[Installation] Concept for new installation

[nobbert]

Hello,

I am using Kubuntu since 2007 and have just little precise knowledge, it's mostly just some grains of info here and there, unfortunately...
My plan is to setup up a completely new PC from scratch and I would like to have some advice in order to avoid major mistakes.

Hardware:

• CPU: some AMD, mid price-range
• RAM: 64 GB DDR5
• Mainboard: suitable for above
• SSD: 256 GB M.2
• HDD: 2x 8 TB SATA as Software-RAID1 (brand new), 1x 8 TB as external Backup-Disc (my not-really-old one)

Software:

• OS: Kubuntu 24.04.1 LTS

Partitioning:
1x SSD 256 GB:

• EFI/Boot: 1 GB
• swap: 64 GB
• ext3 /: 64 GB
• ext4 /home: 127 GB

2x HDDs 8 TB as Software-RAID1:

• ext4 /home/RAID: 8 TB

1x HDD 8 TB:

• ext4 (used for backups): 8 TB

Questions:

1. is 64 GB swap enough or should I make it double the RAM-size: 128 GB?
2. is 64 GB root enough? My recent root uses about 31 of 32 GB.
3. does the concept of an usual /home on the SSD for the system's "user data" and an additional /home/RAID on the RAID1 for my own and important data make sense?

Best regards, the not-so-new guy

[skyfishgoo]

you swap should be RAM + sqrt(RAM) if you plan to ever use hibernate.... just sqrt(RAM) if you don't

so either 72GB or or 8GB depending on your use case.

why ext3 and why only 64GB for you system partition? you must not have very much installed, mine is over 70GB (68% of a 100GB partition) and that's on my old machine... the new one has a 200GB system partition (tho it has a 1TB SSD).

i have no opinion on RAID as i've never used it, but seen lost of confusing (conflicting) info on how well it's supported under linux.

[nobbert]

you swap should be RAM + sqrt(RAM) if you plan to ever use hibernate.... just sqrt(RAM) if you don't
so either 72GB or or 8GB depending on your use case.

I'd like to use hibernation, so I'd partition 72 GB of swap - check!

why ext3 and why only 64GB for you system partition? you must not have very much installed, mine is over 70GB (68% of a 100GB partition) and that's on my old machine... the new one has a 200GB system partition (tho it has a 1TB SSD).

So rather ext4 for root as well? And rather just use the rest of the SDD (183 GB) for root?

[skyfishgoo]

how many GB to devote to / vs /home is up to you based on your tendencies to use a lot of different software and how big those files are... a lot of installed software can really balloon your / partition esp if they are GUI applications and or snaps/flatpaks.

my /home tends to be fairly light as i don't keep games or other big projects in there, i put those onto their own dedicated partitions for easy backups.

i would say that for anything in /home that you access frequently, it would be worth having at least a small /home partition for quicker access from the SSD and larger hoards of data can be mounted from the HDD as needed.

[jlittle]

SSD: 256 GB M.2

A puzzling choice in 2025... I used a similar size for many years (it was quite adequate, even with 6 or 7 different installs), for reasons of cost, but these days larger SSDs are much cheaper, and the scarce resource is the M.2 slot.

ext3 /: 64 GB

ext3, not ext4? I wonder why.

As skyfishgoo has pointed out, these days 64 GB for / may be too small. Compared to a few years ago, subsystems like snaps, flatpak and docker can use a lot of space.

Have you considered btrfs? If you want to take backups seriously, and easy recovery from mistakes (f. ex., I deleted /home a few weeks ago) btrfs is good. If you stick to the 256 GB SSD, I recommend btrfs because you don't have to juggle space between / and /home. There's good reasons that a lot of distros, like Fedora, default to btrfs these days.

[Virginio Miranda]

Hello,

I am using Kubuntu since 2007 and have just little precise knowledge, it's mostly just some grains of info here and there, unfortunately...
My plan is to setup up a completely new PC from scratch and I would like to have some advice in order to avoid major mistakes.

Hardware:

• CPU: some AMD, mid price-range
• RAM: 64 GB DDR5
• Mainboard: suitable for above
• SSD: 256 GB M.2
• HDD: 2x 8 TB SATA as Software-RAID1 (brand new), 1x 8 TB as external Backup-Disc (my not-really-old one)

Software:

• OS: Kubuntu 24.04.1 LTS

Partitioning:
1x SSD 256 GB:

• EFI/Boot: 1 GB
• swap: 64 GB
• ext3 /: 64 GB
• ext4 /home: 127 GB

2x HDDs 8 TB as Software-RAID1:

• ext4 /home/RAID: 8 TB

1x HDD 8 TB:

• ext4 (used for backups): 8 TB

Questions:

1. is 64 GB swap enough or should I make it double the RAM-size: 128 GB?
2. is 64 GB root enough? My recent root uses about 31 of 32 GB.
3. does the concept of an usual /home on the SSD for the system's "user data" and an additional /home/RAID on the RAID1 for my own and important data make sense?

Best regards, the not-so-new guy

For the first two questions, it depends of your usage. For the third, it does not make a sense for me.

In my case for example:

1- i Have 32 GB of memory ram and 512 MB of Swap file. I use swap file, not swap partition. I think it is more flexible in case i need to expand. But to tell you the truth my system never use swap. Most of the time it is zero usage. And my Swappiness is equal a 5. I do not hibernate the system, it runs 24/7. It is a cloud system and media server. In your case you are going to hibernate the system, so you need swap ( Probably ). How much? Again, it depends of your usage. You need to to use system monitor to see it. Where to put it? well...i would avoid to put it on SSD for a question of a lot of write and read process. It could decrease the SSD Life Left. In my case i put the Swap in the SSD drive, but remember, my system almost never use it.

2- Again, it depends of your usage. 64 GB can be enough or...can not. I use a SSD 480 GB for / , but i use to symlink my /Home ( /Documents, / Downloads, /Videos, /Music and /Images ) to a differents hard drives ( not SSD ). There a lot of datas on it.

3- As i said before, it does not make a sense, at least for me. It is better to think in a different way. LVM or BTRFS can be a good choice. For my data cloud i use LVM. I can expand it easily if i need, and can mirror it. I can even use a script to automate this operation and save a backup. Some prefer BTRFS, and some LVM. In my case i choose LVM. It is was a question of learning curve.

And the last, i use ext4. Only ext4.

[oshunluvr]

Changes I would make in order of importance:

1. NO 256GB M.2 drive: NVME drives are the same cost and MUCH faster. Also a 500GB NVME drive is literally $5 more than a 256. No one ever complains about too much speed or too much drive space. I realize there may be a budget involved here, but this is not the area to save money.

2. NO EXT file systems: It is waaay out of date. BTRFS provides subvolumes, snapshots, backups, and RAID all built-in. Subvolumes means instead of 4 partitions on your boot drive, you need only 2: EFI and root. BTRFS would allow you to RAID the 2 HDD drives without external RAID like MDADM and send backups to the backup HDD. Frankly, I'd avoid RAID just to prevent the headaches but it's your system.

3. NO swap partition: With 64GB of RAM, you really don't need swap at all unless you're going to hibernate. Regardless, I would use a swap file not a swap partition. This provides the ability to change the swap size or location without re-partitioning.

To answer your questions directly:

Questions:

1. is 64 GB swap enough or should I make it double the RAM-size: 128 GB?
2. is 64 GB root enough? My recent root uses about 31 of 32 GB.
3. does the concept of an usual /home on the SSD for the system's "user data" and an additional /home/RAID on the RAID1 for my own and important data make sense?

1. See #3 above.
2. Yes, plenty but if you use BTRFS (see #2 above) then it doesn't matter. You root subvolume will expand as needed and not have 30 or so GB of wasted space, like you'll have with a 64GB partition.
3. Yes, if I understand you correctly. But only if you stick with a small root drive. IF you spend the extra $5 (#1 above)you'll have 470GB-ish of home space and probably won't need more space. If you do, then I would off-load the largest folders to the RAID (Documents, Music, Videos, et al.) as needed.