Brainstorming, preparing for new laptop

[Qqmike]

I can't get to Page 3 here! Only to Page 2.

[GreyGeek]

Wow, jglen490, stop holding back! Tell us what you really think!

[Qqmike]

Yes, as Snowhog says (about dd overwriting anything already on the drive). Now, I like to "zero-out" a used flash drive by using dd to write zeros over the whole flash drive. That is also shown in my how to (one simple dd statement) So if you zero it out, then it contains only zeros, so your 20.04 is totally gone (no remnants remaining at all). Then I write the new Kubuntu iso to that flash drive (using that dd statement in the how to).

[Snowhog]

Yup. dd aka Disc (content) Destroyer. dd overwrites ANYTHING that is on the destination drive.

[DoYouKubuntu]

I'm not very helpful, except that I mentioned using the dd command to make the bootable USB Kubuntu flash drive, as per my how-to:
Building a Kubuntu live USB flash drive installer using dd
https://www.kubuntuforums.net/showth...712#post378712

Silly, you're helpful!

In your excellent 'dd' info, you said:
"(1) This works no matter what was previously on the flash drive (nothing, an MBR, or a GPT)."

So am I correct in thinking the bootable flash drive I currently have 20.04 on would work?

[DoYouKubuntu]

Again, with only one drive, having multiple partitions (more than /efi, / and /home) gains little to nothing - so your all-purpose Repository of Stuffs and Things is on your $HOME, what difference does it make? when you try to access the files from another computer? So you make the exact same same backup, saving /home/me/Data instead of /data. What is the difference? There isn't one
fewer partitions mean fewer places for such things to get messed up.

The KISS principle applies, but in the sense that keeping as many things as simple as is possible, to allow for more complexity elsewhere.
if there are multiple drives, then yes, this makes perfect sense.

Part of my reasoning along the way was that users besides myself, using their own computers, could access 'main' computer's /data and do as they pleased in there, without being able to touch or see or muck up my $HOME. I'm the only person regularly using my network now, but I don't really see why I should change what's worked well for many years, and would work well in the future if something changes and there is another user(s). The concept really started with the idea of a file server, a central location where everyone has access to a pool of files, and can use their own local drives for personal stuff.

[claydoh]

Again, with only one drive, having multiple partitions (more than /efi, / and /home) gains little to nothing - so your all-purpose Repository of Stuffs and Things is on your $HOME, what difference does it make? when you try to access the files from another computer? So you make the exact same same backup, saving /home/me/Data instead of /data. What is the difference? There isn't one
fewer partitions mean fewer places for such things to get messed up.

The KISS principle applies, but in the sense that keeping as many things as simple as is possible, to allow for more complexity elsewhere.

if there are multiple drives, then yes, this makes perfect sense.

[DoYouKubuntu]

The CoreBook install on your new laptop is making me drool.

Should that be CoreBoot, GG?

Since I don't even know what that is, can you tell me why it's drool-worthy?

If you leave Ubuntu on then you could install
kubuntu-desktop
or
kde-plasma-desktop
or, IIRC,
plasma-desktop

Yeah...I think I'm getting dissuaded from that idea... So this thread is doing exactly what I hoped it would! I love you guys so much!

[DoYouKubuntu]

re jglen post #10 ... THIS!! me too, I sign up for his advice. Clean, simple, elegant, manageable. For 1 physical drive. Key is to do the backups, often. Even (interim) quick, copy-paste to thumb drive(s).

See my post #13. It explains my reasoning.

[DoYouKubuntu]

THIS!! times 2
Unless you have a second physical drive, this is not worth the effort. A drive goes Poof! (particularly an SSD!), and everything is gone, no matter how many or how few partitions you have.
And to be honest, even a separate /home isn't the be all and end all, if one has decent backups, unless one you are installing new OSs all the time. In that case, it is quite useful.

See my post #13.

I vote for a straight up, standard, use-the-whole-drive automatic install. Click-click-done.

Auto-install? whole drive? no special partitioning? NEVER!!!!! (And you know what they say about saying never. )

Or is that click-click-clickclick-click-typetypetype-click?

[DoYouKubuntu]

If it was mine, I would under no circumstances attempt to have a mixed install of Ubuntu and Kubuntu.

Yes, Kubuntu is Ubuntu with Plasma. But, there is no need for conflating both and once again risking damage. Choose between the two, but choose one.

Yeah, I see what you're saying. It just seems like such a logical way of installing K, you know? Using U to install it, then getting rid of GNOME components I don't want.

/data is completely unnecessary, since /home is perfect for any data you will ever want to save.

Not for the way I've historically--and hope to in the future--used my computers. By having one central location on the current 'main' computer for all other computers to use for media storage makes sense. For example, when I used to keep a Chromebook out on the patio (I installed K on it) its hard drive was not intended for huge storage; I'd access files I needed from my then-current 'main' computer over the network, and save new files there, too. Ditto for my living room laptop, my dining room laptop, my mom's room's desktop, my two desktops, etc. That way I didn't have to worry about duplicate or triplicate files. I could just back up that one computer's /data and know that I had gotten everything. Easy-peasy!

Use whatever filesystem pops your cork. On my single user, non-enterprise level system, the 4th extended filesystem has never failed me. Hardware has, but not the filesystem. To me BTRFS, XFS, and others like it are pretty, shiny, baubles and completely unnecessary.

Nicely put! Thank you. I'm still open to hearing COMPELLING reasons to dump ext4 in favor of btrfs, but this sounds good to me.

So, again, choose wisely. Install. Use it to your best advantage. Make frequent backups to storage that can be taken "off-site". Do not depend on any long term recovery files on your drive - if your drive fails, those files will also be gone.

I've been doing dual backups, i.e., on- and off-site, for 35 years! Back in the day of Bernoulli 8" disks, off-site meant my house, on-site was my office at work. Now off-site means 'the cloud' (currently using Amazon Drive). I'm absolutely compulsive about backing up data. It's just as much a part of my daily life as breathing!

[Qqmike]

re jglen post #10 ... THIS!! me too, I sign up for his advice. Clean, simple, elegant, manageable. For 1 physical drive. Key is to do the backups, often. Even (interim) quick, copy-paste to thumb drive(s).

[claydoh]

If it was mine, I would under no circumstances attempt to have a mixed install of Ubuntu and Kubuntu.

THIS!
I wholeheartedly agree. This is a recipe for bugs and niggles and annoyances. Not worth the effort for most cases.

/data is completely unnecessary, since /home is perfect for any data you will ever want to save. Use whatever filesystem pops your cork. On my single user, non-enterprise level system, the 4th extended filesystem has never failed me. Hardware has, but not the filesystem. To me BTRFS, XFS, and others like it are pretty, shiny, baubles and completely unnecessary.

THIS!! times 2
Unless you have a second physical drive, this is not worth the effort. A drive goes Poof! (particularly an SSD!), and everything is gone, no matter how many or how few partitions you have.
And to be honest, even a separate /home isn't the be all and end all, if one has decent backups, unless one you are installing new OSs all the time. In that case, it is quite useful.

I vote for a straight up, standard, use-the-whole-drive automatic install. Click-click-done.


Or is that click-click-clickclick-click-typetypetype-click?

[jglen490]

If it was mine, I would under no circumstances attempt to have a mixed install of Ubuntu and Kubuntu.

Yes, Kubuntu is Ubuntu with Plasma. But, there is no need for conflating both and once again risking damage. Choose between the two, but choose one.

Your "normal" /, /home, swap is fine, but add an ESP. 500 MB is overkill, and will probably never be completely used, but if you want ...

/data is completely unnecessary, since /home is perfect for any data you will ever want to save. Use whatever filesystem pops your cork. On my single user, non-enterprise level system, the 4th extended filesystem has never failed me. Hardware has, but not the filesystem. To me BTRFS, XFS, and others like it are pretty, shiny, baubles and completely unnecessary.

So, again, choose wisely. Install. Use it to your best advantage. Make frequent backups to storage that can be taken "off-site". Do not depend on any long term recovery files on your drive - if your drive fails, those files will also be gone.

[GreyGeek]

Yep, that's the one I was trying to think of.

Yup. I downloaded the latest release of balenaEtcher-1.5.122-x64.AppImage and it works wonderfully. Just add the execute permission and then doubleclick on it.
Like Claydoh, I've used it for years, and its never failed once on me.

The CoreBook install on your new laptop is making me drool.

If you leave Ubuntu on then you could install
kubuntu-desktop
or
kde-plasma-desktop
or, IIRC,
plasma-desktop