No Separate home partition

[CanyonRoss]

I have noticed that Kubuntu did not make a separate partition for /home, which OpenSUSE used to do for me. I assume this means that when I go to re-install I will lose all of my settings if I do a fresh install? I am not too worried about the software, that won't take long, but all the various settings for KDE etc take time to sort out. I assume an "update" will keep the settings, but a fresh install will obviously not.

Also - now I have got the boot loader sorted, I also assume a fresh install or update should keep the current boot set up? I am running the 19.04 version (not the LTS) and so in January I will be getting another version, I'd be tempted to go to the LTS. Now my partitions are set up I could keep the current partitions but shrink the partition containing my Linux OS down to, say, 30-40GB and with the left-over space I could create a partition to mount /home, just so that in the future when re-installing I won't lose all of my things.

Or is there a way to keep all of my settings when I go to install the LTS?

Many thanks!

[claydoh]

No, Ubuntu's Ubiquity installer has never had the facility to do this as a default, but can be done manually.
If you upgrade to 19.10 (October) and then to 20.04 (in March), you will not lose any user data, settings, or installed software.
(19.04 will become End of Life in January, so you won't be able to skip)

On a fresh install, if you go that route, you will lose all the data, etc, but you can backup and restore your $HOME directory, which will have all your settings, etc. You will also have to reinstall any additional software you added.
This would be the time to re-partition as you mentioned. 30Gb is more than enough for root. The separate home dir is useful for those who do clean installs regularly, or just want to have that extra bit of safety.

There is no way to preserve things in a clean install.

[Don B. Cilly]

Back up your /home somewhere else and restore it after the install. Better from another OS or the live medium, but you can do it from the the newly-installed too.
No big deal. I don't have a separate /home on any of my five installed Linuxes.

[CanyonRoss]

Thanks guys! I think next time around I will shrink my current Linux partition and make another for /home. If, at the installation, I have, say, 30GB for "/" mount point and another 70GB or so mounted at "/home" I assume that, for all furture installs, if I leave the "/home" partition alone but choose to mount that partition at "/home" it would save my settings?

Thanks very much! You have both been amazing (on this thread and my other!

[oshunluvr]

FYI if you use BTRFS instead of EXT4 a separate home subvolume is created by the installer.

[CanyonRoss]

That's interesting, thank you!

[oshunluvr]

Also, you can create and add the home partition now if you have the space to do it.

As far as "saving" your settings if you reinstall - at install time if you don't opt to format the /home partition nothing will be erased from it.

Personally. I don't like upgrading installs and always start with a fresh installation and home, but since I use BTRFS that's not a problem. I like to give the new version a chance to stand on it's own without whatever mucking about I've done with the previous version. All part of the fun of linux in my world.

[CanyonRoss]

Thanks again for this. This is useful information. I've always, generally speaking, done clean installs but kept /home the same and that has generally worked well for me. I think next time there's a new version I will do a clean install. Are there other benefits for btrfs over ext4? I used to use ext3 with older versions of Opensuse but that's been a few years since I last used that!

[oshunluvr]

Yes there are numerous benefits to BTRFS but also some to EXT4 - it all depends on what you consider important and how you use your system.

The primary benefits to BTRFS over EXT4 are subvolumes, snapshots, and the ease with which multiple devices (drive or partitions) are handled.
The primary deficits are speed and the lack of dynamically sized file support (swap files and dynamic virtual drives).

Subvolumes allow segregation of data set without partitioning. In other words, instead of partitions you have subvolumes. I have 6 distros and several homes on a single BTRFS file system (partition) in separate subvolumes.
Snapshots allow you to save the current state of a subvolume (for roll-back) or send it to another device as a backup.
Multiple volume management means with BTRFS, you can add drive or remove space to a file system with a simple command line entry without rebooting. You can join partition space, drive space, move the entire file system to another drive, all without rebooting or even pausing your use of the file system.

BTRFS is notably slower in laboratory access testing than a well tuned EXT4, but most people don't bother tuning their EXT4 file systems either. With modern drives, SSDs, and nVME drives the real-world loss in speed is not noticeable IMO.
The lack of dynamic file sizing means you must use a swap partition rather than swap file and use fixed sized virtual drives for virtual machines or house the dynamic drives/files on a separate EXT4 partition.

[CanyonRoss]

That is really useful information, thanks for taking the time to write that. For me, it sounds like btrfs would probably not be beneficial to ext4, as I don't usually have a need to resize partitions etc. Put it this way... My desktop has had several Linux installs over the years and since I first went "dual boot" I have never since resized any partitions.

[jlittle]

... My desktop has had several Linux installs over the years and since I first went "dual boot" I have never since resized any partitions.

IMO having multiple installs you'd benefit in this partition business with btrfs. The need to have them at all goes away.

Also, if you don't benefit from being able to recover from an errant rm or a borked update in seconds, you're smarter, and luckier, than me.

[oshunluvr]

IMO having multiple installs you'd benefit in this partition business with btrfs. The need to have them at all goes away.

Also, if you don't benefit from being able to recover from an errant rm or a borked update in seconds, you're smarter, and luckier, than me.

Wise words my friend, wise words.,,,

...

CanyonRoss, pretty much everyone here knows I'm a BTRFS super fan. Just search the forum for posts containing BTRFS and my username. Probably pages of them by now.

Still, your system so you decide for yourself.