Hi!
I am new on Linux and have just installed Linux Mint Cinnamon 20:2.
The Linux install is on a small SSD with only 32GB space.
I also have a 500GB HDD that is empty, and there is where I want all my other software to go.
My question is, how do I choose where to install software such as Libre office, Dropbox and so on, so that it ends up on my big empty HDD and not on the small SSD where I only want the Linux operative to be? I have searched for answers on the forum but not found any yet.
I hope some of you more experienced users can help me!
/ Jim
Last edited by LockBot on Wed Dec 28, 2022 7:16 am, edited 1 time in total.
Reason:Topic automatically closed 6 months after creation. New replies are no longer allowed.
The general consensus is you cannot choose where to install deb and flatpak software.
You can move the appimage to any location you choose and run it from there.
If I am wrong about this maybe somebody will come up with a way.
To got around that issue by installing 500gb SSD's as my primary drives and 1 - 2K gb secondary drives in my four systems. I install all of the programs on the primary SSD's and have the secondary ones for all of my data and the Timeshift. I also use pCloud as my storage so all of my systems get updated simultaneously.
Hi Jim.
Welcome to the forum and Mint.
Please take a minute to check this one and port your system report along your questions, it will help the members here a lot to find a quicker and more precise answer.
Assuming you have a laptop since you mention such a small capacity SSD, i agree with the previous post that you should ger an SSD with more room.
The 32GB drive is just not enough, my current mint installation is using 30GB just for the base OS and the programs installed.
Even if there is a way to "extend" the volume to the 500GB disk, you would be then slowed down by the mechanical factor of the HDD. So bad idea IMO.
Good luck
Linux Mint Una Cinnamon 20.3 Kernel: 5.15.x | Quad Core I7 4.2Ghz | 24GB Ram | 1TB NVMe | Intel Graphics
You need to reinstall to fix this. When the installer opens, choose 'Something Else'. Make the 32GB ssd your / (that's root ) partition. One caution about that, is with Mint, 32GB is barely enough for root (/) once you've been running for a while. I think you'll be o.k., though. Next, make the 500GB drive your /home partition. You don't have to use all the drive, but if you find out that you've made more partition than you need, you can shrink it later. Both / and /home will be formatted ext4. You might want a small swap on the 500GB, but if you don't care about hibernation you don't need one. By default, the boot loader is installed on the first partition of the first drive--that will be the ssd
The reason for the / partition on the ssd, is than an ssd definitely decreases boot time. Once booted up, a spinning disk is o.k. to work from. The /home partition is where all the data goes, by default, and is why the /home partition should definitely be the biggest. When you install software, the largest parts of the program go into the / partition. All the system-wide files and the progam executables and configuration files, etc. Even with a lot of installed programs, accumulated over years, and my root partition is using only 23GB of space.
Because of the little 32GB / drive, if you use TimeShift (and you should), be darn sure you configure the timeshift to store the backups on the 500gb drive, because the default is to place the backups on /
As you've just discovered, the Linux file system doesn't resemble the Windows file system. You'll figure how it works quickly, because it really makes more sense than hiding major parts in a registry. Linux has everything (past the boot sequence, anyway) in readily accessible files. Something you aren't going to miss is the huge Windows updates with reboots. Linux has the update thing figured out, and most updates don't require a reboot at all.
