Hiyas Daniel, I'd also like to see the simple ability to make (and recommend) a /home partion rather than ask a n00b to delve into the tender mercies of manual partitioning. Hopefully, one day the dev team may catch their breath and incorporate it. :)
Regards, Phill. On 26 December 2010 13:20, Daniel Gross <daniel.gr...@utoronto.ca> wrote: > Hello > > I just had a really bad experience while working with Ubuntu 10.10, > which suggested to me another reason for having a separate home folder. > > My ext4 boot partition with all my data became inaccessible -- not mountable, > not checkable, only > > accessible via dd or ddrescue, but the data coming out is very partial (the > image i am getting > claims to be of type ext2, for some reason, so can't be checked either). > > I had just started a new virtual machine, and then the hard drive started > spinning at "full speed", > > with the computer not responding. After a while I felt that the only way out > is a hard reset. > > Unfortunately, either the spinning out of control, or the hard reset, or > both, have > damaged the ext4 partition in a significant way. Interestingly, a second NTFS > partition (with my preinstalled windows xp pro on it) > > wasn't affected, and i was able to boot windows xp without problems, but not > able to access the > ext4 partition, also not with a special ext4 file system utility. > > After much trial and error i still can not properly access the ext4 > partition, getting a "drive exclusively in use by > > other process or mounted error?". > > I happened to have another 320 SATA drive around, which i am not freshly > installing with ubuntu 10.10. > To avoid such problems with the boot partition in the future, I decided to > the the following > > partitioning scheme. > > Ubuntu Boot partition -- 40 GB, ext4 > Primary NTFS partition of size 220 GB, mounted at /windows > Primary NTFS partition of size 60 GB, not mounted. > > My plan is to move my home directory to the 220GB partition. > > Like this if the ubuntu ext4 boot partition fails again, i will hopefully be > able to access all my data from both windows and ubuntu rescue facilities. > > So, the reason to move the home directory to a different partition (and file > system type), relates to not putting all your files in > > one ext4 boot partition basket. > > Daniel > > > > > > On Wed, Oct 27, 2010 at 8:01 PM, Daniel Gross <daniel.gross at utoronto.ca > <https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-devel-discuss>> wrote: > > >* Hello, > *>* > *>* I have finally taken the plunge and installed the latest Ubuntu instead > *>* of Windows XP (while still running Windows xp in a VM). > * > Congrats :) > > >* It would be great if a tool existed that supports moving the home folder > *>* from the "boot" partition to a "data" partition. Ideally, the tool would > *>* support creating a data partition by resizing the boot partition, as > *>* well as recommending a minimum size for the data partition based on the > *>* size of the home folder. > *>* > *>* Ideally, i think, such a setup could already be suggested during the > *>* Ubuntu installation process. Perhaps, under an "advanced setup" heading > *>* -- removing the need to move the home partition. > *>* > *>* The main benefit for such a setup, is that it allows reinstalling Ubuntu > *>* without loosing the users data, which would be safely sitting in a > *>* separate data partition. > * > Putting it on a separate partition isn't actually necessary. Currently > when Ubuntu is directed to install to a partition which previously had > Ubuntu on it, it reinstalls only what is necessary, leaving things > > such as user settings intact. So this is effectively already done, > just without the necessity for multiple partitions. > > >* Also, during (re)installation, Ubuntu could recognize the existence of a > *>* data partition that includes a home folder, and suggest configuring > *>* itself accordingly. > * > This is an interesting idea. I'm not sure what we currently suggest > when another Ubuntu is already installed, but a kind of > reinstall/upgrade option would probably be useful. Again, we'd only > > need the one partition for it though. > > >* Taking this idea a step further, perhaps its possible to also preserve > *>* the packages that were installed, so that these remain intact in the > *>* data partition also. Perhaps a better name for the data partition could > *>* be "User" partition, which includes all user configured, tailored, > *>* created data. As opposed to the System partition which includes the base > *>* OS only, and that can be reinstalled at will. > * > Technically, every part of Ubuntu (including the base OS) is > considered just an installed package, so doing this wouldn't be > simple. I'm also having trouble seeing the use case for this - most > people (in my experience) reinstall Ubuntu as a way to clean up cruft > > (or apparent cruft - a fresh install often feels faster just by > placebo effect). Presumably they would want such packages removed, > else why would they reinstall? They're may be something I'm missing, > but I can't see "reinstalling while keeping current packages" to be a > > common desire. > > You've raised some very interesting points, all of which merit further > discussion. > Enjoy your shiny new Ubuntu :) > > Cheers, > Evan > > > -- > Ubuntu-devel-discuss mailing list > Ubuntu-devel-discuss@lists.ubuntu.com > Modify settings or unsubscribe at: > https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-devel-discuss > >
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