Suggestions for Dual - Boot Hard Drive Partitioning

[oshunluvr]

Seems like a lot doesn't it? I guess if you separated out the portions of the OS you wouldn't want included in a backup, it might makes sense. Seems like overkill tho.

I had all kinds of trouble getting openSUSE to boot Kubuntu after it was installed. The "default subvolume" kept blocking my ability to see the @Kubuntu subvolume. I finally figures out that if I set the default subvolume to 5 (the root subvolume), it seems to work normally.

I wonder if the installers are setting that or where it's coming from. I just checked my KDEneon install and it's set to 5.

Seems like a bug to me because it prevents booting to another distro on the same btrfs file system.

[GreyGeek]

I downloaded and burned the big 3.6Gb verson onto a 32Gb USB using Etcher. When I booted into it I was totally surprised by what I was presented with. Thinking that I'd get a LiveUSB version that I could explore and play with, and from which I'd select a 64GB USB stick I had prepared and install Leap 15 to it using Btrfs as the root filesystem, what I got instead was a menu on which the only viable option at the moment was "Installation". No "Live" version to play with. I started it and at the point where it wanted me to select a drive the only offering it made was my three internal HDs. I plugged in the 64GB USB stick but SUSE wouldn't play ball. So, I aborted. I did take a picture of the 13 subvolumes it proposed to create.

[oshunluvr]

FYI for all reading this, when I said

but reformatting the btrfs volume (which does nothing in reality)

in post #15, I was referring to the fact that BTRFS formatting or reformatting does not actually remove any data including existing subvolumes. To actually "reformat" a btrfs file system, you have to use "wipefs" first to clear all the inodes. Then your old subvolumes will be destroyed (or at least not easily found).

IF you wish to reuse a btrfs file system without wiping it completely, you must remount it at the root level and manually delete (with "commit") each of the subvolumes. Otherwise, they may still exist and you won't be able to create a subvolume of the same name.

The

[oshunluvr]

I will say that due to both installers defaulting to "@" and "@home" you must install one of them first, rename the subvolumes, then install the second.

openSUSE Leap had some partitioning requirements that Kubuntu doesn't have. Specifically a very large EF02 (BIOS BOOT for gpt disks) partition (8MB) that it required before installing. I've never needed my EF02 to be larger than 1007B (the amount you can fit in sectors 34 to 2047 ). I didn't try to pre-create this partition prior to the openSUSE install to see if it would proceed with the smaller size, but it might.

What I would probably do if this were my setup is let openSUSE install and configure the drive. Then boot to Kubuntu LIVE and mount the root btrfs file system and rename openSUSE's "@" and "@home" to something else. Then install Kubuntu onto the btrfs partition without reformatting. Do the edits and move Kubuntu to "@Kubuntu" and "@Kubuntu_home". Then move openSUSE back to "@" and "@home" and reboot. Then Kubuntu would be controlling grub for when I deleted openSUSE later

[oshunluvr]

Really? I haven’t installed it but I searched their literature for a list of installed subvolumes and found 12, at least. I’m assuming that they are subvolumes because that had @ in front of their names and the listing showed one was a level 5 and 10 were a level 257.

You can you install it without using Btrfs as the root filesystem.

So it seems there a bug of sorts in the newest btrfs-tools where you can't mount the root-level btrfs volume UNLESS you use the option "subvolid=0", otherwise, the command "sudo mount /dev/sda3 /subvol" results in the default subvolume mounting instead of the root file system as in the past. So while I thought there were no subvolumes, they were still hidden. So I went and installed Kubuntu first, leaving the openSUSE leap partitions in place but reformatting the btrfs volume (which does nothing in reality). Once it was installed, I moved @ and @home to @Kubuntu_1804 and @Kubuntu_1804_home as I've done before and rebooted.

I ran into an error initially because I edited grub.cfg and ran update-grub after rebooting, but I hadn't run grub-install so grub looked for @ which wasn't there anymore. I've not seen that happen before that I recall, but I think it's related to the same btrfs issue - the "default subvolume". Apparently, when you do a new install, the first subvolume is set as the default and you can't delete it. This occurred because rather than renaming the subvolume as I usually do, I snapshot-ed it and booted to the snapshot. I don't know if this is a new "feature" or if I just haven't encountered it until now.

Once I got grub booting from @Kubuntu_1804, I reset the default subvolume to that one and deleted @. Then I re-installed openSUSE, I found the "Manage Subvolumes" dialog and deleted all of the openSUSE subvolumes, which resulted in openSUSE installing to "@".

So now I have a dual-booting openSUSE Leap 15 and Kubuntu 18.04 on the same btrfs subvolume. Even with all the issues I ran into, it still only took 30-40 minutes to get both installed. Since I install openSUSE last, I need to add Kubuntu to the GRUB menu, but basically, it's done.

[GreyGeek]

@GreyGeek I wanted to as you a question specifically since you were talking about Plasma Neon. If I have the right ppa installed will that allow me to receive all the Plasma updates just as if I were running Neon?

I don't know. I installed Neon LTS User Edition from an ISO and use the repositories that it connects to. I've never attempted to install Neon from a PPA and I don't (didn't) know if such a PPA exists (existed).

[GreyGeek]

Maybe I did something wrong. I'm wiping it now to try again.

I'm burning an image as I write.
I will use that LiveUSB to install leap 15 onto another 64GB USB stick, selecting Btrfs as the root file system.

[jlapinsk4]

@GreyGeek I wanted to as you a question specifically since you were talking about Plasma Neon. If I have the right ppa installed will that allow me to receive all the Plasma updates just as if I were running Neon?

[jlapinsk4]

Thank you! I will look the link that you posted. I installed Gecko on a separate machine but gave up when Mint 19 Beta was released (but I am not all that pleased with the new Mint). I am not too familiar with BTRFS file systems and I need to do some research into it. I try to do most of my experimentation on my back up machine because I rely on my primary laptop for my job. I will read up on what you wrote and suggested and I will post an update.

[oshunluvr]

Maybe I did something wrong. I'm wiping it now to try again.

[GreyGeek]

Suggestions for Dual - Boot Hard Drive Partitioning

Really? I haven’t installed it but I searched their literature for a list of installed subvolumes and found 12, at least. I’m assuming that they are subvolumes because that had @ in front of their names and the listing showed one was a level 5 and 10 were a level 257.

You can you install it without using Btrfs as the root filesystem.

[oshunluvr]

OK, just for fun I install openSUSE Leap 15 in a VM. It does install to btrfs, BUT IT DOESN'T INSTALL USING SUBVOLUMES!

This is totally stupid and defeats the point of using BTRFS at all.

On the plus side it means you can install Leap and Bionic together on the same btrfs partition without problems or making adjustments OpenSUSE will not be snapshot capable with this setup as-is though. It is fixable after installation of course, but I can't imaging why someone thought not using a subvolume was a good idea.

[oshunluvr]

For some reason your picture isn't loading for me, but why not do it right from the start and dual boot to a single BTRFS file system? I've been doing it for years. Then all your subvolumes can co-exist on a single file system and share all the free space.

With only 120GB to work with, free space will be at a premium if you're to dual-boot. I currently have 8 distros co-existing on a single btrfs file system and I even have a stand-alone GRUB install in a btrfs subvolume. It's not difficult, but it takes some work.

I have written about it extensively: Initial How-To --- Follow Up How-To --- Moving GRUB to a subvolume

If you read through those and want to try it, post back and I'll help you through it.

Basically, I would make a swap partition (RAM size plus 10%), an EFI partition (assuming you will need one) (no more than 500MB), possibly a BIOS/GPT boot space partition (sometimes needed to boot to a drive with grub, but you can put it before sector 2048 so it takes no space - I wrote about that here), and then all the rest of the space in a single btrfs partition.

Then install Kubuntu, go through my How-To and rename the Kubuntu subvolumes, verify it works, then install OpenSUSE to the same btrfs partition - obviously WITHOUT formatting it! - and violá - dual booting and all free space in one partition.

The only thing that might have to change from the above is if the OpenSUSE installer doesn't allow you to install without reformatting. If so, then install it first.

[GreyGeek]

Discover is *slowly* improving, but it is no where as quick and versatile as muon, IMO. KMail used to be gold and I used it for many years, up until I changed ISPs. My new ISP used imap and KMail couldn't configure for it. So, I switched to Thunderbird, which I had used years ago before I switched to KMail. IMO, KMail's big problem is that it depends on akonadi, which is always breaking.

The differences between Kubuntu 18.04 and KDE Neon User Edition based on Ubuntu 18.04 is that the Ubuntu 18.04 base for Neon will remain relatively static, except for security upgrades, while KDE will be on the front edge of stability. Kubuntu Bionic will have its Ubuntu base updated regularly, but KDE won't be, unless you get updates through backports.

Until you become familiar with operating Linux in general, and the specific distro you choose in particular, let me advise you against installing apps which are not in the repository unless you ask here first to see what the gray beards know about it. Big problems include trying to install KDE4 apps, which may or may not work on KDE5 (a.k.a. KDE Plasma5). There are standalone applications presented in packages called AppImages. All you have to do is drop them into a directory and click (or double click, depending on how you configure your mouse) and they open up and run without adding anything to your system. All libraries and such are included in the AppImage. Ubuntu packages another tool called Snap, which interfaces with the "Snap Store" to install/remove packages that are not in the repository. Its daemon, snapd, is always running as a background process. If you don't want to use snap then you can uninstall it. If you are into games and have a reasonably fast GPU (say NVidia GT650M or something similar or faster) you can install the Steam client and play games from Steam. Some are free but the better ones co$t. On I bought is called Universe Sandbox^2. Awesome astronomy simulation.

[jlapinsk4]

Thank you so much for the information! As I said I am relatively new to Linux and I am not in the IT or coding industry so my usage is on a much different level. It is however quickly becoming a hobby for me and I enjoy trying out new distros. I came to Linux through Ubuntu and just discovered KDE and I have to admit I am sold (with the exceptions of KMail and Discover)! I hear things from the anti - Ubuntu crowd and that is what pushed me to investigate non - .deb systems. I did try Plasma Neon briefly but I haven't played around with it too much yet - but I think I am going to give it another look!