Linux Mint Forums

I am doing a manual install of linux mint 19 (tara) on a Dell laptop with a 1 TB hard drive. It comes with 8GB RAM, maybe I will increase it to 16 GB because I run a lot of applications and some of them are not very efficient, but I am not sure about that (as I could also try to change the applications or my use of them). I want to install multiple Mint versions and so will not plan on using the /home directory at all for my files so that I can share them across versions. So the questions are:

1. Do I need a swap and what size should it be? I would like to maximize the battery life and can leave the computer on all the time or turn it off nightly, or use hibernate vs. suspend, whatever is more recommended for these choices in case there is a big energy difference or change in battery life. I know the swap is related to this.

2. How big should the root be? If I do not specify a separate /home, will it automatically be created within root?

3. Do I have to allocate all the remaining space during install? I plan on making some encrypted LVMs later, after the install is complete.

4. Any other settings/partitions that I need to decide on, or should decide on, during the manual install? I know I have to use 'ext4', 'mount point' = '/' for the root, what do I need to know for anything else I make (eg, swap)?

I would appreciate it if you could give specific answers and not ranges as much as possible, because I am not an expert linux user and am not going to know what to choose from a range, since during the install I cannot enter ranges. Let me know if more detail is needed on my usage. Thanks!

trope wrote: ⤴Fri Nov 16, 2018 5:25 pm
1. Do I need a swap and what size should it be? I would like to maximize the battery life and can leave the computer on all the time or turn it off nightly, or use hibernate vs. suspend, whatever is more recommended for these choices in case there is a big energy difference or change in battery life. I know the swap is related to this.

2. How big should the root be? If I do not specify a separate /home, will it automatically be created within root?

3. Do I have to allocate all the remaining space during install? I plan on making some encrypted LVMs later, after the install is complete.

4. Any other settings/partitions that I need to decide on, or should decide on, during the manual install? I know I have to use 'ext4', 'mount point' = '/' for the root, what do I need to know for anything else I make (eg, swap)?

For hibernate/suspend it is recommended that the swap be 2X physical memory. You only need one swap partition for multiple installations.

Root size depends on the number of apps and files you intend to install/store. 24-32G should be OK. The root folder will contain a /home

Setup the partitions using gparted then install i.e., if you're installing 3 linux systems setup 3 24-32G partitions.

Setup a common storage partition so you can access personal files from your installations.

The last installation will control bootup with grub.

If you're planning on multiple distributions, I'd recommend that you let each install have it's own /home under the / and create a separate partition for you personal data that you can share betwixt installation as you desire. There's a lot of setup and configuration data that goes into /home and sometimes one disto will overwrite something near and dear to another and cause a problem. Letting each distro have it's own /home prevents this.

You can give access to your common personal data partition to each installation by adding it to the /etc/fstab file or just mounting it manually when you need it.

For hibernate/suspend it is recommended that the swap be 2X physical memory.

I thought the rule of thumb was 1x ?