Wizard's Nook ... Beware of the Three-Headed Dog. Tips, Tricks and a bit/byte of News.

[wizardfromoz]

Below is my lineup of Distros on the secondary rig, Toshiba Satellite, that differ in some ways to those on the Primary Dell rig.

		SECONDARY RIG TOSHIBA
DISTRO NAME & VERSION	FAMILY-ROLLING-POINT RELEASE	DEVICE and PARTITION	ARCHITECTURE-BIOS-UEFI &c	DESKTOP ENVIRONMENT/ STATUS
Ubuntu 16.04.5 LTS	Debian - point	/dev/sda12	64-bit UEFI-GPT	Unity
Pearl 6	Ubuntu - point	/dev/sda13	64-bit UEFI-GPT	MATE
Gecko Linux VERSION="20170228"	openSUSE Tumbleweed - Rolling	/dev/sda14	64-bit UEFI-GPT	Budgie
MX-16.1 Metamorphosis	Debian - semi-rolling	/dev/sda15	64-bit UEFI-GPT	Xfce
Sabayon Linux amd64 18.06	Gentoo	/dev/sda17	64-bit UEFI-GPT	MATE
Manjaro GNOME	Arch - rolling	/dev/sda18	64-bit UEFI-GPT	GNOME
Vinux 5.1 LTS (14.04)	Ubuntu - point	/dev/sda20	64-bit UEFI-GPT	GNOME, MATE, Unity
Bluestar Linux	Arch - rolling	/dev/sda21	64-bit UEFI-GPT	KDE
Peach OSI - The Works	Ubuntu 16.04 LTS - point	/dev/sda23	64-bit UEFI-GPT	Xfce
MX-17 Horizon	Debian - semi-rolling	/dev/sda24	64-bit UEFI-GPT	Xfce
Freespire 3.0.1	Ubuntu 16.04 LTS - point	/dev/sda28	64-bit UEFI-GPT	Xubuntu - Xfce
Netrunner 17.10	Debian - semi-rolling	/dev/sda29	64-bit UEFI-GPT	KDE
Netrunner Rolling (2018.01)	Arch - rolling	/dev/sda30	64-bit UEFI-GPT	KDE
Chakra (2017.10)	Arch - semi-rolling	/dev/sda43	64-bit UEFI-GPT	KDE
elementary OS 0.4.1 Loki	Debian - semi-rolling	/dev/sda46	64-bit UEFI-GPT	Pantheon
Fedora 28 (Workstation Edition)	RPM - semi-rolling	/dev/sda49	64-bit UEFI-GPT	GNOME
Pearl Cinnamon 7.0 (Rolltide)	Ubuntu - point	/dev/sda7	64-bit UEFI-GPT	Cinnamon
Neptune (5)	Debian - semi-rolling	/dev/sda9	64-bit UEFI-GPT	KDE

They include older versions of the same Distro, but still supported.

NOTES

I said in #12

There are also some old point releases no longer supported, eg

Ubuntu 17.10 'Artful Aardvark' GNOME edition and MATE edition. I will be replacing these soon.

Same applies to Fedora 28 Workstation, EOL was May 28th just passed.

Cheers

Wizard

 

[VP9KS]

Small desk, very space-starved. It's where I bottle my beer (gotta look after the important things).

Wiz

How about a wireless keyboard? You could set it in your lap. Just a thought.

 

[Condobloke]

or...screw or nail a 13mm piece of plywood or pine board over the top of the existing desktop....larger than what is there at present of course....

 

[VP9KS]

or...screw or nail a 13mm piece of plywood or pine board over the top of the existing desktop....larger than what is there at present of course....

Yeah, yeah that's the ticket!

 

[VP9KS]

too many coffee spills, beer spills, nicotine stains

Hopefully that beer/coffee/nicotine did not get into the switches, it could be a nightmare scenario.

 

[wizardfromoz]

You could set it in your lap.

Then I couldn't see the keys for my beer belly.

Don't worry, I have a PS/2 keyboard with a USB adapter kicking around somewhere, might try that.

Wiz

 

[wizardfromoz]

So, not drawing out any further the question I asked on what is different about my setup on the Toshiba.

Another answer that would have been a reasonable "spot" is that there is no Swap Partition. I haven't used Swap for something in excess of 3 years and 6 months (I only know that figure because I wrote an article on it in another place - https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/forums/t/603277/swap-would-you-swap-it-for-nothing/ )

In the last 12 months or so, more and more Distros (typically Debian-based) are however employing a procedure during install, of providing a Swap File rather than a Swap Partition. ... and you may not know it is there. I will deal more with that in a future article on Swap.

So the simple answer is that I have no unallocated space on the Toshiba - the 50 partitions consume the entire 1 TB HDD.

I will just repost the 2nd screenshot from #18 on page 1, to illustrate.

You could also look at the first screenshot, and you will still see - no unallocated space.

Yet, the system continues to function, with no apparent impediment to performance.

This may strike fear into the hearts of some of The Viewers, and there will be others who are already aware of this phenomenon, and for them, the following is no real Tip.

The answer here lies in having Unused Space at the end of each working Distribution, and if you are using partitions for data storage, to having unused space at the end of them.

Screenshot 1 of the Toshiba shows Linux Mint Sylvia Xfce on /dev/sda4 having the least unused space, at 4.00 GiB.

Screenshot 2 above - the least is Antergos with 4.53 GiB at /dev/sda35.

The minimum amount of unused space that is required for a Distro to function will vary from Distro to Distro and Family to Family, I cannot give you an exact figure. Quite a number of the Distros I have in use will warn you when space is running out, and it is time to take remedial action. There could be as little as 1 - 2 GiB remaining (I have seen in the hundreds of MiB) before you are warned.

So

TIP 1

You can completely fill your hard drive with partitions that consume the entire space on the drive. You can leave no unallocated space on the drive. You will need to allow a Gig or two at the end of each Linux Distribution in order for it to function, and to "grow" a little with "updates creep", but this can also be mitigated with housekeeping measures.

Any questions on the above, I will try to answer to your satisfaction.

Enjoy your Linux.

Wizard