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#1 2023-01-11 18:23:28

peasthope
Member
Registered: 2023-01-11
Posts: 1

Partitioning and home.

Hi,

Installation instructions mention efi, root and swap parts.  A home part is not mentioned.

In Arch, user data is in /root rather than in a home part?

A home part is split off during installation?

Another explanation?

Thx,                ... P.

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#2 2023-01-11 18:26:22

Scimmia
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Registered: 2012-09-01
Posts: 11,461

Re: Partitioning and home.

It's up to you. Set up the partitions however you want.

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#3 2023-01-11 19:19:14

WorMzy
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From: Scotland
Registered: 2010-06-16
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Re: Partitioning and home.

Supplementary information is often linked to in the installation guide sections, one such link will lead you to https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Partit … ion_scheme


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#4 2023-01-12 00:24:32

babaliaris
Member
From: Greece
Registered: 2017-09-29
Posts: 77
Website

Re: Partitioning and home.

I believe you are confusing a home partition with the /home mounted location.

Disk partitioning is a software implementation that splits a physical storage device (Hard Drive, SSD, etc) into multiple "imaginary" devices. For example, if you have one SSD 1000GB
and create two partitions out of it (each having 500GB), your computer will "think" that you have two different SSDs of 500GB each.

One of the benefits of partitioning a disk (especially in the case of /home) is that since each partition is being managed separately as an "Imaginary separate storage device",
if something fatal happens in one partition, then you can re-format that partition (destroying all the data on it) without messing with the data that lives on other partitions.
Just think of it, in the real world if you had two HDDs (or SSDs) and one of them gets fried, the other disk will work normally without problems! Same idea here. If something (in terms of software)
happens to one partition, the rest of the other partitions will work normally and anything you do on the faulty partition (re-formatting it, destroying its data, etc) will not mess up the data on the other partitions.
You can read more about partitioning here, and more about the benefits of partitioning here.

When Installing Arch Linux or any other operating system, you have the option to create partitions. In the modern days, you need at least two partitions in order to install an operating system.
One partition for the EFI system and one for installing the base system (Operating System stuff). Usually, we also create a third partition for the swap space.

Sometimes people like to create another partition for the /home directory. This way if something fatal happens to the base system (which is installed in a separate partition) and the only way to fix it is to do a fresh install (re-format that partition,
destroy all the data on it and install the base operating system from scratch) then all the user's data (videos, documents, etc) that are stored inside their home directory, won't get lost, since it's inside a separate partition!
All you have to do is install the operating system in that other partition and then mount the home partition under /home on the new fresh installed operating system.
You can also add an Fstab entry to automate the mounting process (so you won't have to mount the home partition each time you boot your computer).

Arch Linux by itself doesn't do anything, you are responsible for creating partitions and deciding how many you need and for what purpose.

So to sum it up, the reason that Arch Wiki is telling you to create an EFI, root, and swap partitions, is because they are essential (maybe except the swap partition). If you don't create a home partition then
the location /home will exist in the root partition, where your Arch Linux base system is installed. If you want it to be on a different partition, you need to create one and then add a mount entry in the
Fstab configuration file, so that the home partition can be mounted every time you boot your system under /home.

I hope I helped a little bit smile

Last edited by babaliaris (2023-01-12 01:13:23)


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#5 2023-01-12 01:03:53

Slithery
Administrator
From: Norfolk, UK
Registered: 2013-12-01
Posts: 5,776

Re: Partitioning and home.

babaliaris wrote:

In the modern days, you need at least two partitions in order to install an operating system.
One partition for installing the GPT table and one for installing the base system (Operating System stuff).

The GPT isn't a partition - it's the table that defines how the partitions are laid out. I believe that you meant ESP instead.

Also it's just GPT - the T already stands for table. It's just as annoying as people that say PIN number...


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#6 2023-01-12 01:14:45

babaliaris
Member
From: Greece
Registered: 2017-09-29
Posts: 77
Website

Re: Partitioning and home.

You are right, I corrected my answer!


Github Account: github.com/babaliaris     big_smileArch General Guidelinesbig_smile
Favourite Distro: archlinux.org                           big_smileArch Wikibig_smile

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#7 2023-01-12 07:14:30

Head_on_a_Stick
Member
From: London
Registered: 2014-02-20
Posts: 7,679
Website

Re: Partitioning and home.

In the past I've used a partitionless disk ("super floppy") to hold multiple distributions in btrfs subvolumes. Partition tables are bloat!

https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/GRUB/T … nless_disk

Pay heed to the warning on that page though. This method is not sensible but it does illustrate the flexibility of Linux.

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#8 2023-02-17 06:38:55

reddof
Member
From: Jakarta
Registered: 2023-02-05
Posts: 9

Re: Partitioning and home.

Better you create home partition and mount it to /mnt/home before you create fstab file using genfstab. Because if you have home partition, next time if tou want to reinstall your OS, your data will safe in your home partition. Make sure don't format your home partition when you reinstall your OS, just mount it .

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#9 2023-02-17 12:21:17

2ManyDogs
Forum Moderator
Registered: 2012-01-15
Posts: 4,645

Re: Partitioning and home.

The OP has not been back since shortly after starting this topic, so I am going to consider it abandoned and close it now.

peasthope, if you come back and want this thread reopened, use the Report link to let staff know.


How to post. A sincere effort to use modest and proper language and grammar is a sign of respect toward the community.

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