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Linux @lemmy.ml Doctor_Rex @lemmy.ml

I finally installed Linux, but I'm having a mixed experience

Hello I'm Doctor_Rex after 2 posts asking multiple questions I have finally installed Fedora KDE 39 on my desktop.

Previous Posts:

I'm ready to install Linux, but I'd like your opinion first

My Windows 10 install broke, but I'm hesitant to switch to Linux.

I would show you an image of my neofetch but lemmy won't let me place it due to file size so ¯_(ツ)_/¯.

I would have installed it sooner but due to poor decisions I made when making this PC I had to wait for a Linux compatible WiFi card to arrived.

My experience with Fedora KDE:

I've been using Fedora for about 2 days now and, to a degree, it's working just fine, KDE is slick and is easy to customize. Fedora itself works just fine and it's discover store works well enough. That said I need some extra help before I fully dedicate myself to daily driving Fedora.

I'd just like to clarify that I love Linux, I love owing my computer, and I love having so much control over it, and I am completely ready to get my hands dirty in order to make it work, to an extent, as more that anything I want a working computer. I'd also like to clarify that I'm sticking to Fedora KDE 39 and am not looking for suggestions.

Questions:

Can I partition /home directory in a different drive and still fuction?

I own one 500GiB nvme ssd, which is where I want to place my root, boot, var, etc, and I have one 1000GiB(1TiB) sata ssd which is where I would like to place my /home directory. I was originally going to do this but I decided to ignore my 1000GiB drive for now just to test Fedora. Would there be any unforseen complications with this set up?

Transferring /home directory without reinstalling Linux?

After running low on storage space on Windows 10 I have considered upgrading to a larger drive, 2-4 TiB. With my switch to Linux I'd like to know if there is an easy way to take all my files from my previous drive into the new one with all the correct paths configured, without reinstalling Linux?

Best way to partition my / and /home directories?

I'm not asking about btrfs or anything like that, I simply want to know, how to best partition my system. I've read and seen multiple tutorials about partitioning systems but many of them add other stuff like partitioning /var and /boot, and adding some unformatted space. I simply want to seperate my / and /home without anything extra. How would I best go about that?

Fedora KDE refresh rate seems broken?

I've been running Wayland with my NVIDIA GTX 1660 with the Nouveau drivers, I have a 1440p 165hz monitor. Whenever I try to raise my refresh rate in settings above 75hz a giant black box appears at the top of the screen. This problem seems to persist on X11(or maybe I didn't switch correctly). To me this is a very big issue as I'd like to take full advantage of my hardware, and it also simply makes the system as a whole feel sluggish. Is this a problem I can solve or am I just doomed?

Downloading NVIDIA drivers on Fedora KDE?

I asked this question before in a previous post but it seems that all the answers that were given were for Fedora Workstation(GNOME). Considering the rumors that GNOME might completely remove the X11 session I'd very much like to avoid switching(I want to have plenty of options). How would I go about downloading, installing, and potentially managing the proprietary NVIDIA drivers on Fedora KDE? I've searched for an answer to this question but never found a concrete answer.

If you responded to my questions then, Thank You.

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  • Here's an overview of how Linux reads its filesystems on boot:

    1. You press the power button on your PC.
    2. Your motherboard receives power and begins a process called Power-On Self-Test, or POST. This is essentially the motherboard "feeling out" on all of its ports to see what's connected. It senses all of your hard drive(s).
    3. The motherboard picks one of the partitions on one of the connected drives and tries to run it as an operating system. For a linux system, you want this to be /boot.
    4. /boot finds your actual system partition and tries to spin up the OS using it. This partition becomes the "main" one you'll see by default when it's fully up and running.
    5. At some point in the boot process, Linux checks the contents of the file at /etc/fstab. "fstab" here is short for "file system table". It's basically a list of other partitions plugged into your PC, and a mapping of where it should be mounted in your filesystem. If your system partition was Partition A, for example, and you had another Partition B that you want to be accessed at the path /B, you'd add a line to your fstab file that says something to the effect of, "hey, reach out to the connected partition with ID <long id string>, and if it's there, create the folder /B, and make the files inside of the partition show up there." This is called "mounting" the filesystem. You can do it manually at any time with the mount command. The fstab file is just a way to get Linux to auto-mount permanent partitions on startup. You can mount any drive to any path, including /home.

    What you need to do is:

    1. Format your new drive, and create a new partition there.
    2. Mount the new partition with the mount command. Park it anywhere you want. /media/new_home or whatever you like. This will just be a temporary place.
    3. Copy everything from your /home directory to the newly mounted one.
    4. Move the existing /home folder to literally anyplace else than where it currently is. \home_old would do. It just needs to be out of the way. You almost certainly want to do this only when logged in as the root user, or from another OS running off a USB. You will not be able to log in as any user after you do this until you finish the following steps.
    5. Edit your /etc/fstab file to point your new home partition to the path /home. This will "hook up" the new partition.
    6. Reboot to make Linux mount the new partition.
    7. Verify everything works.
    8. Delete the backup home directory.

    Answering some of your questions:

    Can /home live on a separate drive from the system partition?

    Yes. Linux does not care in the slightest where any mounted drives are. A drive is a drive is a drive. If it mounts, it mounts. Just make sure it's in your fstab file.

    How should I organize my partitions?

    There is no right answer. It depends entirely on what you need and how you intend to use your PC. But since that answer is unhelpful, I'll tell you how I've done mine. I currently have a single 2TiB SSD split up like this:

    [ 200 MB boot | ~500 GB system | 2 GB free | ~1.5 TiB home | 8 GB swap ]

    Boot comes first and is tiny. System is probably an order of magnitude bigger than it ought to be, but whatever. 2 GB of deliberately unallocated space is there for the exceedingly rare situation where a dumb bug chews up all the storage on the system partition rendering it un-runnable; it's emergency expansion space I can tack on to get it running just long enough to resolve the problem. Home gets the lion's share. And swap goes at the end, where home can cannibalize it if some day I decide I don't need so much swap space.

    You would probably organize your drives in a similar way, except one drive would be entirely dedicated to /home and nothing else, and system taking up the bulk of the other drive. That would be the easy and naive solution. Some users may be inclined to create other partitions for organizational purposes. I personally don't care for that organizational pattern, so, w/e.

    I cannot help you with your display troubles. :(

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