On 2020-07-28 13:53, gajuph4...@yahoo.com wrote:
I have manually partitioned my hard disk drive as follows:
/boot is assigned 200MB /root is assigned 10GB /swap is assigned 20GB
/home is assigned 35GB /var is assigned 10GB /usr is assigned 5GB
/usr-local is assigned 5GB /opt is assigned 5GB /srv is assigned 5GB
In terms of capacity, which of the above partitions are
over-provisioned?
Which of the above are under-provisioned?
Below are the essential information on my machine:
Intel i3-1005G1 CPU 4GB DDR4-2666MHz RAM onboard 250GB SSD No
discreet graphics card Machine not used for gaming or creative
design work
On 2020-07-28 16:14, gajuph4...@yahoo.com wrote:
My hard disk drive is used to dual boot Microsoft Windows with
Debian. Secure Boot is enabled in the BIOS.
I assigned 100GB for Debian 10.4.
About your statement: "You don't need a separate /boot unless you're
running an odd filesystem for root."
I don't want Debian to install the Grub bootloader onto the space
occupied by Windows bootloader. I had an unpleasant experience when
I installed Microsoft Windows 10 first followed by Debian Buster. I
was unable to boot into Microsoft Windows OS. That's why I dedicated
a discreet partition for Debian called /boot.
For your information, I use GPT (GUID Partition Table) on UEFI
firmware. MBR and legacy BIOS are behind me now.
Based on your recommendations, I only need the partitions named
below:
/root /home /swap (optional) /var
On 2020-07-28 16:17, gajuph4...@yahoo.com wrote:
Based on my experience, a full install of Microsoft Windows 10 Pro
consumes about 28.8GB of disk space.
On 2020-07-28 16:23, gajuph4...@yahoo.com wrote:
I only started to get serious about using Linux or *BSD distros
after Edward Snowden's revelations. Prior to that I was a 100%
Microsoft
Windows guy.
On 2020-07-28 20:09, gajuph4...@yahoo.com wrote:
Sorry for the noob question but what does /home contain?
/home contains user home directories. This is where all of your desktop
settings and application data are stored by default.
I assume your computer is a laptop (?). What is the make and model?
That is a recent processor:
https://ark.intel.com/content/www/us/en/ark/products/196588/intel-core-i3-1005g1-processor-4m-cache-up-to-3-40-ghz.html
I assume you laptop has only one drive bay (?). What is the interface?
What is the make and model of the SSD?
How many memory module slots in the laptop? What size modules are
installed? Are there any available slots?
Unfortunately, new hardware typically means Debian Stable lacks the
device drivers needed to support your hardware. This will force you to
use Debian backports, Debian Testing, and/or Debian Unstable, which
means more problems and more work.
On the positive side, your CPU supports virtualization. I suggest that
you run Debian inside a virtual machine.
Downsides include:
1. Performance will not be maximum, but should be more than adequate.
2. You may need to adjust hypervisor hot key assignments so that they
do not interfere with desktop, apps, etc., key assignments inside the VM.
Upsides include:
1. With dual-boot, you can only run one OS at a time. I found this to
be a major source of frustration -- no matter which OS I was running, I
needed something on the other OS. With a hypervisor, you can run your
host OS and your VM simultaneously. Problem solved.
2. Virtual hardware provided by mainstream hypervisors is several years
old, very well tested, and well supported by Debian and others. This
avoids a lot of headaches. Debian Stable should "just work" OOTB.
3. Mainstream hypervisors provide an option for virtual disks that grow
with usage. So, you can create a virtual disk drive, install Debian (~8
GB for a graphical desktop install), and your laptop drive will only see
what is actually used. (I use and recommend 16 GB disks with 1 GB for
boot, 1 GB for encrypted swap, and 12 GB for encrypted root.)
4. You can share a folder between the host and the VM, making it easy
to share files without having to figure out networking or file servers.
Thus, you don't need a large partition for /home.
5. It is easy to add, remove, and resize virtual disks. (Resizing
partitions, volumes, and filesystems is dependent upon the OS running
inside the VM.)
6. Virtual machines can be exported and imported to and from other
computers and cloud providers very easily. Export and import make
migrations, backup, and restore trivial.
David
