Considerations before you install

Quick to answer questions about finding your way around Linux Mint as a new user.
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mnealtx

Re: Considerations before you install

Post by mnealtx »

Fred wrote:mnealtx,

Many like to have a separate /home partition. I tend to think it unnecessary except under special circumstances, if you are using one or more data partitions. The only thing in your /home folder would be your personal config files. There just isn't enough there to warrant making another partition, in my opinion. These can easily be backed up to a folder on your Data partition and the ones you need, put back in your /home on a reinstall. Having said that, there is certainly nothing wrong with having a separate /home partition if it makes you feel better. :-)

Look at the thread below for some background and instructions about how to mount your Data partition.

http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=42&t=22093

I don't see any show stoppers in your plan. Set your partitions up with the partitioning tool called Gparted. It can be found in the live cd menu. When you get to the partitioning part of the install, choose the manual partitioning mode and assign your pre-made partitions to your mount points. :-)

Fred
Thanks, Fred - I've got Mint installed and the Data partition auto-mounted into /home.... but it's not letting me make folders... time for more reading!

Edit to add - found it... had to chown the mount point for the data partition
Last edited by mnealtx on Sat May 16, 2009 8:34 pm, edited 1 time in total.
dlkreations

Re: Considerations before you install

Post by dlkreations »

mnealtx wrote: Thanks, Fred - I've got Mint installed and the Data partition auto-mounted into /home.... but it's not letting me make folders... time for more reading!
That should be easily fixed. If you run one of the following two options, you should be able to get write permissions.

1. From terminal, type: gksudo nautilus
-or-
2. Right click your folder and open as root.

Then just right click and go to properties, choose Permissions and give yourself permissions to access that folder. Then at the bottom, apply the settings and you should be able to write to the folder/create folders, etc.

At least that's how I do it. If someone else has a better option, then by all means correct me. :)
mnealtx

Re: Considerations before you install

Post by mnealtx »

dlkreations wrote:
mnealtx wrote: Thanks, Fred - I've got Mint installed and the Data partition auto-mounted into /home.... but it's not letting me make folders... time for more reading!
That should be easily fixed. If you run one of the following two options, you should be able to get write permissions.

1. From terminal, type: gksudo nautilus
-or-
2. Right click your folder and open as root.

Then just right click and go to properties, choose Permissions and give yourself permissions to access that folder. Then at the bottom, apply the settings and you should be able to write to the folder/create folders, etc.

At least that's how I do it. If someone else has a better option, then by all means correct me. :)
I tried opening it as root, but the changes wouldn't "stick"...so I did a chown on the mount point... we'll see if it holds!
Fred

Re: Considerations before you install

Post by Fred »

mnealtx,

Doing it from the CLI should make it hold. Change the user name, of course.

sudo chown -R fred:fred /home/fred/Data

sudo chmod -R 0755 /home/fred/Data

The above gives permissions to everybody. If you want only the owner to have read/write permissions substitute 0600 for 0755 above.

Fred
mnealtx

Re: Considerations before you install

Post by mnealtx »

Fred wrote:mnealtx,

Doing it from the CLI should make it hold. Change the user name, of course.

sudo chown -R fred:fred /home/fred/Data

sudo chmod -R 0755 /home/fred/Data

The above gives permissions to everybody. If you want only the owner to have read/write permissions substitute 0600 for 0755 above.

Fred
Fred,
First, let me thank you and everyone else that replied for all your help - it's greatly appreciated.

That's basically what I ended up having to do - sudo chown -R mnealtx:users and sudo -R a+rwx on the mount point.

I set up a test account and a second user can create files/folders in the various sub-folders of the data partition, but can't create files/folders in the root of the data partition - is this normal?

Also, second user cannot enable enhanced screen effects (compiz) - again, is this normal?
Fred

Re: Considerations before you install

Post by Fred »

mnealtx,

When you have more than one user, you need to mount your data partition in both of the user's homes. With the 0755 permissions any user can read and write in that folder tree, but the visiting user can't start a new folder tree through your mount point.

Put a new mount point for your Data partition in the new user's home and the companion mounting line in fstab. Reboot and set the ownership and permissions through the new mount point to the new user. That should enable each user to create folder trees in the Data partition through their own mount points in their /home directories and also be able to read and write to the other users folder trees.

Fred
mnealtx

Re: Considerations before you install

Post by mnealtx »

Fred wrote:mnealtx,

When you have more than one user, you need to mount your data partition in both of the user's homes. With the 0755 permissions any user can read and write in that folder tree, but the visiting user can't start a new folder tree through your mount point.

Put a new mount point for your Data partition in the new user's home and the companion mounting line in fstab. Reboot and set the ownership and permissions through the new mount point to the new user. That should enable each user to create folder trees in the Data partition through their own mount points in their /home directories and also be able to read and write to the other users folder trees.

Fred
Ok... set up mount, fstab and chown ownership in each user's workspace...thanks!

Any ideas on the inability to enable the compiz settings?
SpudGun

Re: Considerations before you install

Post by SpudGun »

Questions for fred, (or anyone else that might know)
do i have to sit my swap partition on an extended partition, like in the default install, and if i create a data partition during install, should the mount point be /home/<username>/Data :mrgreen:
Fred

Re: Considerations before you install

Post by Fred »

CaptainStrangePork,

Your swap partition can be either a primary partition or a logical partition within your extended partition. I don't know of a reason to prefer one type of partition over another for swap. My only preference for partitions is to put a primary partition first. This is because I have run into some glitches on some older equipment with the BIOS wanting to see a primary partition first. A hold over of BIOSs being designed for Windows I suppose.

As far as mounting Data partitions is concerned, you can call them anything you wish. They could be called "Movies" "Documents" or whatever. They can be mounted almost anywhere you want them. Putting them in /home/usr_name is just my personal preference. Some like to put them in /home others are happy with them in /media, which is the Ubuntu default.

Fred
SpudGun

Re: Considerations before you install

Post by SpudGun »

Thankyou fred, that swap thing has been bugging me cos i could find no info at all on that matter, as for the mount point, i just wasn't sure if i could use my user name during an install, when that user didn't exist yet. :D
Aging Technogeek

Re: Considerations before you install

Post by Aging Technogeek »

defilippo,

Your partitioning scheme should work fine. It is basically the same as mine. The only thing you might want to change is to put your swap partition first. If your system ever uses swap, it is faster from the first partition.

I've been using ext4 with an Ubuntu 9.04 install and the only problem I've had was when I tried to set up a dual boot with Mint 6 XFCE on ext3. The Mint Grub did not detect the ext4 partitions so I could not boot Ubuntu until I reinstalled it on ext3. That said, others have reported various instabilities and data loss with ext4. It is new technology so one can expect some problems. It may be best, especially for a new user, to go with ext3 at least until Mint 8 comes out next fall.

If you have a new computer, you may be able to open an extended partition first but it would be better to start with a primary partition just to develop the habit in case you ever install on an older box. Also, if you keep your / partition first as you indicated, reinstalling becomes easier because your / is isolated from your /home and can be reinstalled without loss of /home data.


Fred,

Nice to see you back. We've missed you.
Fred

Re: Considerations before you install

Post by Fred »

Aging Technogeek,

Thank you sir. Real life has been a little demanding lately. :-)

Fred
beth

Re: Considerations before you install

Post by beth »

Please tell us what partition software you are using. The software for windows will not work as well when partitioning linux. I've downloaded Mint 7, partitioned (using a windows partitioner), and it's slow and groggy to the point I'm thinking of reinstalling Mint 7 RC1. I didn't have these problems with 7 RC1 even though I used a Windows partitioner.

I've developed the habit of groaning a lot since I've caught the Linux bug. I have no Linux tools in my hefty pile of Windows Utilities.

Thanks much. :(
Beth
richyrich

Re: Considerations before you install

Post by richyrich »

Hi Beth,
GParted is included on the cd's & dvd's. If you are running from the live cd, you can run Gparted (from the menu / administration / Partition Editor) and see what partitions you already have.
Once you decide to install, it is used during the partition & format stage of the install.(with options - read more of Fred's advice, it's worth it!)

Now, if you want to partition before doing anything, you can download the GParted live cd from Sourceforge, and once burned, you can boot from it and do all of your partitioning before any install.

regards, Richard
beth

Re: Considerations before you install

Post by beth »

Hello Richard,

Thank you so much for the info. I'm wondering if I'm the only person on the planet who is scrubbing the HD and then partitioning for a clean install. You all don't seem to be doing that. I'm thinking there could be "stuff" left on the HD or MBR if a scrub is not done and the HD then checked for problems. I don't dare count the scrubs and reinstalls I've done...

Linux Mint is the best and easiest install OS I've come across, but it's evident I have much to learn. I took your advice and wrote notes on the partitioning questions. Thanks.

One final thing you will probably know, someone on this forum posted the "Linux Language". Now I can't find it. I thought it was somewhere on this thread. Does that ring a bell? I am getting lost in the "mount" language and have no clue what it all means, and am just following my notes on what to do. What is that "root" business? The "C" drive?

Thanks again.
Beth
beth

Re: Considerations before you install

Post by beth »

The GParted download was burned to a cd and it worked, but I had to do it twice before I had a little idea what I (it) was doing. It did automatically throw in an extra partition -- ext 4, which I had to remove. Mint 7 loaded quickly, and the sluggy slowness is gone!

Thank you so much! :D
Beth
richyrich

Re: Considerations before you install

Post by richyrich »

Great news Beth,
You did better than my first time! :lol: I ran the GParted from the Install disk, and forgot to add the mount locations, what a mess . . :shock:
But it was this forum that got me going in the right direction.

The "Linux Language" I'm not sure about, but my Mint6kde had some Internet shortcuts already installed. The first batch is for newbie's and learning the command line (shell);
http://www.linux.org/lessons/
http://www.linuxnewbieguide.org/
http://gd.tuwien.ac.at/linuxcommand.org ... _shell.php
http://rute.2038bug.com/index.html.gz

This second set here shows Linux alternatives for Commercial software (Windows).
http://www.osalt.com/
http://www.linuxalt.com/

Best regards, and keep on minting!
Richard
beth

Re: Considerations before you install

Post by beth »

Hello again! I know what you mean about that "mount" issue. I kept getting a message that I needed to mount a root. A nifty little menu popped up with lots of choices. Nothing said "root", but then again I don't speak Linux -- yet. So one by one I went down the list until finally it accepted something that mysteriously mounted to "root".

Thank you for the links to Linux education!! Hey, after all this, I want a PhD in something -- Is there a graduate course in Ignorance?? :D

Thanks again for all your help.
Beth
richyrich

Re: Considerations before you install

Post by richyrich »

Nope . . :lol: , but I bet in a month or so, you'll be the one helping a newbie!!

regards, Richard
fearedbliss

Re: Considerations before you install

Post by fearedbliss »

Hello everyone, I'm not exactly new to Linux since I've been keeping track of all the releases since Fedora 5 , Ubuntu 6.06. I've tried various releases since that time frame which I believe was December 2006.

Anyways I've finally decided to jump onto the Linux platform from Windows (Last windows used: Windows 7).

I've formatted and installed Linux as follows:

I have 4 gigs of RAM installed but since it's a 32 bit version of Mint, I can only used 3.2 (Reported in System Monitor).

Linux Swap / 800 MB / Primary Partition
/ / 10 Gig / Primary Partition
/home / 20 Gig / Primary Partition
Unallocated 436.77
Old Windows Partition with my old backed up files / 464.66 / Primary Partition NTFS

The gap between the /home and the NTFS partition was from the old Windows partition scheme I was using. I'm hoping to delete the backed up partition once I set up my linux scheme correctly and safely, and once all the information is moved appropriately.

The problem is I cannot create any more partitions due to me having 4 Primary Partitions already.

Question : How can I create more partitions ? I know you use extended partitions but how should I partition the drive ?

Linux Swap / 800 MB / Primary Partition
/ / 10 Gig / Extended Partition
/home / 20 Gig / Extended Partition
Unallocated 901.43 Gig (After all information is backed up and NTFS part is deleted)

Thanks
- FearedBliss

EDIT:

Ok so I kept on reading and I found Fred's post on Partitions.

I formatted my partition as follows :

/dev/sda1 Extended Partition
...../dev/sda5 Linux Swap 800 MB ( 4 Gig of Physical Ram, x32 system, only 3.2 Gig detected. 4.0 - 3.2 = .8 )
...../dev/sda6 / 12 Gig
...../dev/sda7 /home 20 Gig
Unallocated 899.43 Gig ( 1 TB Western Digital Caviar Green @ 7200 RPM ).

I might need more disk space for other stuff such as Virtual Machines. How would I go about this ? Should I extend the /home directory, or should I make seperate partitions for each ? /home/documents, /home/pictures, /home/vm, etc ?
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