Installation on SSD and HDD

sheomualjy · 2011-12-23 09:03:31

Hi

I have been attempting to install Arch 64bit on my computer which has a 60Gb SSD and a 1Tb HDD. It has 8Gb RAM. I wish to set up the partitions as follows:

SSD:
Partition 1 - mountpoint: /boot - size: ~100 Mb
Partition 2 - mountpoint: / - size: ~The rest

HDD:
Partition 1 - mountpoint: /home - size: All except swap
Partition 2 - Used as swap space - size: 8 Gb

However, I can't find out how to do this. During the install I can manage to partition the drives as desired, but when it comes to setting the mountpoints I can't see where to do this.

Could someone walk me through how to do this? If not, would it be possible to install everything to the HDD and later (post-install) move the /boot and / to the SSD?

Thanks

Last edited by sheomualjy (2011-12-23 09:11:11)

broken pipe · 2011-12-23 09:17:24

partition the drives before booting up the arch installer. fire up ubuntu or any other graphical enviroment and partition the drives using gparted.
gpt as default partition table for both drives
1mb partition on the ssd as bios_grub (i don't know if you need this but i came from fedora and this was a requirement to install))
the rest as / (ext4, btrfs)

now partition the hdd as you like
boot into the arch installer and set the mountpoints for your partitions

as areference my /etc/fstab :

tmpfs		/tmp	tmpfs	nodev,nosuid	0	0

UUID=59fefc2d-31cb-4464-87f3-2e19c1ada44b 	/home 	ext4 defaults,noatime 	0 1
UUID=677861be-cd67-4d29-9edb-8591a447e65a 	swap 	swap defaults 		0 0
UUID=a9781a19-6925-467e-8d78-1e0cc0909210 	/ 	ext4 defaults,noatime,discard 	0 1

tmpfs /var/log tmpfs defaults,noatime,mode=755 0 0
tmpfs /var/tmp tmpfs defaults,noatime 0 0
tmpfs /var/run tmpfs defaults,noatime,mode=755 0 0
tmpfs /var/lock tmpfs defaults,noatime 0 0

tmpfs /home/markus/.thumbnails tmpfs defaults,noatime 0 0
tmpfs /home/markus/.cache tmpfs defaults,noatime 0 0

make sure you mount the ssd partitions with discard,noatime!

sheomualjy · 2011-12-23 09:35:49

So on the SSD I won't need to specify manually a /boot partition?

Also, you say "boot into the arch installer and set the mountpoints for your partitions", do I do this in /ect/fstab?

Lastly, what do you mean by "make sure you mount the ssd partitions with discard,noatime!"

broken pipe · 2011-12-23 11:05:23

it depends if you like an extra partition for boot, create one.

setting mountpoints does the installer for you, you only have to point at the partition you would like to use for /home, /, /var, ...
but i personally recommend to partition the drives before installing, this might be easier for a beginner

you can mount partitions with special options, discard is good for ssd (i think you even need it to activate the TRIM capabilities) . noatime just decreases I/O. you can add those options in the fstab (watch mine).

Dieter@be · 2011-12-23 12:35:16

when you define which filesystems go onto the partitions, you can also choose mountpoints.

Arch Linux

#1 2011-12-23 09:03:31

Installation on SSD and HDD

#2 2011-12-23 09:17:24

Re: Installation on SSD and HDD

#3 2011-12-23 09:35:49

Re: Installation on SSD and HDD

#4 2011-12-23 11:05:23

Re: Installation on SSD and HDD

#5 2011-12-23 12:35:16

Re: Installation on SSD and HDD

Board footer