OpenSuse 13.1 - Harddisk partitions - Which do in need and what size do they need to be

[ronaldvermeij]

Hello All,
(A) After a little internet surfing, seeking for good Linux Installation tutorials, I do not really get the hang of it, that the picture is starting to clear up for me.
Even the Novell - and Open Suse forums and websites themselves, do not provide me with a clear answer to what I am looking for

(B) Most Open Suse \ Linux installation and disk-partitioning tutorials give me (too) many choices on how I can partition my (250 GB SATA) harddisk, but few of them explain the WHY behind it:

• WHY does one have to create a certain Linux partition?
• Are they all mandatory (yes/no)?
• How can on pre-calculate the SIZE of a certain partition?
• Which factors do I need to take into account?

(C) When I look around in the tutorials I have found, I notice that I can install Open Suse Linux, in many different ways, depending on the role my computer is going to have later on.

So fa I have learned the following facts:
(D) The Mandatory (Linux, Open Suse) partitions are:
/Swap…, (RAM_memory content to disk partition) – Size: equal to the computers RAM size
/Boot… (Startup partition, contains Linux kernels ) - Size: from 100mb to 4 gb (when working with many different Linux kernels)

For the rest of the Linux partitions one can create on the harddisk, the many tutorials I have found,
give very different explanations about WHICH partitions you can add and WHAT SIZE they need to have.

**(E) “Extra” partition: name, function, [minimum size - maximum size])
***/root… The Root’s own Home directory… [2-8 gb]
/home… User(s) Home… [10 gb - 35gb / user OR the rest of the disk]
/usr… Installation directory for native Open Suse programs… [3,15,20gb]
/usr/local… Installation directory for native Open Suse programs… ??]
/tmp… Temporarily created file storage… [50mb-10gb]
/var… Linux internal log files… [5-10gb]
/opt… 3rd party software installation directories… ???]
/srv… FTP (up/download) files, website contents… ???],
/backup… Backup partition for data from all other partition… ???],
*
(F) My computers desired functionality - “Heavy desktop” user:

• Internetting (with Opera, Firefox, Konqurer browsers)
• YouTube movie watching (Vlc player)
• Word-Processing, Document creation (Open Office,Libre Office)
• Animation / Illustration creation (Gimp)
• Video Editing
• 3D modeling (Blender)

(G) Background info - Links to the tutorials I already found online:
**Novell and Open Suse Links:
**http://en.opensuse.org/Portal:Distribution
http://www.novell.com/coolsolutions/feature/15835.html
http://www.novell.com/support/kb/doc.php?id=7003263
http://tr.opensuse.org/SDB:Partitioning_for_SuSE_Linux
http://support.novell.com/techcenter…partition.html
http://www.ehow.com/how_6622129_crea…partition.html
http://en.opensuse.org/SDB:Basics_of…,_mount_points
http://www.novell.com/documentation/…l/ch01s07.html
http://doc.opensuse.org/products/dra…a.advdisk.html
https://www.suse.com/communities/con…d-drive-fdisk/

3rd partij links:
http://linuxconfig.org/index.php
http://www.control-escape.com/linux/lx-partition.html
http://www.dedoimedo.com/computers/install_suse_2.html
http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/li…pic1-v3-104-1/
http://www.tweakhound.com/linux/suse…stalling_1.htm
http://www.oracle-base.com/articles/…rtitioning.php
http://askubuntu.com/questions/10759…r-normal-users
http://earthwithsun.com/questions/72…-configuration
http://searchitchannel.techtarget.co…Linux-10-disks
http://www.howtogeek.com/106873/how-…ions-on-linux/
http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/35676…your-linux-pc/
http://www.linuxquestions.org/linux/…a_Linux_System
http://www.softpanorama.org/Commercial_linuxes/Devices/disk_partitioning.shtml

**
MY QUESTION: Who is willing to assist me in pointing out:**

• Which "extra partitions” I really need to create on my hard disk (beside /boot and /swap)
• What the size should be for those extra created partitions

Thanks for sharing your Open Suse & Linux wisdom with me!

[gogalthorp]

Generally unless you have special need you only absolutely need swap and root. ( to be honest you can do without swap but unless you really understand Linux don’t go there)
But it is good to have a separate home partition which will allow you to upgrade and or change distributions without losing your personal data and desktop settings since /home is were your personal stuff is always stored. If you plan on extensively using databases you may want to create a special partition to store them on. This again allows upgrades and distro hopping with out disturbing your important stuff. You can define any mount point name you want but stay away from the default directory names. Use maybe /mydata as a mount point

Unless you really understand things do not fool around with extra partitions for the standard directories unless you have special needs such as encrypted partitions or using LVM partitions etc. So far you have not mentioned anything that could be construed as special.

You may notice a pattern. a mount point for a partition is a directory but a directory is not always a separate partition.

This openSUSE installer will default to swap root (/) and home (/home) partitions You will want 20-30 gig for root 1-2X memory for swap (note that exact amount will depend on if you want to suspend to disk) the rest for home if you use ext4 formatting. If BTRFS you may want to go to 30-40 gig for root. the reason is by default BTRFS uses a feature called snapshot that does what it says ie takes a snapshot periodically and that takes extra space.

[nrickert]

@ronaldvermeij

MY QUESTION: Who is willing to assist me in pointing out:

• Which "extra partitions” I really need to create on my hard disk (beside /boot and /swap)

1. It is not “/swap”. It is just “swap”. It is not mounted anywhere visible. It is used for swapping. The installer will usually recommend a suitable size.
2. You don’t actually need a separate “/boot”, unless you are using something like an LVM.
3. It is advisable, but not required, to have a separate “/home”. That helps to keep user files separated from system files.

[robin_listas]

On 2014-05-15 19:56, ronaldvermeij wrote:

> Even the Novell - and Open Suse forums and websites themselves, do not
> provide me with a clear answer to what I am looking for

Because it is impossible.

> (B) Most Open Suse \ Linux installation and disk-partitioning tutorials
> give me (too) many choices on how I can partition my (250 GB SATA)
> harddisk, but few of them explain the WHY behind it:
> - WHY does one have to create a certain Linux partition?

Er… why do you want to install Linux?

> - Are they all mandatory (yes/no)?

No.

> - How can on pre-calculate the SIZE of a certain partition?

With experience.

> - Which factors do I need to take into account?

Thousands

> (C) When I look around in the tutorials I have found, I notice that I
> can install Open Suse Linux, in many different ways, depending on the
> role my computer is going to have later on.

It is written “openSUSE”, not any other way.

> So fa I have learned the following facts:
> (D) The Mandatory (Linux, Open Suse) partitions are:
> -/Swap…, (RAM_memory content to disk partition) – Size: equal to the
> computers RAM size

No. Size is “as much as you need”, be it 0% of your ram, to thousands
times your ram size.

> /Boot… (Startup partition, contains Linux kernels ) - Size: from
> 100mb to 4 gb (when working with many different Linux kernels)-

No.
It is not mandatory, except on certain circumstances.
Size should be about half a gig, and one gig should be quite ample.

You forget:

“/” (aka root) is absolutely mandatory (the only one that is mandatory).
Size: 9 gigs for just testing, up to 50 perhaps gigs, with lots of
software installed.

“/home”, strongly recommended. As big as you can, except for some uses -
say, a mail server.

> For the rest of the Linux partitions one can create on the harddisk, the
> many tutorials I have found,
> give very different explanations about WHICH partitions you can add and
> WHAT SIZE they need to have.

Forget it.

A recommendation on those can not be given unless you specify with
precision what you are going to use that machine for.

How much RAM do you have? This is an important detail I do not see in
your post.

With what you have said so far, you only need root, swap, and home, no more.

You can also use LVM, create small spaces in it, then grow your
partitions as you need more space. Caveats: it is more complicated to
handle. With my 15+ years of Linux experience, I have never used it.

You can also use encryption.

You can also use different filesystem types, on each partition,
depending on what they are going to be used to. For instance, I use ext2
for boot, ext4 for root, xfs for home, reiserfs for mail or nntp
partition, and some other uses.

Or, you can be brave and use the new btrfs, with shiny advantages like
recovering files you changed or deleted hours or days ago. And… you
can set it up in a single partition. Or maybe not.

You did not read enough ;-))

–
Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.

(from 13.1 x86_64 “Bottle” (Minas Tirith))

[Fraser_Bell]

@robin_listas

> (C) When I look around in the tutorials I have found, I notice that I
> can install Open Suse Linux, in many different ways, depending on the
> role my computer is going to have later on.

It is written “openSUSE”, not any other way.

… but not worth making an issue about, especially to a newcomer, IMHO.

[robin_listas]

On 2014-05-16 00:26, Fraser Bell wrote:
>
> robin_listas;2643452 Wrote:

>> It is written “openSUSE”, not any other way.
>>
>
> … but not worth making an issue about, especially to a newcomer, IMHO.

Well… I don’t make an issue of it, I understand, because it goes in
the middle of a lot of answers to his questions

If I were only saying that, then I would be making an issue of it.

They tell all members to insist on the correct spelling on users. We get
into a secret meeting and we chant incantations, to get the weird
spelling ingrained into us. Only then we are allowed to get into level
tWo of membership.

–
Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.

(from 13.1 x86_64 “Bottle” (Minas Tirith))

[ronaldvermeij]

@gogalthorp

Generally unless you have special need you only absolutely need swap and root. ( to be honest you can do without swap but unless you really understand Linux don’t go there)

Thank you.

@gogalthorp

But it is good to have a separate home partition which will allow you to upgrade and or change distributions without losing your personal data and desktop settings since /home is were your personal stuff is always stored.

Thanks again for the confirmation on this one. I already practiced this setting during my previous OpenSUSE versions installations and it saved me a lot of trouble… and it makes it easier to backup my personal stuff too.

@gogalthorp

If you plan on extensively using databases you may want to create a special partition to store them on. This again allows upgrades and distro hopping with out disturbing your important stuff.

Thank you, very nice suggestion!

@gogalthorp

Unless you really understand things do not fool around with extra partitions for the standard directories unless you have special needs such as encrypted partitions or using LVM partitions etc. So far you have not mentioned anything that could be construed as special.

Thanks, i do not have any special needs for that (yet).

@gogalthorp

This openSUSE installer will default to swap root (/) and home (/home) partitions You will want 20-30 gig for root 1-2X memory for swap (note that exact amount will depend on if you want to suspend to disk) the rest for home if you use ext4 formatting. If BTRFS you may want to go to 30-40 gig for root. the reason is by default BTRFS uses a feature called snapshot that does what it says ie takes a snapshot periodically and that takes extra space.

**QUESTIONS: **
1 - How is the 20-30 GB figure for /root determined?
Is this the total amount of diskspace needed to fully install every bit of software on the OpenSUSE 13.1 DVD disk’s?

***2 - Can you recommend applications,tools for encrypting;

• entire partitions
• a single folder
• a single files
  on OpenSUSE Linux?***

3 - Is BTFRS already stable enough to use? or should I stick to Ext3 filesystem for a while?

[ronaldvermeij]

@nrickert

It is not “/swap”. It is just “swap”. It is not mounted anywhere visible. It is used for swapping. The installer will usually recommend a suitable size.

Thank you for the correction.

@nrickert

You don’t actually need a separate “/boot”, unless you are using something like an LVM.

Nope, I am not going to work with an LVM.

@nrickert

It is advisable, but not required, to have a separate “/home”. That helps to keep user files separated from system files.

I have done this already - mounting /home on 2nd harddisk - during a previous OpenSUSE Installation and it worked perfectly!
It has kept my personal files safe on a “data-only-harddisk”, separated from my “operatings-system-and-applications” harddisk.

[ronaldvermeij]

@robin_listas

Because it is impossible.

Nothing is impossible, One just has to stretch the boundaries of their own imagination a little bit further and imagine the right outcome too one’s Quest.

@robin_listas

Er… why do you want to install Linux?

LOL In Mid-Air on a Virtual SkyDrive

@robin_listas

No.

Thank you

@robin_listas

With experience.

Are you willing to same some of them with me?

@robin_listas

Thousands

Like what for instance? the amount of harddisk_diskspace required to install the software you want on your system? Yes I figured that our myself, but what else do I need to take into account?

@robin_listas

It is written “openSUSE”

Then OpenSUSE it will be from now on.

@robin_listas

No. Size is “as much as you need”, be it 0% of your ram, to thousands times your ram size.

Please correct me if i’m wrong Robin, but the swap_partition can only contain the memory_dump to disk image right?.. Or is the swap_partition able to contain any other sort of data that I do not know about (yet)?

@robin_listas

No. It is not mandatory, except on certain circumstances. Size should be about half a gig, and one gig should be quite ample.

Thanks!

@robin_listas

You forget: “/” (aka root) is absolutely mandatory (the only one that is mandatory). Size: 9 gigs for just testing, up to 50 perhaps gigs, with lots of software installed.

Yeap Good observation Robin! You are right, since I confused “/” with the “/root” directory -> Root user’s own home directory.

@robin_listas

“/home”, strongly recommended. As big as you can, except for some uses -say, a mail server.

Thanks.

@robin_listas

Forget it. A recommendation on those can not be given unless you specify with precision what you are going to use that machine for.

See this data in my initial posting…

@robin_listas

How much RAM do you have? This is an important detail I do not see in your post.

RAM: 2GB, Harddisk 250 Gb SATA

@robin_listas

With what you have said so far, you only need root, swap, and home, no more.

Thanks.

@robin_listas

LVM - Caveats: it is more complicated to handle. With my 15+ years of Linux experience, I have never used it.

I have never used in either in my 11 years of (Red Hat & OpenSUSE) Linux Experience on my home-box.
However when one is working with “industrial grade Linux boxes”, I can imagine that LVM can be used as very useful hard_disk_management tool.

@robin_listas

You can also use encryption.

Can you recommend applications,tools for encrypting;

• entire partitions
• a single folder
• a single files
  on OpenSUSE Linux?

@robin_listas

You can also use different filesystem types, on each partition, depending on what they are going to be used to. For instance, I use ext2 for boot, ext4 for root, xfs for home, reiserfs for mail or nntp partition, and some other uses.

Why do you want to do that, other that experimenting with different filesystems. Please explain?

@robin_listas

Or, you can be brave and use the new btrfs, with shiny advantages like recovering files you changed or deleted hours or days ago.

Is btfrs already production-ripe, ready for the real world usage? stable enough to use?

@robin_listas

You did not read enough ;-))

Can we ever read enough on anything we like??

[robin_listas]

On 2014-05-16 12:16, ronaldvermeij wrote:
>
> robin_listas;2643452 Wrote:
>> Because it is impossible.
> Nothing is impossible, One just has to stretch the boundaries of their
> own imagination a little bit further and imagine the right outcome too
> one’s Quest.

Believe me, it is impossible. This is a fuzzy fields with as many
advices as experts and wannabe

>> With experience.

Are you willing to same some of them with me?

Nope :-p

Meaning: I’m willing, but experience is a fuzzy thing. It is impossible
to code into words things that you have read over the years from many
people, things you experimented yourself, mixed with feelings, and with
a resulting “feeling” for things that you can not even put into words.

For instance:

In this laptop I have this partition:

Filesystem             Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/sda9              6.8G  3.7G  2.8G  57% /other

That’s a full Linux openSUSE installation. It has that size, those
purposes, and it works fine for what it is…

However, my working partition in this same laptop is:

Filesystem             Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/sda7               30G   14G   16G  47% /
/dev/sda8              252G  241G   11G  96% /home

>> Thousands

> Like what for instance? the amount of harddisk_diskspace required to
> install the software you want on your system? Yes I figured that our
> myself, but what else do I need to take into account?

That, mainly.

How much “/tmp” you think you may need, because some applications may
use it a lot - for example, as temporary space for a video edition, or
for creation of a tar backup, or in preparation to burn a DVD.

Or how much space you need in “/srv”, if you are going to serve apache
or ftp.

Or how much you need in “/var/log”, because you expect to get many
syslog entries from a hundred machines in your office/lap

Or hundreds of gigabytes in “/var/cache”, because you are caching rpms
for other machines of several versions in your lab.

Like lots of spare space for a cvs storage for a bunch of mad coders, or
latex writers.

Like lots of spare space for snapshots for btrfs, because you are doing
changes everyday and experimenting.

like lots of space under /usr/src/, because you are going to build many
experimental kernels.

Etc…

>> It is written “openSUSE”

Then OpenSUSE it will be from now on.

Nay: openSUSE - the first letter is lowercase, even at the start of a
sentence. Yes, I know, the spellcheckers hate it. Me too.

>:-)

> robin_listas;2643452 Wrote:
>> No. Size is “as much as you need”, be it 0% of your ram, to thousands
>> times your ram size.

> Please correct me if i’m wrong Robin, but the swap_partition can only
> contain the memory_dump to disk image right?.. Or is the swap_partition
> able to contain any other sort of data that I do not know about (yet)?

Swap contains memory. Memory that programs do not need this instant, and
that the kernel needs to give to another program that does need it this
instant. It is also used to copy all ram when the machine is hibernated.

I have used machines in which swap was about 50…100 times the available
RAM, and some in which it was none.

Situation.

You have a machine with 32 MB of RAM. You need to run a process that
needs a gigabyte, and you don’t have those chips for whatever reason. So
you put a gigabyte or two of swap… Or course, that process will make
the machine slow as molasses, but it will work.

So you say: I have 32 GiB of RAM, I do not need swap.

Well… depends. Do you hibernate the machine at least once? Then you
need that much swap.

Or will you run a video rendering process that happens to need 32 GiB of
ram for just a second? It will crash… the rest of the processes will
be using some of those 32 GiB. You just need one more… so that instead
of crashing after 20 hours of CPU process, it uses just a tiny bit of
swap to survive and finish.

As someone I know says, “context is everything”.

> robin_listas;2643452 Wrote:
>> You forget: “/” (aka root) is absolutely mandatory (the only one that is
>> mandatory). Size: 9 gigs for just testing, up to 50 perhaps gigs, with
>> lots of software installed.
> Yeap Good observation Robin! You are right, since I confused “/” with
> the “/root” directory -> Root user’s own home directory.

Right. And mind: “/root” can not be a separate partition.

> robin_listas;2643452 Wrote:
>> How much RAM do you have? This is an important detail I do not see in
>> your post. RAM: 2GB, Harddisk 250 Gb SATA

Then, /me/ would put 10 GB swap.

> However when one is working with “industrial grade Linux boxes”, I can
> imagine that LVM can be used as very useful hard_disk_management tool.

I know people around here that love it, and use it on home machines

>
> robin_listas;2643452 Wrote:
>> You can also use encryption.
> Can you recommend applications,tools for encrypting;
> - entire partitions
> - a single folder
> - a single files
> on OpenSUSE Linux?

Entire partitions or filesystems, YaST does it, using the LUKS standard.
Single files, powerful encryption, PGP.

Alternative: truecrypt. It is said to be compatible with Windows, if you
double boot. I don’t know myself

>
> robin_listas;2643452 Wrote:
>> You can also use different filesystem types, on each partition,
>> depending on what they are going to be used to. For instance, I use ext2
>> for boot, ext4 for root, xfs for home, reiserfs for mail or nntp
>> partition, and some other uses.

> Why do you want to do that, other that experimenting with different
> filesystems. Please explain?

Different features of each.

ext2 on boot because it has no journal, and space is at a premium there.

ext4 on / because it is reliable and tools for recovery are available.
It is perhaps the filesystem better supported in Linux.

xfs for large partitions because it has efficient dump and backup
features. It is specially good for very large files, like video. And it
is fast.

reiserfs for mail/news, because it has not been surpassed in the context
of millions of small files, and does it very fast. It would be my
filesystem of choice for everything, except that development is stuck,
and does not scale well. There is reiserfs4, but it is still experimental.

> robin_listas;2643452 Wrote:
>> Or, you can be brave and use the new btrfs, with shiny advantages like
>> recovering files you changed or deleted hours or days ago.

> Is btfrs already production-ripe, ready for the real world usage? stable
> enough to use?

It depends on whom you ask, and what features you use

–
Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.

(from 13.1 x86_64 “Bottle” (Minas Tirith))

[robin_listas]

On 2014-05-16 11:46, ronaldvermeij wrote:

> I have done this already - mounting /home on 2nd harddisk - during a
> previous OpenSUSE Installation and it worked perfectly!
> It has kept my personal files safe on a “data-only-harddisk”, separated
> from my “operatings-system-and-applications” harddisk.

If you have several hard disks, you can split swap across them. If they
have the same priority, the kernel distributes the load equally, and
swapping, when needed, is faster.

–
Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.

(from 13.1 x86_64 “Bottle” (Minas Tirith))

[robin_listas]

On 2014-05-16 11:46, ronaldvermeij wrote:

> *QUESTIONS: *
> -1 - How is the 20-30 GB figure for /root determined?-
> Is this the total amount of diskspace needed to fully install every bit
> of software on the OpenSUSE 13.1 DVD disk’s?

Because as we have installed openSUSE many times, we know more or less
the space it needs

But no, nobody installs everything. For that you would need more.

–
Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.

(from 13.1 x86_64 “Bottle” (Minas Tirith))

[flymail]

Hopefully the posts above answer your questions, but here’s another contribution.

On 2014-05-15, ronaldvermeij <ronaldvermeij@no-mx.forums.opensuse.org> wrote:
>
> Hello All,
> (A) After a little internet surfing, seeking for good Linux
> Installation tutorials, I do not really get the hang of it, that the
> picture is starting to clear up for me.

You need to be more specific. Do you want dualboot system or are you seeking to fill your entire hard drive with
GNU/Linux?

> Even the Novell - and Open Suse forums and websites themselves, do not
> provide me with a clear answer to what I am looking for

It depends on what you use your computer for. A sensible minimum partition size for /' is 8 GB, but I'd recommend 24-32GB if you want to install more than just the base installation. If you want to store data on /’ then, of course
you’d need more space depending on how much data storage you need. Or you could store data on a separate /home/
partition.

> (B) Most Open Suse \ Linux installation and disk-partitioning tutorials
> give me (too) many choices on how I can partition my (250 GB SATA)
> harddisk, but few of them explain the WHY behind it:
> - WHY does one have to create a certain Linux partition?

GNU/Linux distributions (in general) don’t sit comfortably with other OS installations on the same partition. For each
OS, it’s a good idea (and in general mandatory) to have a separate partition.

> - Are they all mandatory (yes/no)?

In general yes.

> - How can on pre-calculate the SIZE of a certain partition?

For existing partitions…

sh-4.2$ df -h

…but the openSUSE installer will tell you what sizes are of your partitions.

• Which factors do I need to take into account?

Mainly:

a) What you want to use your computer for.
b) The size of the hard drive.
c) Whether you want other OSs.

(C) When I look around in the tutorials I have found, I notice that I
can install Open Suse Linux, in many different ways, depending on the
role my computer is going to have later on.

The openSUSE installer kindly suggests sensible sizes for partitions by default, so it’s worth having a look.

So fa I have learned the following facts:
(D) The Mandatory (Linux, Open Suse) partitions are:
-/Swap…, (RAM_memory content to disk partition) – Size: equal to the
computers RAM size

A `swap’ partition is not mandatory. Having one may improve performance though. A sensible size is anything from
2-24GB, depending how you intend to load your computer memory.

> /Boot… (Startup partition, contains Linux kernels ) - Size: from
> 100mb to 4 gb (when working with many different Linux kernels)-

A `boot’ partition is not mandatory. Having one may be convenient if you install more than distro on the same hard
drive. A sensible size is anything from 256M->1GB depending on how complex you intend to organise your hard disk.

For the rest of the Linux partitions one can create on the harddisk, the
many tutorials I have found,
give very different explanations about WHICH partitions you can add and
WHAT SIZE they need to have.

The only mandatory partition is `/'. Otherwise there are no rules that dictate how you should organise your partitions.

> *(E) “Extra” partition: name, function, [minimum size - maximum size])
> *-/root… The Root’s own Home
<SNIP>
> /backup… Backup partition for data from all other
> partition… ???],

These are directories, not partitions. You don’t have to a separate partition for each directory.

> (F) My computers desired functionality - “Heavy desktop” user:
> - Internetting (with Opera, Firefox, Konqurer browsers)
> - YouTube movie watching (Vlc player)
> - Word-Processing, Document creation (Open Office,Libre Office)
> - Animation / Illustration creation (Gimp)
> - Video Editing
> - 3D modeling (Blender)

I imagine your video editting and 3D modelling may require considerable data storage. Do you intend to have multiple
operating systems in the computer? If not, then a large /home/ partition is all you need. Otherwise, I’d recommend a
generic data partition with symlinks for $HOME, confining each /home/ directory to their corresponding `/’ partition.

> MY QUESTION: Who is willing to assist me in pointing out:*
> - Which "extra partitions” I really need to create on my hard disk
> (beside /boot and /swap)

You don’t need /boot/ and you don’t need /swap/.

> - What the size should be for those extra created partitions

See above.

[nrickert]

@ronaldvermeij

**QUESTIONS: **
1 - How is the 20-30 GB figure for /root determined?
Is this the total amount of diskspace needed to fully install every bit of software on the OpenSUSE 13.1 DVD disk’s?

It’s probably derived from experience.

I am currently using just under 10G on my root file system. I have latex/texlive installed, which takes around 1G, and I have Gnome, KDE, XFCE and LXDE all installed. Making it 20G allows room for expansion (logfiles grow, new software is installed, updated software sometimes takes more space than the original). There are probably some large packages that require a lot more space, but 20G seems pretty good for typical use.

@ronaldvermeij

***2 - Can you recommend applications,tools for encrypting;

• entire partitions
• a single folder
• a single files
  on OpenSUSE Linux?***

This really depends on what you are trying to achieve.

For encrypting most everything, you can install into an encrypted LVM. I do that. The needed software is already there as part of your opensuse install.

To encrypt a partition: use LUKS encryption, which can be setup with Yast. The command line tool is “cryptsetup”. If you do this, I suggest encrypting “/home” and the swap partition. I do this on some of my installs (usually during beta testing). I don’t do that on my main system, because I have swap and “/home” already inside the encrypted LVM.

To encrypt a directory (folder), use “ecryptfs” if you want the directory to be $HOME/Private . Or use “encfs”. I use “ecryptfs”, in addition to the encrypted LVM, mainly because I like to test stuff. On a work computer, I am using “ecryptfs” for an encrypted home directory.

To encrypt individual files, use “gpg”, perhaps with the aid of GUI front-ends such as Kgpg or Kleopatra. Or use encrypted email with several email clients (Thunderbird with Enigmail, Claws mail, kmail, Evolution).

The easiest, from a user perspective, it to use “ecryptfs” for your “Private” subdirectory, and keep sensitive files there. It is recommended that you also encrypt swap. If you don’t depend on hibernation, you can encrypt swap with a random key, so that you don’t have to enter an encryption key during boot. The ecryptfs encryptions uses your login password, so just a normal login takes care of it. But “autologin” won’t work as well, since you will still have to provide your login password to access the “Private” subdirectory.

@ronaldvermeij

3 - Is BTFRS already stable enough to use? or should I stick to Ext3 filesystem for a while?

I’m still using “ext4”. I did try “btrfs” during beta testing. It seems stable enough, but it does not offer me enough benefits at present.

[gogalthorp]

How big a root partition?

Depends on what you plan to install and how you are going to use it. 30 gig will probably not handle every program you can find. It will handle any set of programs you can sensibly use. If you plan on large database it is best to give put the data itself on a separate dedicated large partition. This can be done with the config files for the DB engine or you can sim-link the default data area to an arbitrary partition or you can mount a partition at the directory where the data is normally stored.

I currently use about 12 gig on my root but then I don’t install every program I see

BTRFS?

Well it appears to be stble but I still have doubts about recovery and repair tools. Also all the bells and whistles promised are still not available and it does have a long list of B&W’s It appears the it will be the default FS for 13.2 but that worries me because the normal space tools don’t show the space used by snapshots and snapshots are turned on with a pretty aggressive schedule so if you follow the older guidelines for partition space it is likely you will run out of space and the old tools will not tell you so things will just hang for apparently no reason. I hope they either ship with snapshots off or tame the usage down. If they don’t then we will lots more visitors here :sarcastic:. It is surprising how few people actually read the doc’s and release notes

[Fraser_Bell]

@robin_listas

On 2014-05-16 00:26, Fraser Bell wrote:
>
> robin_listas;2643452 Wrote:

>> It is written “openSUSE”, not any other way.
>>
>
> … but not worth making an issue about, especially to a newcomer, IMHO.

Well… I don’t make an issue of it, I understand, because it goes in
the middle of a lot of answers to his questions

If I were only saying that, then I would be making an issue of it.

They tell all members to insist on the correct spelling on users. We get
into a secret meeting and we chant incantations, to get the weird
spelling ingrained into us. Only then we are allowed to get into level
tWo of membership.

–
Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.

(from 13.1 x86_64 “Bottle” (Minas Tirith))

… wait until they tell you it must be all Bold and Green, the way I usually format it. rotfl!