Hello - I'd like to dual boot LMDE4 with 20.3 Una on a Dell laptop. I have a couple of questions and need some advice on how to proceed:
LM 20.3 is presently set up with separate partitions for /boot, swap, and /home. I have plenty of unallocated HDD space to make 3 new partitions for Debbie as well.
1. is it a problem to have 2 swap partitions? is it a good idea to have 2, or would/could the CPU utilize one swap area for both OS's?
2. is it wise or possible to have 2 separate /home partitions? will each OS use only the home partition designated at the OS's installation, or will all the files end up going to storage on one of them (or at random)? Will the new OS (Debbie) be able to use the existing /home partition (Una) if its the only one mounted as /home? Will I be able to work with files created by either OS on that /home partition? Or will I be able to choose which /home I want for storage if there are 2 present?
I'd rather have separate /home partitions (from the /boot partition) for all OS's, in case I want to delete one of them to try yet another OS. However, if one large /home partition can be mutually accessible (at least from any Debian-based OS), I'd install Debbie without a /home. Thanks for any advice !
Dual boot LM 20.3 with LMDE4 - questions before installation
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Dual boot LM 20.3 with LMDE4 - questions before installation
Last edited by LockBot on Wed Dec 28, 2022 7:16 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Dual boot LM 20.3 with LMDE4 - questions before installation
I haven't installed LMDE, but:
1. You only need one swap partition.
2. You can have separate /home partitions if you want. Each OS will be able to see the other home partition, suggest you give them labels like LMhome, LMDEhome so, for example, when you boot LM the other home will mount at /media/you/LMDEhome when you click on it in nemo.
You can share the same home partition but you would need to use different usernames for each OS so there is no possibility of conflict in the config files.
1. You only need one swap partition.
2. You can have separate /home partitions if you want. Each OS will be able to see the other home partition, suggest you give them labels like LMhome, LMDEhome so, for example, when you boot LM the other home will mount at /media/you/LMDEhome when you click on it in nemo.
You can share the same home partition but you would need to use different usernames for each OS so there is no possibility of conflict in the config files.
Thinkcentre M720Q - LM21.3 cinnamon, 4 x T430 - LM21.3 cinnamon, Homebrew desktop i5-8400+GTX1080 Cinnamon 19.0
Re: Dual boot LM 20.3 with LMDE4 - questions before installation
Thanks for your help! Installation of Debbie went well, with the home partition (sda6) labelled as "/homeLMDE". The original 20.3 Una version is dual-booted, and its (sda3) home partition is still "/home". In Debbie, nemo lists the sda3 home partition (/home) as mountable, but the sda6 does not show up. This is the home partition I'd like to use with Debbie. Mounting sda6 using the command line succeeds in mounting sda6 to /media, but sda6 still doesn't appear in nemo.
My suspicion is that I should change the label on sda3 (say, from " /home" to " /LMhome" ) so that Debbie won't automatically search for " /home" , which brings up the wrong partition.
Would this help sort this out? If so, how can I change the designation for Una's " /home" to something else without re-installing the whole OS? I'm a CLI novice, and I'm confused about designations here - is " /home" a label, a name, a flag, or something else? Could I use Gparted to change the " /home" designation?
Any other thoughts about to untangle this would be much appreciated!
My suspicion is that I should change the label on sda3 (say, from " /home" to " /LMhome" ) so that Debbie won't automatically search for " /home" , which brings up the wrong partition.
Would this help sort this out? If so, how can I change the designation for Una's " /home" to something else without re-installing the whole OS? I'm a CLI novice, and I'm confused about designations here - is " /home" a label, a name, a flag, or something else? Could I use Gparted to change the " /home" designation?
Any other thoughts about to untangle this would be much appreciated!
Re: Dual boot LM 20.3 with LMDE4 - questions before installation
(SOLVED) I found that there are several simple ways to get the /homeLMDE partition to show in nemo's list. It's possible to enable automount by editing the /etc/fstab file. It's much simpler to use the GUI utility Disks to edit the /fstab file by simply using the Edit Mount Options . . . section to check the boxes "Mount at system startup" and "Show in user interface". Now I won't have to mount that partition every time I boot. Both home partitions also remain visible in LM 20.3. Also, I won't have to figure out how to re-designate /home. Many thanks to AndyMH for prompt, accurate help !