guess is how the bus is name, drives are actually named /dev/nvmeXnX.
Asher Bell
>10GB SWAP don't do this
Sebastian Diaz
>So how much space does Arch on a clean install take from my root partition of about 30GB? Define clean absolute minimal would be a few hundred megabytes i think. Add a desktop environment and some programs and it can go to a 1-3 gigabytes
Hunter Richardson
I think it's too much aswell, but I have been reading in multiple forums (quora and some linked to Ubuntu) that you should make it 50%-100% of your RAM capacity xD I have 32GB
