I recently got caught up in a black screen limbo which consensus figured came about due to logs filling up. If that is the reason, I am wondering if it might be prudent to increase the 'usual' size of whatever partition the logs reside in? Yes, the long run answer is to routinely clean out old files and delete old logs as well. However, I can't help but wonder if such a cautionary measure as increasing (log) partition size could prove to be an 'ounce of prevention' vs. 'pound of cure'?
My current disk usage is only 2.2% (after several years of use) so I must have 'extra' disk space to spare.
Could you include a screenshot of how your partitions are setup on your system? You could do this by either using Disks, or using gParted and showing us when the layout of your drive is. That would help us to see what kind of setup is currently being used, and what could possibly be adjusted.
Good thinking, and indeed this is a common practice in servers precisely to avoid this issue. Creating a dedicated partition for logs can help protect the system because only that partition would be filled up; kind of like a ship with multiple compartments that can help to contain a leak and staying afloat in an emergency.
I've seen log files grow up pretty quickly to up to +20GB just from a standard firewall logging login attempts from random bots. If left unattended, this can fill up your drive and cause the entire system to malfunction at some point.
You can of course apply this on desktops as well, although I would make sure to follow up and check what is causing that much activity. That alone is a sign that something is wrong.
I basically use my computer for net surfing, emailing and storing (mainly text type) files of what interests me, and of course photos and music. I'm not sure how logs come into play with those, but it would be nice to have the logs 'compartmentalized' as Zenzen says! The black screen routine is a headache I hope never to have to deal with again !! Thanks for all feedback.
[quote="applecheeks37, post:2, topic:47621, full:true"]
Could you include a screenshot of how your partitions are setup on your system? You could do this by either using Disks, or using gParted and showing us when the layout of your drive is. That would help us to see what kind of setup is currently being used, and what could possibly be adjusted.
Did you create a new thread about this issue? It would be good to know what happened before recommending anything, just in case... For example, if the logs were produced by Flatpak packages, those logs would be stored in a different location...
To maximize the use of the drive you could create a total of four partitions for boot, root, home and logs. I don't have one for logs but I do use a dedicated partition for my home directory which contains personal files:
nvme0n1 259:0 0 232.9G 0 disk
├─nvme0n1p1 259:1 0 487M 0 part /boot/efi
├─nvme0n1p2 259:2 0 139.7G 0 part /
└─nvme0n1p3 259:3 0 92.7G 0 part /home
Yes, I did create a new thread since I thought this would be a good stand-alone topic for those installing Zorin.
While I very much appreciate the feedback I get here, it seems I have a lower threshold/level of computer 'guts' knowledge than the genuine 'geeks' here have! It easy for me to get out of my comfort level when it comes to knowing things like Flatpak and how to set up partitions etc. & I suspect there are more hanger-oners like me that come to this forum for the excellent feedback gotten here.
I will have to review the helpful hints that are at this forum re installing and setting up partitions. Thanks
Just out of curiosity, how might one set up a partition for logs when installing Zorin? Is there a flag we can set on the partition so that the system knows to generate all log files there?
Sorry I'm replying in a solved topic but the answer still might be relevant here, grouped conveniently for when another user searches for answers to this type of issue.
You would have to set it up manually choosing the "Something else" option in the installer. It's essentially repeating the same steps in this post:
In step 6, I create a partition dedicated to user files, specifying the mount point as /home. The steps would be exactly the same but the mount point for logs would be /var/log.
How much space to allocate to that... well, I guess it depends? In my current system /var/log is only taking 25 MB. But if the whole point of doing this is to allow for some extra room in case things go wrong, I would be a little more generous and give it at least 512 MB or even 1024 MB (1 GB).
That's also a good question, as the order of the partitions has an impact if you ever want to expand others. I think it's unlikely that you will have to expand this partition for logs, whereas you might want to expand/shrink your root or home partitions. It's possible to work around this later on but it'll be much more complicated.
With that in mind, I think I prefer to create it right after the EFI partition, near the beginning. So, the drive would look something like this:
The amounts are up for debate, of course. Based on my own needs I would allocate about 25% of the remaining space to the root partition, for programs and such, and the rest to my own personal files.
This way, I can shrink and resize the home and root partitions if I ever need to. The log partition will likely not grow that much but in case something goes wrong, I'd be able to copy the files elsewhere for further inspection.
!! Thanks for all feedback.