Help with partitioning for LMDE installation?

[bocephus]

I have just downloaded LMDE and intend to install it to two disks - an 80GB SSD and a 2TB HDD - with the following partition setup:

SSD:
/boot
/

HDD:
/home
/tmp
/swap

However I instantly hit a snag, as it seems the LMDE installer won't let me pick partitions from multiple drives, even though I can set them up in gparted. So where do I go from here?

I also toyed with the idea of putting /var on the HDD, but I can't mount /var at all in the installer. How come?

[Oscar799]

Moved here from the main forum

[bocephus]

Sorry, I thought I was already there.

[bocephus]

I don't get this. The LMDE installer must be lacking, right? Or am I missing something? Because in straight-up Debian, this is not a problem:

[bocephus]

Is there a text-based expert-install image of LMDE available for download somewhere?

[ronszon]

Hello,

I am currently facing the same problem. Was there any solution since the previous posts?
(I want to install lmde on eee901 netbook that has a small (4gb but fast) drive and a bigger one (16gb). Both SSD. I put /home and /usr on the bigger one...)

Ronszon

[DataMan]

It's not very elegant but I guess you could do your initial install on your "/" partition. Then go through the task of building your "/home" on the larger h/d (copy all of the contents over there). The last step will be to adjust your /etc/fstab to the correct uuid for the new home. It isn't pretty but it should work in theory.

-DataMan

[ronszon]

Yes, indeed that would be the solution, however it is MUCH more convenient to have it done during installation.
If my memory serves well, it was not an issue in the previous build of LMDE (I had it already running with partition scheme as described). It seems the feature got lost during upgrade... Maybe it could be brought back?

Regards,
Ronszon

[doktornotor]

Moving /var (or pretty much anything else) to another partition is a simple matter of:

Code: Select all

$ sudo su -
# mkdir /mnt/something
# mount /dev/sdXY /mnt/something
# cp -ax /var/* /mnt/something
# umount /mnt/something
# $EDITOR /etc/fstab (replace with your editor - like nano, vim, whatever - add your new mountpoint there as needed, save)
# mount -a


[ronszon]

Ok, I followed the procedure and it all worked without trouble! (love you linux...)
I would only add to that that afterwards you should mount the original (installation) drive in /mnt/something and delete what was copied to the other partition. Just to save space on the installation drive of course.

Regards,
ronszon

[billybob]

Still wish installer would install to two or more disks. This is the same with April 2012 iso's.

[idc]

I also wish the installer would do this.

I am trying to install LMDE xfce edition 201109 on an eeepc 701, which only has a 4GB SSD. I propose to follow the above suggestion and install it on the SSD, then copy /usr and /home onto a partition on an 8GB sd card. I'll also put a swap partition on the sd card so that I can hibernate. (1.95GB home; 3.44GB usr; 2.25GB swap)

Could anyone confirm this should work ok; or alternatively suggest why an sd card might be too slow, or whatever, for /usr or /home?

(I've tried a number of other editions that won't install in 4GB so fail on the install before I can even get to the point of copying /home and /usr; I do think an installer option, which was there on earlier editions would be useful to some ...)

Well the installer has succeeded, leaving just 8% of the disk free. Now I'll try copying things across before I install all the millions of updates that are likely to be needed.

Thanks,
Ian

[merc1973]

I am not used the Debian partitioning. Can I run a dual boot when installing LMDE with existing Win 7?

[idc]

I also wish the installer would do this.

I am trying to install LMDE xfce edition 201109 on an eeepc 701, which only has a 4GB SSD. I propose to follow the above suggestion and install it on the SSD, then copy /usr and /home onto a partition on an 8GB sd card. I'll also put a swap partition on the sd card so that I can hibernate. (1.95GB home; 3.44GB usr; 2.25GB swap)

<snip>

Well the installer has succeeded, leaving just 8% of the disk free. Now I'll try copying things across before I install all the millions of updates that are likely to be needed.

Thanks,
Ian

Hmmm. It all messed up when I tried to update. So a lot of time wasted there.
The alternative I'd like to try would be installing the up to date LMDE xfce 2012.04. Unfortunately it won't fit on the ssd in the initial install so installing there and then moving /usr and /home across to make space doesn't seem to be an option.

Is there really no way of installing /usr and /home onto partitions on a separate disk to root?
Perhaps I ought to start a separate thread.
Thanks.
Ian

[Lukfi]

Moving /var (or pretty much anything else) to another partition is a simple matter of:

Code: Select all

$ sudo su -
# mkdir /mnt/something
# mount /dev/sdXY /mnt/something
# cp -ax /var/* /mnt/something
# umount /mnt/something
# $EDITOR /etc/fstab (replace with your editor - like nano, vim, whatever - add your new mountpoint there as needed, save)
# mount -a


I did this for my /var folder and the volume mounted as / reports being the same size (I mean occupied space) as before the contents of /var were copied. Are the data, by any chance, still on the original volume and inaccessible?