Seperate /home directory questions

[metroid_maniac]

I currently have two hard drives in my computer, one with one partition containing Vista, and one with Linux Mint 9 on it.
I want to replace the Linux Mint 9 (normal) with Linux Mint 9 KDE. But I also want to create a separate /home partition for Linux Mint, to easily share files between.
I believe I know how to do the partitioning, but...
What would be a good filesystem to use for the /home partition, so it can be read with ease from Linux and Windows (so NTFS, Ext4 are out of the question)
Will I be able to easily keep the /home directory between upgrades? (I usually clean install)
What does the /home directory contain? Just files and documents, or things like wallpaper and Gnome/KDE settings, and web browser settings? Will these carry over if I upgrade?
What about GRUB? Will that care about any if this? BTW, GRUB is on the MBR of my first (Vista) hard drive currently.

Oh, and 64 Bit or 32 bit?

[JasonLG]

I currently have two hard drives in my computer, one with one partition containing Vista, and one with Linux Mint 9 on it.
I want to replace the Linux Mint 9 (normal) with Linux Mint 9 KDE. But I also want to create a separate /home partition for Linux Mint, to easily share files between.
I believe I know how to do the partitioning, but...
What would be a good filesystem to use for the /home partition, so it can be read with ease from Linux and Windows (so NTFS, Ext4 are out of the question)
Will I be able to easily keep the /home directory between upgrades? (I usually clean install)
What does the /home directory contain? Just files and documents, or things like wallpaper and Gnome/KDE settings, and web browser settings? Will these carry over if I upgrade?
What about GRUB? Will that care about any if this? BTW, GRUB is on the MBR of my first (Vista) hard drive currently.

Oh, and 64 Bit or 32 bit?

1. file systems... You can use NTFS if you want or ext2. Mint can read/write to/from NTFS just fine and Windows can read/write to/from ext2 with the right drivers.

2. Upgrades... You can keep your old home on a new install by telling the installer to mount your old home partition as home.

3. What's in home?.. Yep, pretty much all you mentioned.

4. Will it carry over?.. Yes, Mint won't overwrite your data if you don't tell it format the partition. But it is a good idea to delete some desktop config files before you upgrade otherwise you could end up with a jacked up desktop or error messages. But things like browser bookmarks and such should be fine to leave.

5. GRUB... I can't really help you there I've never dual booted, sorry.

6. 32 vs.64... 64bit is supposedly a little faster at things like video encoding but it uses a little more RAM then 32bit. I've used both on the same hardware and I couldn't really tell the difference honestly. I'm using the 32bit version now because Adobe stopped updating the 64bit Flash plugin.

[Joylove]

http://superuser.com/questions/23190/nt ... -directory

AFAIK ext2 read support is already possible for Windows XP via 3rd party driver (not sure about write though)

Suggesting this disk layout since you have 2 drives

hda1=ntfs (boot)
hda2=Windows 7/Vista (estimate the amount of space you will need for your apps)
hda3=Document drive (NTFS)

hdb1=ext4 (root) 10-12 gig which with an average install of 4gig, you have enough space for temp files
hdb2=swap (allocate around 1.5x or 2x your system ram)
hdb3=ext2 (/home) the rest of the disk space

[JasonLG]

http://superuser.com/questions/23190/nt ... -directory

AFAIK ext2 read support is already possible for Windows XP via 3rd party driver (not sure about write though)

Suggesting this disk layout since you have 2 drives

hda1=ntfs (boot)
hda2=Windows 7/Vista (estimate the amount of space you will need for your apps)
hda3=Document drive (NTFS)

hdb1=ext4 (root) 10-12 gig which with an average install of 4gig, you have enough space for temp files
hdb2=swap (allocate around 1.5x or 2x your system ram)
hdb3=ext2 (/home) the rest of the disk space

Why would you want to use NTFS for a boot partition?

Windows ext2/ext3 drivers.
http://www.fs-driver.org/

[metroid_maniac]

OK, so /sda1 - Vista NTFS
/sdb1 - Linux Mint 9 / Ext4
/sdb2 - Linux Mint 9 /home Ext2

I don't really think I need swap space, I have 4GB ram.

[Midnighter]

why are people suggesting ext2? ext3 has journalling, and would be a much better choice, and still be readable with the correct drivers, it would just treat it as ext2 when reading from windows.

[JasonLG]

why are people suggesting ext2? ext3 has journalling, and would be a much better choice, and still be readable with the correct drivers, it would just treat it as ext2 when reading from windows.

Because "people" are just trying to help and didn't realize that the driver worked for ext3 as well until I read the bottom of the page I linked to.

[JasonLG]

OK, so /sda1 - Vista NTFS
/sdb1 - Linux Mint 9 / Ext4
/sdb2 - Linux Mint 9 /home Ext2

I don't really think I need swap space, I have 4GB ram.

You'll still need swap no matter how much RAM you have, the kernel expects it.

And go with ext3 for your home like Midnighter said.

[metroid_maniac]

Oh, OK. I'm downloading Mint 9 KDE 64 bit now.

[Joylove]

OK, so /sda1 - Vista NTFS
/sdb1 - Linux Mint 9 / Ext4
/sdb2 - Linux Mint 9 /home Ext2

I don't really think I need swap space, I have 4GB ram.

You'll still need swap no matter how much RAM you have, the kernel expects it.

And go with ext3 for your home like Midnighter said.

allocated 768mb of space for swap and the largest I've seen it being used was around 80mb. (BTW my total ram is 512mb but the gpu takes 8mb)

[StanTheMan]

I would never mount an NTFS partition on /home . Your e-mail and desktop settings should be kept on a Linux partition .
I would create a new directory (call it anything you like except 'home') and mount your NTFS partition on that. This new directory would have permissions set as Group="plugdev" (which is a default sudoUser/Group with Mint), and give this group read and write permissions.
That is how I do it. My /home has another separate Linux partition mounted on it.

[JasonLG]

I would never mount an NTFS partition on /home . Your e-mail and desktop settings should be kept on a Linux partition .
I would create a new directory (call it anything you like except 'home') and mount your NTFS partition on that. This new directory would have permissions set as Group="plugdev" (which is a default sudoUser/Group with Mint), and give this group read and write permissions.
That is how I do it. My /home has another separate Linux partition mounted on it.

Moot point, they aren't planning on using a NTFS /home they are using a ext3 /home. Read the posts.

[metroid_maniac]

OK, so my Linux Mint system is installed now, works perfectly.
But using Ext2IFS I can't seem to use the /home partiton. It's asking me to format it when I try to access it from My Computer! What should I do?

[piratesmack]

This is mentioned in the troubleshooting section (very first one):
http://www.fs-driver.org/troubleshoot.html

[metroid_maniac]

Lol... thank's for telling me, trying it out now.
EDIT: It just told me how to fix it, but It doesn't really concern me too much to have to format it. I'll do it when it becomes a problem

[Midnighter]

Use this http://www.ext2fsd.com/ instead, at least it works. The other used to be good, but anything created recently seems to not agree with it for technical reasons, which I can't be bothered going into (I'm sick right now). I had similar issue in past, and worked out that this one does indeed work for what is needed.

[linuxviolin]

You'll still need swap no matter how much RAM you have, the kernel expects it.

With 2 GB and more you can use Linux without swap.

But this is not necessarily the best idea, this depends of what you want to do, your use...

[MALsPa]

You'll still need swap no matter how much RAM you have, the kernel expects it.

With 2 GB and more you can use Linux without swap.

Yeah, I have 2 GB RAM and my swap never seems to get used. But can you install Linux without swap? I thought it had to be there.

[linuxviolin]

OK some examples:

http://www.linux.com/news/software/appl ... swap-space:

It is possible to run a Linux system without a swap space, and the system will run well if you have a large amount of memory -- but if you run out of physical memory then the system will crash, as it has nothing else it can do...

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions ... ion-82969/:

Does Mandrake require a swap on installation/upgrade, just out of curiosity? When I installed RedHat 9 without a swap partition, I got a warning box. I quickly clicked the wrong button (I was going to correct the partitions but didn't, so no swap), but the install proceeded normally. In fact, everything's seems to be working

In the days of yore, you needed swap because disk storage was cheaper than physical memory (still is, but both are far cheaper - physical memory is a hell of a lot cheaper now than disk storage was then). Now, some programs may expect it, possibly, and malfunction without it but that would be bizarre. Nothing should really *need* swap unless you run *out* of physical memory. If you've got 512 MB and constantly run at 300 MB usage, you don't need it. On the other hand, if you get a surge, like you're compiling a kernel and downloading an iso and watching a DVD and 20 other things and one of those apps goes a little haywire and spikes it when your running near the edge, you're going to wish you had some swap as a safety buffer. Or if you have gigs of memory, I can't conceive *ever* needing swap. Whereas if you're trying to run X on 16 MB, you've pretty much *got* to have swap. It all depends on your hardware and your usage. I think it's a good idea to have some just so that if you ever notice you're using it (beyond the few megs Linux sometimes decides to take advantage of in advance) it gives you a clear sign to cut back. But I'm not surprised there are people like you, blaisepascal, running fine without it. And I don't believe you're running any slower.

http://www.cyberciti.biz/tips/linux-swap-space.html

Red Hat Recommendation

Red hat recommends setting as follows for RHEL 5:

The reality is the amount of swap space a system needs is not really a function of the amount of RAM it has but rather the memory workload that is running on that system. A Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 system will run just fine with no swap space at all as long as the sum of anonymous memory and system V shared memory is less than about 3/4 the amount of RAM. In this case the system will simply lock the anonymous and system V shared memory into RAM and use the remaining RAM for caching file system data so when memory is exhausted the kernel only reclaims pagecache memory.

http://everyjoe.com/technology/explanat ... _migration

but in many systems it’s not necessary. I discovered this completely by accident one day. I muffed up the partitioning when I installed Kubuntu and didn’t allocate a swap partition. The funny thing is that I didn’t notice for months and when I did notice it was by conversing with someone who asked me something about my swap, not due to any system performance issues.

Prior to this incident, I didn’t think it was possible to run a GNU/Linux box without swap, but it turns out that not only is it possible, some people do it on purpose.

http://kerneltrap.org/node/3202

This said, numerous Linux users do report success running a swapless system.

http://www.skorks.com/2009/08/partition ... ux-install

a system could, technically speaking, function without a swap partition (...) I have 3 GB of RAM and have functioned without a swap partition for quite some time with no problems whatsoever.

For general usage, if you have a lot of RAM you probably won’t even notice if you don’t have a swap partition

etc etc

I don't say you should do this, and it depends also of your use, the apps you use, if you want using hibernation,... but just it's possible.

Use or not use a swap partition, plus you can also use a swap file... I will not go into details here because it would be much too long and not specially easy. It is best to use a search engine, you'll find plenty of information on the web...