I have recently purchased Zorin 18 OS PRO and I even "managed" to install it on my 2.Partition (220GB) which I split in windows 11 23H2 from my 1TB SSD, however, in the installation Menu, I chose "Something else" and then I clicked on the empty 220GB partition, hit "Add" and chose "/"(root) partition and allocated the entire partion (220GB) for it because I recalled that someone said nowadays the entire OS can be on "/" and all the /(root) /var, /tmp, /swap , /home will be handled by Zorin itself.
Now my question is, was what I did a mistake and is the above statement false? I mean my system seems to run fine but i have read in this forum that some Zorin devs were advocating to better do:
80 GB for "/"
2.Remaining for /home
Should I do a reinstall with that partition-strategy or is it okay as the way I did it?
This is a matter of preference on how you like to manage your files, organize and also manage reinstalls.
The Zorin Upgrader is still a bit new. Before it, users needed to do a fresh install of Zorin OS with each major release.
Many found it helpful to separate home and root, so that they could reinstall Zorin OS while retaining their home files.
I prefer to fully replace home upon a reinstall, thereby reducing clutter and allowing a fresh start, ensuring all configurations are compatible with the newer operating system and eliminating orphaned files.
sry if I ask stupid stuff because i am rather new to the Linux world and have yet to read a good book on how linux handles stuff (not the very low level infos but abit above that layer) but can you elaborate what you mean exactly by "fully replace /home"?
You can picture a file system using things we already know.
A filing cabinet is the most common.
If you imagine a two drawer cabinet, that is one partition, with one drawer being your Home Directory (User) and one drawer being Root Directory (System).
You also can imagine all the clutter put into each. In Home: Files, folders, old photographs, bills and receipts, A half eaten McDonalds apple pie, school work, all your hopes and dreams. Your things that you personally manage with whatever clutter falls in.
In Root, you have your insurance paperwork, work paperwork, mortgage stuff, a broken USB cord, all the things that make life go. Maybe some things that did not work out. The software and program files you install to your computer.
In a One Drawer per cabinet, then they are on Separate Partitions.
If you replace an entire filing cabinet in the first example, both drawers are replaced with clean and fresh ones.
In the second scenario, you can replace only the System Cabinet (Root), leaving the Home Cabinet as it is.
Including the slowly desiccating apple pie.
not gonna lie, I still cant figure out how you exactly do that, lets be abit more concrete and we use my file-system as an example:
I have only a 220GB partition (the other 580GB~ is reserved for Windows and the remaining 200GB from the 780GB is reserved for a data partition for private stuff) and in my 220GB partition which ZorinOS 18 PRO lies on, is the entire "/" (root) in it and all the other ones /home, /var, /tmp, /etc, /swap
Now how would you execute your idea of splitting home in that scenario?
If you want them split, you would create two, rather than one, partitions.
Your current setup is one partition.
Using a partition editor in either Windows OS or Zorin OS, you can shrink a partition, then create a new partition in the freed space.
I would allot a minimum of 80 gigs to root.
How much goes to /home is a variable, a person who browses the web only may need a small amount of space, like 32 gigs, for home, a gamer and avid movie enthusiast and photographer would need terrabytes.
In this thread I'm going over how to install Zorin OS with a dedicated partition for /home. You can repeat the same process for any other partitions that you want to, for example for things like /var or /swap.
It's also possible to do this without having to re-install the OS, but I would prefer to do that anyway just to make sure I'm setting things up correctly.
Remember this is something that you can do, but don't have to. You'd have to make the decision on whether is worth it for your particular use case. And if you are not sure, that probably means you don't need to go through any of this.
For example, having a dedicated partition for /home means your personal files will be left intact even if you install from scratch. This is useful when installing another distribution, including major versions of the same one i.e. Zorin OS 17 → Zorin OS 18. This can also be used in a more involved setups with external drives and whatnot, but that's a whole other story.
You can split Partitions of Course. But when You want it simple, use / as Mount Point and all lands in one and You don't have to care about the Space for each Partition and if it might be enought.
One Point, I would ask here because You have used ''Something else'': On the Option ''Device for boot loader installation'' what Option did You took there?
thanks alot for the link, I may in deed do that in the next few days because I am yet on a fresh install and have not much installed already, however I do have like 3-4 apps already installed and pre-configured, is there a way I could save my current /home which lies inside /root to be transported to the new partition later on?
It's possible, but I don't think it's worth the trouble. You would have to resize your current partition to make room for the current files under /home, and then copy those files to that new partition, which you would later tag as being the new /home.
Depending on how many files you currently have, that would be a lot of copying around the disk, which creates a lot of unnecessary reads/writes and thus wearing down the drive. Considering the whole situation these days, I would recommend taking good care of your hardware.
Keep in mind that most applications have an option to import/export settings precisely to make this type of transition smoother. For instance if you need to replicate your setup on another computer. Make sure to check for that; it would make the whole process cleaner and simpler.
PS: Do not confuse the root of the file system (/) with the root directory (/root). The latter is like the /home directory, but exclusive to the root user only.
much thanks, will reinstall Zorin with this proper setup, i have a Datapartion anyway which has all the user data anyway so its not big deal, ty alot for your insights
