To be fair, they're slightly different questions. This time around, they appear to want to install it on a very small drive, perhaps a small flash drive. Prior, they were asking how to install Linux without retaining Linux on a larger drive.
How to install LM Xfce on this small SSD again?
- Thread starter DiaNobb
- Start date
To be fair, they're slightly different questions. This time around, they appear to want to install it on a very small drive, perhaps a small flash drive. Prior, they were asking how to install Linux without retaining Linux on a larger drive.
Same question...different Mint version.
Anyone with simple computer skills could find this...
Most distros will install on a 16GB drive just fine. For long-term use, more will probably be necessary because user data files can fill it up. I've run a daily driver on a 16GB internal drive, with a USB stick holding /home/user, for months at a time. XFCE doesn't take huge amounts of storage space. I'm currently running Debian Stable on that drive, with no DE, used as a server, and the disk usage is 2.7GB. The files being served are on external SSDs. For testing to see if it's worth keeping long-term, a 16GB SSD is more than large enough. The computer mentioned here is a former chromebook. Chromebooks have no hidden partitions, they're very straightforward, because ChromeOS uses the Linux kernel.
Having the SSD show as busy probably means something on it is being accessed, perhaps a file manager or something else on the currently booted drive has a file or directory open.
Having the SSD show as busy probably means something on it is being accessed, perhaps a file manager or something else on the currently booted drive has a file or directory open.
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Thank you!
"OK so does your machine have an expansion slot for an SD card" Do you mean the kind of SD card that used for digital cameras? Yes, there is one for such SD cards. And I have a Sandisk 32GB memory card. This card was used on this laptop for years in the past.
"pick a distribution that will just fit on the HDD," All Linux Mint editions fit on this SanDisk card, Cinnamon takes 15-20GB and Sfce takes 12-13GB. Firefox AI says so.
"class 10 SD expansion card " The SanDisk memory card I have is a class 10.
"when installed move the home folder to a class 10 SD expansion card of at least 16gb," This is difficult for me. As a common PC user, I have never heard such a manoeuver.
Mr. Brickwizard, many Linux lightweight Linux distros CAN be installed on 16GB SSD and run normally. I installed and ran them, 7 or 8 of them, for many times in recent three months. Linux Mint Xfce could be installed on the SSD and running now had I did not tried MX Linux. I do not want ask the WHY, but I do want to ASK FOR HELP TO INSTALL LINUX MINT XFCE ON THE SSD AGAIN.
I do not understand but think that there is "something" on the SSD which hinders the installing of other Linux distros or editions. Please help me get rid of this "xomething" on the SSD.
Thank you!
DiaNobb
Thank you.
Yes. Linux Lite runs well on the 16GB SSD. I tried it.
One of the reasons that I would like to have LM Xfce installed on this SSD is because I am running LM 22.3 Cinnamon on my Desktop machine, a dual system with Windows. This desktop machine is almost totally isolated from the internet and websites. Want to use my Lenovo ThinkPad T540p for browsing the internet. It would be better if both of the OSs on both machines are the same.
DiaNobb
Thank you.
"what speed is the USB drive and ports on that system" Speed is not what I am looking after, rather stability. Both antix and MX Linux are very speedy, but LM Xfce is stable on the internet. This is only my personal opinion, an opinion of a common user.
"Puppy Linux" Tried a few of them. The last one, recommended by Gentlemen of Puppy Linux Forum was Friendly Puppy, something like this, not sure whether it is correct, but it would not boot on Lenovo ThinkPad T540P. Do not know why and no one told me why.
Linux Mint 22.3 Xfce runs well on the SSD of Lenovo ThinkPad T540p. But this OS could not be installed on the SSD of this laptop. I do not want to shift distro or edition. All I ask for is please help me install LM xfce again.
Thank you.
DiaNobb
OK so i am going back a bit, since i had the netbook, its no different to installing to a second drive on any machine, the card reader will be on the USB bus, insert your card into slot [making sure it is not locked] put your pendrive with the ISO in the USB socket, switch on, open short boot menu and select the USB pendrive, then run as you would on any machine, when it comes down to installing, choose the flash memory card from the drop down box as your target, when installed to boot select from the short boot menu, or better still if its to become the main drive, change boot order to USB first
On a cursory examination of all of the above, I have a few questions for the OP, @DiaNobb :
Maybe more on my tomorrow.
Cheers
Wizard
- It appears from your main screenshot that /dev/sdb has only one very small partition, /dev/sdb1 on it currently, and that that is sized at only 1 MB? You need to grow that to the full 16 GB of the SSD. Still in EXT4. Disks or GParted on your Live USB can accomplish this.
- Is the old laptop BIOS or UEFI? I have not looked up the specs. If the latter, it also needs an ESP (EFI System Partition) of around 300 MB. formatted to FAT32 or VFAT. That would become /dev/sdb2.
Maybe more on my tomorrow.
Cheers
Wizard
Given the SD card, put the root filesystem on the 16GB SSD and /home/user on the SD card. Then do regular backups of /home to an external drive, so you aren't so sad when the SD card dies. They do die more quickly than SSDs. You need to format the SD card to a Linux filesystem such as ext4, but the installer can do that if you want.
So some claim...you can install Mint xfce or any Distro on a 16GB SSD but what will happen if you do ?
Virtualbox recommends 25GB...for this.
For this experiment...I will create a 16GB VM and install Mint xfce 22.3.
Here it is...Mint xfce installed...all updates and one Timeshift snapshot of system files only.
Not much Disk space left...lets try to install software...
But wait we can't because there's no Disk space left...so at this point you're screwed.
What else will happen...can't install updates...will be so very slow...the Drive will become unresponsive...meaning it won't work and I can't shut it down.
I recall saying not long ago...an SSD needs at least 20% of free Disk Space to run efficiently and someone said...that's not true..well here's the proof.
Virtualbox recommends 25GB...for this.
For this experiment...I will create a 16GB VM and install Mint xfce 22.3.
Here it is...Mint xfce installed...all updates and one Timeshift snapshot of system files only.
Not much Disk space left...lets try to install software...
But wait we can't because there's no Disk space left...so at this point you're screwed.
What else will happen...can't install updates...will be so very slow...the Drive will become unresponsive...meaning it won't work and I can't shut it down.
I recall saying not long ago...an SSD needs at least 20% of free Disk Space to run efficiently and someone said...that's not true..well here's the proof.
Timeshift snapshots should not be placed on the same drive, but on an external drive. The snapshot is the same size as the filesystem, so you need twice the space, and if the drive fails you have no backup at all. I haven't used Mint since its repositories were hacked many years ago, so I don't know what size it is, but I'll say again that I've run a full Debian installation on a 16GB drive with no issues, but with /home on a different drive. You can deliberately make it not work, or make it work.
Thank you for educating me on Timeshift but I think it's you who needs the educating. Why do you think I said...snapshot of system files only ?
You say...I've run a full Debian installation on a 16GB drive but then you say...but with /home on a different drive...so you haven't.
My Home is 122.3GB...how do I get that on a 16GB Drive ?
I, however, have. I have just installed Linux Mint 22.3 Xfce which is what the OP wants, on a partition on my SSD.
Size of the partition is 14.9 GiB, which translates to the OP's 16 GB Sandisk SSD.
Takes up less than 7.5 Gib, leaving about the same free.
I will report more on this on my tomorrow.
Nite all.
Wizard
I said above that /home usually takes the most room, as user data files pile up. 16GB is fine for testing, but for long-term use a separate larger drive may be needed to hold /home, or perhaps just as a data drive. That's obvious, because data can grow to many terabytes, or even petabytes. But this was about a basic installation, which can indeed be done in 16GB. It may be iffy with gnome, but with XFCE it's certainly doable. The installation I had, and used every day for more than a year, had a 32GB USB drive for /home, with XFCE. I never got near filling the storage.
I've installed my essential (to me) apps, and run updates.
Prior to that, Gparted looked like this
...and you can see from the highlighted line that I have the option to grow the partition by 5.1 GiB should I need to, but the OP does not have that option.
On
The figures now are -
Space consumed 10.67 GiB, and 4.23 GiB remaining.
So it is getting down towards the pointy end of the stick.
That being said, I have made myself a note
...which is just one such choice to free up space (I use web-based Gmail rather than the installed Thunderbird).
So yes, it can be done, and I am the living proof.
That being said, I have more options for the OP, which may include that 32 GB SD card. I will try to come back to this tomorrow.
Cheers
Wizard
Prior to that, Gparted looked like this
...and you can see from the highlighted line that I have the option to grow the partition by 5.1 GiB should I need to, but the OP does not have that option.
On
The figures now are -
Space consumed 10.67 GiB, and 4.23 GiB remaining.
So it is getting down towards the pointy end of the stick.
That being said, I have made myself a note
...which is just one such choice to free up space (I use web-based Gmail rather than the installed Thunderbird).
So yes, it can be done, and I am the living proof.
That being said, I have more options for the OP, which may include that 32 GB SD card. I will try to come back to this tomorrow.
Cheers
Wizard
BTW, on that substantial increase in space consumed?
Biggest space hogs, as expected are my profiled Firefox and my profiled Waterfox, close to a gig between them.
Later
