Then wouldn't boot at all at least in part because certain file systems (/tmp
and /var/log) were mounting read only.
The mount options (such as "ro") are in the fourth column of /etc/fstab
(documentation about them in 'man mount').
Notice that having a separate /usr (I still do not get your need for that
though) that is not pre-mounted in the initramfs (Trisquel must default to
pre-mounting it though) raises unsolvable problems:
https://wiki.freedesktop.org/www/Software/systemd/separate-usr-is-broken/
I haven't learned how to make LVM work for me.
Me neither. I would start do it to not add more complexity to your install.
-sda9 / - 3.2 Gb ext4
-sda6 /user - 8.6 Gb ext4
-sda7 /var - 4.3 Gb ext4
Again: why do you separate /usr and /var from / if they all have the same
type of filesystem. I only see the obvious drawback of
under/over-dimensioning.
just a single user Desktop, with a web server and possibly other services
accessible on tiny LAN
The number of users does not directly affect the dimensioning of the system
partitions. The number of applications does and these applications mainly
have files in /usr. That includes the graphics/sounds for video games and
these data are heavy.
I guess (I have no experience with servers) that "a web server and possibly
other services" write logs to /var/log, what must make /var contains more
data than on a real desktop system.
Your concerns over size of /usr certainly seem valid, after a fresh install
Disks tells me it's already 37.6 % full. /var is at 23 % and / is at 13 %.
Once all applications were installed, /usr does not grow. /var grows but can
be emptied because it contains caches (such as APT's), logs (such as that of
your Web server I guess), etc.
MB's 6+ GB /tmp surprised me. I was thinking 3 was stretching it. I might
want to watch movies too.
When you get a movie with ViewTube, it is downloaded to /tmp (and only is
removed when you reboot). Same thing for the movies you play with Popcorn
Time (but closing Popcorn Time erases those files). And movies are heavy...
You see: the more you partition your disk the more you need to know your
needs. Otherwise you end up with full partitions and/or a waste of space.
You have 18 GB ext4 for / (including I gather /var) and a separate 1 GB for
/var/tmp.
The Debian doc hinted at that kind of thing too but I've never seen how that
works so I stayed away from it. Is /var/tmp in /var replaced by a symlink or
something?
It is exactly like your other partitions: the content of the separate
filesystem would be mounted at init (a line in /etc/fstab) onto the root
filesystem at /var/tmp (that is what would be written in the second column of
/etc/fstab).
That said, I do not have a separate /var/tmp and, on my system, this
directory only seems to be used when Audacity is running (and it actually
fills quite some space if I am editing a large audio file). However, I
understand the concern of a misbehaving application that would fill /var/tmp,
i.e., / if /var/tmp is on the root partition. But, you see, that is one more
partition whose use is to be estimated to avoid under/over-dimensioning (do
you use Audacity?).
