Arch Linux

EdiblePlastique

Member

Registered: 2010-08-03

Posts: 2

Changing the Directory(ies) in which Programs are Installed?

Hello, it's my first day with Arch, and I've got most of what I need running. I've got to say, because I come from Ubuntu, that Arch is waaay more fun than any distro I've tried.
Anyway, my computer's hard drive isn't very large (40 GB), and it seems that the root directory has filled up rather fast. It's only got about 2 GB left, while my Home directory has around 30. Is there any way to change where programs are installed (link directories so that it thinks that it's being installed into whatever root directory it needs to go in, but actually be in home)? Or might I have to use GParted to shrink/grow partitions?
One more thing, probably pretty easy to fix, but when I switch my window manager from metacity to compiz, the window boarders disappear.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks.

Last edited by EdiblePlastique (2010-08-03 01:46:20)

SolomonKull

Member

From: The Internet

Registered: 2010-08-02

Posts: 31

Re: Changing the Directory(ies) in which Programs are Installed?

Use something like gParted and resize the root and home partitions.  Make root smaller and add the extra space to home.  Its risky, so do a backup before you partition your drives.

EdiblePlastique

Member

Registered: 2010-08-03

Posts: 2

Re: Changing the Directory(ies) in which Programs are Installed?

I think I have to add space to root, because that's where all the programs are installed and I need more space for them. I'll back both partitions up first...

anonymous_user

Member

Registered: 2009-08-28

Posts: 3,059

Re: Changing the Directory(ies) in which Programs are Installed?

How big is your root?

Before resizing, I would try clearing space. Some ideas:

1. Do a pacman -Sc
2. Empty your Trash (if you have one)
3. Delete unused languages (you can use BleachBit or localepurge)

karol

Archivist

Registered: 2009-05-06

Posts: 25,440

Re: Changing the Directory(ies) in which Programs are Installed?

I too have only 40 GB HDD and I have 3 GB free space left on root - nothing to worry about if you're not going to install many new apps.

Proofrific

Member

Registered: 2008-01-05

Posts: 215

Re: Changing the Directory(ies) in which Programs are Installed?

Changing the directories in which programs are installed would defeat the purpose of separating root and /home.  As you and others have already said, resizing the partitions is the way to go.

Caveman85de

Member

Registered: 2010-05-25

Posts: 26

Re: Changing the Directory(ies) in which Programs are Installed?

or if you are desperate and/or unwilling to risk gParted, cp some dirs to /home/. and ln them back to where they were... (unclean and very dangerous, if you move the wrong dirs)