Partitioning problem between keyboard and chair

**Maximillium** · 24-Aug-2017, 12:24

Hello!

I was getting warnings that my root partition was getting too full, and decided to use separate partitions, as in the advice given here:

18-Mar-2009, 07:33 #6
woodardjd NNTP User
Default Re: ROOT PARTITION FULL!

I haven't used SuSE in some time, but this isn't SuSE specific. /opt /tmp, /usr, /var and /home are always going to be the largest directories mounted under /.
YaST caches updates in /var. That alone will eat up a great deal of space. When compiling software, writes are done in /tmp. Depending on the size of the program and what's needed when compiling, that too can chew up available space.
Typically, when installing, I give each of these directories their own partition and make them large enough to prevent them from filling up. I also clean out my /var/cache periodically.
My first recommendation would be to clean out /var/cache(or where ever YaST puts rpm's). That should clear up quite a bit of space. Especially if you did a net install. All of the rpm's used in the install are likely sitting in there, doing nothing but taking up space.
Next time you decide to install any distribution, give some thought to what you might be doing with it in the future.
My typical partitioning scheme follows.
/boot 500MB(far more than necessary)
/ 1GB
/opt 5GB(if installing KDE)
/tmp 10GB(fork bombs etcetera get contained and can't kill the rest of /)
/usr 10GB(lots of room for more software)
/var 10GB(Keeps updates from raping / if I get lax in my maintenance)
/home Whatever space is left on the drive.

Having done that, except for allowing a bit more space for /, I made a really dumb mistake by making the partition for /usr as /usr-local instead, so /usr is still in the / partition.

So everything for /usr is being stored in Partition /usr-local and vice-versa - contents which should be in /usr-local is going in /usr - and since /usr is still in the / (root) partition, root is still nearly too full.

Can this be fixed so the /usr-local partition is actually the /usr partition and /usr-local is back in / or will I have to re-install?

**hcvv** · 24-Aug-2017, 12:53

A bit of a strange advice there. In fact I think it is not an advice, but somebody describes how his partitioning is, without explaining why it is made like that.

Partitioning is something that depends very much on what the system is used for. But of course there is some general advice. And for openSUSE (NOT for SLES) the advice cn be seen as the installation defaults. And that is Swap (with plenty memory about as large as the memory for hibernation), root partition on Btrfs 40Gb to cope for snapshots, else 20Gb. For /home the rest.

All other things are adaptions for needs, like:
/boot e.g. in combination with LVM, or encryption.
EFI partition for EFI boot systems.
System usage that differs very much from the average home system might be better off with separate partitions for a database, or web pages, you name it.

This probably does not help you in your present problem, but you may need some rethinking on what you had, why it was not to needs and what a good solution would be.

For your present problem, I tried to understand what you wrote, but failed. Please provide information like partition listing

Code:

fdisk-l

their usage

Code:

cat /etc/ffstab

and try to explain from those what is bothering you.

**Maximillium** · 24-Aug-2017, 14:13

Originally Posted by hcvv

A bit of a strange advice there. In fact I think it is not an advice, but somebody describes how his partitioning is, without explaining why it is made like that.

Partitioning is something that depends very much on what the system is used for. But of course there is some general advice. And for openSUSE (NOT for SLES) the advice cn be seen as the installation defaults. And that is Swap (with plenty memory about as large as the memory for hibernation), root partition on Btrfs 40Gb to cope for snapshots, else 20Gb. For /home the rest.

All other things are adaptions for needs, like:
/boot e.g. in combination with LVM, or encryption.
EFI partition for EFI boot systems.
System usage that differs very much from the average home system might be better off with separate partitions for a database, or web pages, you name it.

This probably does not help you in your present problem, but you may need some rethinking on what you had, why it was not to needs and what a good solution would be.

For your present problem, I tried to understand what you wrote, but failed. Please provide information like partition listing

Code:

fdisk-l

their usage

Code:

cat /etc/ffstab

and try to explain from those what is bothering you.

Hi Henk - thanks for responding:

Code:

PEGASUS:~ # fdisk -l
Disk /dev/sda: 74.5 GiB, 80000000000 bytes, 156250000 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: dos
Disk identifier: 0x000173b0

Device     Boot     Start       End   Sectors  Size Id Type
/dev/sda1            2048  14684159  14682112    7G 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda2        14684160  35663871  20979712   10G 83 Linux
/dev/sda3  *     35663872  36691967   1028096  502M 83 Linux
/dev/sda4        36691968 156248063 119556096   57G  f W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/sda5        36694016  47183871  10489856    5G 83 Linux
/dev/sda6        47185920  68147199  20961280   10G 83 Linux
/dev/sda7        68149248  89112575  20963328   10G 83 Linux
/dev/sda8        89114624 110077951  20963328   10G 83 Linux
/dev/sda9       110080000 156248063  46168064   22G 83 Linux


Disk /dev/sdc: 465.8 GiB, 500107862016 bytes, 976773168 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: dos
Disk identifier: 0x000622b7

Device     Boot Start       End   Sectors   Size Id Type
/dev/sdc1        2048 976773119 976771072 465.8G 83 Linux

                                                                                                                                                                                  
Disk /dev/sdb: 74.5 GiB, 80032038912 bytes, 156312576 sectors                                                                                                                     
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes                                                                                                                                             
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes                                                                                                                             
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes                                                                                                                                 
Disklabel type: dos                                                                                                                                                               
Disk identifier: 0x000c168f                                                                                                                                                       
                                                                                                                                                                                  
Device     Boot    Start       End  Sectors  Size Id Type                                                                                                                         
/dev/sdb1           2048  15742975 15740928  7.5G 82 Linux swap / Solaris                                                                                                         
/dev/sdb2  *    15742976  57690111 41947136   20G 83 Linux                                                                                                                        
/dev/sdb3       57690112 156311551 98621440   47G 83 Linux                                                                                                                        
                                                                                                                                                                                  
                                                                                                                                                                                  
Disk /dev/sdd: 465.8 GiB, 500107862016 bytes, 976773168 sectors                                                                                                                   
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes                                                                                                                                             
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 4096 bytes                                                                                                                            
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes                                                                                                                               
Disklabel type: dos                                                                                                                                                               
Disk identifier: 0x000bf78b                                                                                                                                                       
                                                                                                                                                                                  
Device     Boot Start       End   Sectors   Size Id Type                                                                                                                          
/dev/sdd1        2048 976773119 976771072 465.8G 83 Linux                                                                                                                         
                                                                                                                                                                                  
                                                                                                                                                                                  
PEGASUS:~ #

sda is an installed OS disk containing LEAP 42.2, and associated partitions
sdb is the previous OS disk containing opensuse 13.2 for occasional retrieval of files
sdc is sdb (to me) and contains one class of stored information
sdd is sdc (to me) and contains another class of stored information
I have no clue why it gets the mounted sd letters; seems no matter what I put into the partitioner, it does something else instead.

Code:

PEGASUS:~ # cat /etc/ffstab
cat: /etc/ffstab: No such file or directory
PEGASUS:~ # cat /etc/fstab
UUID=998e2740-8476-494c-a0fa-ccfc57d908ed swap                 swap       defaults              0 0
UUID=0bed15b4-7fff-4d5e-8d64-e7bc1b078a08 /                    ext4       acl,user_xattr        1 1
UUID=bd65ab86-f19a-4818-9e05-5a0c3ef685e1 /boot                ext4       acl,user_xattr        1 2
UUID=f6996fff-1ab7-48bf-b9e4-472ce4ffd122 /home                ext4       acl,user_xattr        1 2
UUID=d2d87cda-c0ee-4ef4-a27e-bc56cc8fcf95 /opt                 ext4       acl,user_xattr        1 2
UUID=0b8960c0-2132-4deb-87cd-908915c4816d /tmp                 ext4       acl,user_xattr        1 2
UUID=8d936a1b-fa71-4a7f-8346-c36d411e3148 /usr/local           ext4       acl,user_xattr        1 2
UUID=35eaa8f6-e1ee-4c6c-9053-90a79e4ef013 /var                 ext4       acl,user_xattr        1 2
UUID=e35ec8aa-1add-4471-8155-b9b25d9ed3a2 /home/chuck/0_sdb    ext4       defaults              1 2
UUID=1777ce93-19e0-4865-9afc-0134b61beb27 /home/chuck/1_sdc    ext4       defaults              1 2
PEGASUS:~ #

The whole purpose was to stop whatever files kept being added by whatever means so as to fill up / and lock the system.

The problem now is one of the partitions having been mis-labeled as /usr/local instead of /usr

/usr is still in / and is still expanding the content of /

I want to get /usr and its contents into its own partition,

and /usr-local and its contents back into / if there is a way.

Can this be done by copying/moving?

If not, I may have to re-install...?

**gogalthorp** · 24-Aug-2017, 16:53

/usr has a directory /usr/sbin where many of the /sbin objects are stored referenced by links. Since many things in /sbin may be needed at boot before partitions are mounted /usr must be available thus can not be on a separate partition safely. /usr/local does not seem to be used for much, here it is empty.

**Maximillium** · 24-Aug-2017, 18:37

Originally Posted by gogalthorp

/usr has a directory /usr/sbin where many of the /sbin objects are stored referenced by links. Since many things in /sbin may be needed at boot before partitions are mounted /usr must be available thus can not be on a separate partition safely. /usr/local does not seem to be used for much, here it is empty.

Hi Gogalthorp:
My /usr/local has quite a bit in it.
Have you read

18-Mar-2009, 07:33 #6
woodardjd NNTP User
Default Re: ROOT PARTITION FULL!

in the original post? He wrote it in 2009, but his partition scheme seemed to work O.K. for him. Has the OS changed what it needs during boot-up so that /usr needs to be in / ?
My /usr/local was not expanding constantly, didn't seem to be causing any problems, and had I done it right, it would still be in / - no problem.
My /usr has a lot in it, and was helping /tmp to bloat the / directory.

Hum .... well, does this mean a re-install? I'd rather find another way, if there is one.

**hcvv** · 25-Aug-2017, 01:06

I think this is the last time i will argue about the value of that article and the conclusions you seem to come to.

The article is "old"". It is about SLES, thus most probably about a "server" setup and you fail to tell that you also are using openSUSE mainly for server tasks.

The article:

/boot 500MB(far more than necessary)
/ 1GB
/opt 5GB(if installing KDE)
/tmp 10GB(fork bombs etcetera get contained and can't kill the rest of /)
/usr 10GB(lots of room for more software)
/var 10GB(Keeps updates from raping / if I get lax in my maintenance)
/home Whatever space is left on the drive.

. There is nothing in /opt on my system and I have KDE installed.
/opt as separate file system maybe good when you have lots of third party applications that install there (again most possibly for a "server" setup of some type).
. /tmp /var/tmp are sometimes the main source of the root file system becoming full. Easy to cure on a "home" system that is booted regularly. Set the system to clean /tmp and /var/tmp (or e.g make /tmp a tmpfs when you have plenty of memory).
. Most people have plenty space in a 20Gb root file system that includes all except /home. Most have less then 50% in use of that (and use 40Gb for a btrfs one for the snaphots, but set the cron runs to remove old snapshots).
. I never heard of updates filling the root partition when applied. When you have at least 50% free in your root partition, even if you would have to update all of the packages installed, the compressed dowloaded packages will not take that space by far. And the installing will simply replace existing files thus the result will roughly be the same as before.
. The splitting of the root partition will restrict the resulting file systems. It being possible that on of them gets full while there is room in the others. And it will stop your flawless r
unning system.

I still think that the article is out of date (e.g. it could be that KDE and /opt had something to do which each other in the past), aimed at a special "server" type of setup and even when taking that into account, wrong assumptions.

My story in posr #2 was also intended to let you explain what the use/tasks of your system is. You did not get that hint or did not want to explain that. But when it is just a "home" system, that article has no good hints for you IMHO.

Enough about that. I will now go and look at your problem information and come back to that.
BTW even before looking at it, did you think about booting a live/rescue system and repair your /etc/fstab from there

**hcvv** · 25-Aug-2017, 01:17

To come to one point of your story.

sda/b/s/d/e/f/g, etc. is created by the system in the sequence of detecting the devices. Thus they are not always the same. When you add/remove disks, they can change after a boot. It is nonsense and confusing at least for you yourself to say that sdc is sdb for you.

That is why openSUSE does not use them in e.g. the fstab (by default). It uses identifications that are unique regardless of the sequence of detection. It uses UUIDs instead. When you think of those as unreadable and difficult for human identification, you could set LABELs to file systems and use them for fstab/mounting.

**hcvv** · 25-Aug-2017, 01:42