Seeking hints & tips for new PC setup

[HalationEffect]

So, I've ordered a new PC today; it should be delivered sometime within the next several days.

It's nothing fancy (very tight budget) - a G840 socket LGA-1155 Sandybridge Pentium dual-core 2.8GHz (I will use the integrated video for at least the first several months), 2x4GB DDR3 RAM, a 120GB OCZ SSD and a 750GB spinning platter drive, and the obligatory DVD-RW drive. I also have a USB2 1TB hard drive formatted as ext4 that I'm using on my current machine that will be inherited by the new machine. Not sure precisely what the motherboard in the new machine is until it arrives and I get to have a look under the hood, but I believe it may likely be an Intel H61 chipset.

No OS is included, so I've downloaded the x86-64 ISO of Kubuntu 12.04 (my current machine is running Kubuntu 11.10 32bit) and burned it to a CD ready and waiting for when the machine arrives.

Yep, a fairly low-spec machine, but compared to my decade old current setup of AthlonXP 2100+, nForce2 chipset, 60GB + 250GB PATA drives, 2x512MB DDR1, GeforceFX 5500 machine... it should be an enormous leap forward for me!

I want to put /boot and /root on the SSD, and /swap and /home on the 750GB drive. I want to limit the amount of writing done on the SSD as much as possible, which is why I don't want /swap on that drive. Speaking of which, I've read that I should edit the fstab entry for the SSD and add "noatime" - is that still recommended?

Any useful hints & tips for a smooth setup of the new machine & transfer of existing data from my old machine (likely using the ~160GB free space on my external drive for that purpose) would be greatly appreciated!

[SteveRiley]

Speaking of which, I've read that I should edit the fstab entry for the SSD and add "noatime" - is that still recommended?

I always use noatime and discard for SSDs. Additionally, I set the discard mount option:

sudo tune2fs -o discard /dev/sd[i]Xn[/i]

where Xn is whatever would be appropriate for the SSD volumes.

[oshunluvr]

IMO:

1. Separate /boot is unnecessary unless you're using something exotic for formatting, like RAID or LVM.

2. Do a bit of reading up on SSD partitioning re. sector alignment. Plenty of posts here and "out there" about how to get it right. This will aid SSD longevity.

3. With 8GB RAM you won't be swapping much, if at all. Suggestion: keep swap on the SSD and mount /tmp as tmpfs (in RAM). This will reduce SSD traffic more than moving swap to the HD and if you do ever "hit" swap space - you'll notice the lag much less. /tmp will default up to 4gb and then use swap when/if it gets full. You can set the reported swap space higher to prevent false "tmp space full" errors by using an fstab line like this one;

#TMPFS in RAM
tmpfs /tmp tmpfs noatime,mode=1777,size=16G 0 0

4. Consider leaving /home within the install and moving data to the hard drive. I.e. make a /data partition (or whatever you want to call it) and put Docs, Pics, Vids, etc., on it but leave the rest of /home on the SSD. One addition is your email folder - to the hard drive also. This will speed things up considerably without over-loading your SSD. I mean - Why pay for the SSD and then shy away from using it? Besides, by the time you wear it out, they'll be faster, larger, and cheaper anyway!

Congrats on the new baby!

[SteveRiley]

2. Do a bit of reading up on SSD partitioning re. sector alignment. Plenty of posts here and "out there" about how to get it right. This will aid SSD longevity.

PartMan still doesn't get this right. Last time I checked, it wanted to start the first partition on sector 34, which is misaligned. My habit is to use a GParted Live USB to perform the initial partitioning before running the *buntu installer.

3. With 8GB RAM you won't be swapping much, if at all. Suggestion: keep swap on the SSD and mount /tmp as tmpfs (in RAM). This will reduce SSD traffic more than moving swap to the HD and if you do ever "hit" swap space - you'll notice the lag much less.

Good call. This is my habit, too. Just forgot to mention it!

[oshunluvr]

My habit is to use a GParted Live USB to perform the initial partitioning before running the *buntu installer.

Ditto

[HalationEffect]

Thanks Steve and Oshunluvr for those tips!

OK, revised partitioning setup will probably be /root & /swap on the SSD, no /boot partition, and /home (edit: and maybe a fat32 partition also) on the HDD. I already keep the vast majority of my data either in /home or on my external drive, so I don't think I'll bother with a /data partition on the new machine. I do like the idea of having the /tmp folder mounted as tmpfs though... how about other folders such as /var/log and similar?

As for my email folder, I use Thunderbird, so afaik everything should go to the ~/.thunderbird folder anyway without me having to do anything.

I'm a bit concerned about the sector alignment issue. Shockingly, I don't possess a USB thumbdrive - can I make a GParted live CD instead? Btw, I've never used GParted in that manner, hope it's n00b friendly. For that matter, I've never even *used* a system with an SSD before, let alone owned one, so much of this is entirely new to me.

One other consideration: I may at some point decide to also install Win7-64 and dual boot (I'll reserve a chunk of the SSD to allow for that, and probably have a fat32 partition on the HDD for sharing data between the 2 OSes). Is it still a complete pain to install Windows *after* Linux has been installed? I probably won't be able to afford a copy of Windows until quite some time (read: weeks or even months) after the new PC arrives, and I won't really want to have it sit in its box unused until that time.

[SteveRiley]

I do like the idea of having the /tmp folder mounted as tmpfs though... how about other folders such as /var/log and similar?

I used to throw all kinds of stuff onto a tmpfs, but now the only directory I mount on one is /tmp. I actually like my logs to stick around for a while and not go away every time I reboot, so /var/log stays on my drive. And /var/tmp is intended for stuff that should persist between reboots; many elements of KDE cache stuff there, so constantly rebuilding those caches could slow your system somewhat.

I'm a bit concerned about the sector alignment issue. Shockingly, I don't possess a USB thumbdrive - can I make a GParted live CD instead? Btw, I've never used GParted in that manner, hope it's n00b friendly. For that matter, I've never even *used* a system with an SSD before, let alone owned one, so much of this is entirely new to me.

Uh, what time does it say on your calendar -- 1882?

A GParted Live CD will work fine. Or any sort of rescue tool that will let you get to a command prompt and includes the fdisk utility. Recent (and I mean within the last year) versions of fdisk will handle this for you. (This means you can safely ignore all the old crufty stuff you'll find online about forcing [f]fdisk[/b] to use bogus settings for cylinder-head-sector geometries.)

Is it still a complete pain to install Windows *after* Linux has been installed?

The Windows installer will still clobber GRUB. But you can restore it in a variety of ways; the dual-boot pages on the Ubuntu wiki will explain how. But unless you really need to run Windows on the bare metal, might I suggest you try a virtual machine instead, using either VMware Player or VirtualBox? Ultimately this is simpler to maintain, and you can still share resources by mounting Linux directories as network shares inside the VM. It's how I roll, and it works pretty darn well.

[HalationEffect]

I used to throw all kinds of stuff onto a tmpfs, but now the only directory I mount on one is /tmp. I actually like my logs to stick around for a while and not go away every time I reboot, so /var/log stays on my drive. And /var/tmp is intended for stuff that should persist between reboots; many elements of KDE cache stuff there, so constantly rebuilding those caches could slow your system somewhat.

OK then, just /tmp will be going onto tmpfs

Uh, what time does it say on your calendar -- 1882?

Le sigh... it sure feels like that sometimes!

A GParted Live CD will work fine. Or any sort of rescue tool that will let you get to a command prompt and includes the fdisk utility. Recent (and I mean within the last year) versions of fdisk will handle this for you. (This means you can safely ignore all the old crufty stuff you'll find online about forcing [f]fdisk[/b] to use bogus settings for cylinder-head-sector geometries.)

OK, let's say I want to split up the SSD so that I have 60GB for /root and /swap, and 60GB for Win7. First question is: does that sound reasonable? Second question is: erm... how do I do that? (Assume I'll use a GParted Live CD). The most 'recent' time I manually partitioned a drive was some time in the late '90s...

The Windows installer will still clobber GRUB. But you can restore it in a variety of ways; the dual-boot pages on the Ubuntu wiki will explain how. But unless you really need to run Windows on the bare metal, might I suggest you try a virtual machine instead, using either VMware Player or VirtualBox? Ultimately this is simpler to maintain, and you can still share resources by mounting Linux directories as network shares inside the VM. It's how I roll, and it works pretty darn well.

The main reason behind wanting to dual boot with Win7 is so that I can get accounts with GoG.com and Steam (I hear Steam has some fantastic sales every so often) so that I can get some games on there to entertain my 10 year old son with when he's visiting... and to entertain *me* when he isn't I'm working on the assumption that even with games that are a few years old, a bare metal install is the only way to go - especially on a machine that isn't super powerful.

[james147]

You might want to read through the archlinux wiki article on SSDs as it contains allot of useful information about ways to optimise performance on them that should mostly carry over to kubuntu.

[whatthefunk]

I'd put /var on the HDD. No sense in writing and erasing all those logs on your SSD.

Also, am I the only one who used gdisk to partition my SSD?

OK, let's say I want to split up the SSD so that I have 60GB for /root and /swap, and 60GB for Win7. First question is: does that sound reasonable? Second question is: erm... how do I do that? (Assume I'll use a GParted Live CD). The most 'recent' time I manually partitioned a drive was some time in the late '90s...

That is huge. I have /root on a 20 gb partition and its currently using a little over 4gb.

[oshunluvr]

That is huge. I have /root on a 20 gb partition and its currently using a little over 4gb.

I agree. You're better off with 3x20GB partitions for parallel installs rather than a single 60GB. Unlikely you'll ever reach 30GB with /home and /tmp separate. I am currently hovering around 15GB but my /home is not separate and I have installed tons of stuff.

[james147]

Also, am I the only one who used gdisk to partition my SSD?

Windows doesn't like GUID Partition Table unless its on a UEFI system form what I remember.

That said, I tend to use it for all my system now, at least where I don't need windows, epically on SSDs.

[whatthefunk]

Windows doesn't like GUID Partition Table unless its on a UEFI system form what I remember.

That said, I tend to use it for all my system now, at least where I don't need windows, epically on SSDs.

Ahh...yes Windows. Going to retreat back to my comfy Linux bubble now....

[HalationEffect]

You might want to read through the archlinux wiki article on SSDs as it contains allot of useful information about ways to optimise performance on them that should mostly carry over to kubuntu.

Thanks for that link, looks like some useful stuff there.

@ whatthefunk & oshunluvr - re: overprovisioning the /root partition... yeah, I realised that it was way more space than I'd actually need. Right now I have both /root & /home (in which I've got the Linux Neverwinter Nights client with both official expansions and a boat-load of community modules), on a 60GB HDD and it still has 26GB free.

3 x 20GB partitions for multiple parallel installs does sound interesting; I take it the idea for that is e.g. 12.04 on one partition, then when 12.10 is released I put that on the 2nd, then 13.04 on the third, then wipe the 1st and put 13.10 on it when that is released, and so forth. Or am I way off base there?

[SteveRiley]

Also, am I the only one who used gdisk to partition my SSD?

You aren't: I use the same tool.

Windows doesn't like GUID Partition Table unless its on a UEFI system form what I remember.

Correct.