/home and all that

corblimey

When I was installing Ubuntu 8.04, I followed the guidelines and set up a couple of different partitions, one for /home and one for /data.

When I access /home, all that's in there is some empty folders (Documents, Public, etc) and a link folder to /usr/share. And all that's in /data is a 'Lost+Found' folder. Did I do something wrong? What should normally be in these folders?

GreenHell

Sounds fine.

corblimey

GreenHell wrote: »

Sounds fine.

Really? I was under the impression that apps I install (and I've installed a LOT) would use these partitions for settings, etc, so that if I have to do a re-install, I wouldn't lose all my carefully chosen preferences? For example.

ntlbell

People tend to over think things a bit.

If you created a partiition on windows and called it home

what would be there?

ethernet

The /data partition sounds a little odd. What are you using it for?

Your /home partition should be just fine. Just make sure, when installing another OS over your current install, that the mount point of what is your home partition, say /dev/sda3, has its mount point set correctly in the installer and that any option to format it is disabled.

sound_wave

corblimey wrote: »

Really? I was under the impression that apps I install (and I've installed a LOT) would use these partitions for settings, etc, so that if I have to do a re-install, I wouldn't lose all my carefully chosen preferences? For example.

These preference files are hidden in your home folder. Hit View >> Show Hidden Files in the menu bar and you will see the folders for some applications

GreenHell

corblimey wrote: »

Really? I was under the impression that apps I install (and I've installed a LOT) would use these partitions for settings, etc, so that if I have to do a re-install, I wouldn't lose all my carefully chosen preferences? For example.

Open a terminal, you should be in your home dir, but do a cd ~, then ls -a you should see a bunch of . files that have your settings.

/data sounds fine as well.

corblimey

ethernet wrote: »

The /data partition sounds a little odd. What are you using it for?

You know, I'm not entirely sure. More of the perceived wisdom when setting up partitions seemed to be 'set up as many as you can'. /var /data /home, etc. I suspect that /data is for my own use, whereas I partitioned a rather large portion of the drive as a shared Ext3 drive where I'm putting everything. So perhaps /data is pointless.

sound_wave wrote: »

These preference files are hidden in your home folder. Hit View >> Show Hidden Files in the menu bar and you will see the folders for some applications

Ah-ha! Yes, cheers

ethernet

corblimey wrote: »

You know, I'm not entirely sure. More of the perceived wisdom when setting up partitions seemed to be 'set up as many as you can'. /var /data /home, etc. I suspect that /data is for my own use, whereas I partitioned a rather large portion of the drive as a shared Ext3 drive where I'm putting everything. So perhaps /data is pointless.


Ah-ha! Yes, cheers

I'm with you now. I think the days of creating a shared FAT32 partition between Windows and Linux are dying now that you can write to NTFS partitions and the fact you can use something like FS Driver under Windows to access ext2/ext3 partitions.

corblimey

Yeah, seems my /data partition is a waste of space (20gigs of space). I have the issue though that I can't even seem to access it through Nautilus. I can see my Home partition in there, but if I enter /data directly at the top and check the properties, it tells me that I'm on the / partition.

The tree shows:

Home Folder (/home)
File System (/) - which appears to be where Linux is installed
HP_Pavilion - this is the WinXP partition
x.xGB Media - this is an external h/d attached to my PC
x.xGB Media - this is the Ext3 partition I set up to share between WinXP and Linux.

Whereas gparted shows:

/dev/sda1   fat32
/dev/sda2   htfs - WinXP
/dev/sda3   extended
  /dev/sda5   linux-swap
  /dev/sda6   ext3   /data
  /dev/sda7   ext3   /home
  /dev/sda8   ext3   /media/shared - shared partition
  /dev/sda9   ext3   /
/dev/sdb1   external h/d

Did I do something wrong? Why can't I access all my partitions? I'm guessing I need to mount it?

FruitLover

Check in /etc/fstab to see if it's supposed to be auto-mounted (might not be)

ethernet

As FruitLover has said, /data won't be of much use unless there's some partition mounted to it. Is there any chance the parition you intended to mount under /data wasn't flagged for formatting when installing? fstab should reveal all.

corblimey

This means nothing to me:

# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# <file system> <mount point>   <type>  <options>       <dump>  <pass>
proc            /proc           proc    defaults        0       0
# /dev/sda9
UUID=ca81323c-98eb-41dc-af29-a03e945aea4b /               ext3    relatime,errors=remount-ro 0       1
# /dev/sda6
UUID=cf62862d-abd7-47eb-9c30-e68c8e348ed4 /data           ext3    relatime        0       2
# /dev/sda7
UUID=18758ddb-3998-4909-a443-409fca4e503f /home           ext3    relatime        0       2
# /dev/sda8
UUID=2c08e682-a19c-4eaf-a169-b0cba2a0686f /media/shared   ext3    relatime        0       2
# /dev/sda5
UUID=97257c4c-a31a-4a50-978c-ea29030762a8 none            swap    sw              0       0
/dev/hdd        /media/cdrom0   udf,iso9660 user,noauto,exec,utf8 0       0
/dev/hdc        /media/cdrom1   udf,iso9660 user,noauto,exec,utf8 0       0

According to gparted, sda6 is my /data partition and that doesn't show, but it looks to be the same as the next line, sda7 which is my /home partition and that seems to be fine?

FruitLover

Sorry, I just re-read your OP and realized you can in fact access your /data partition. Everything is perfectly fine. As someone mentioned before, if you created a new partition, what would be in it? Nothing, obviously (except a 'lost+found' directory on a linux system, or maybe a 'Recycled' directory on a Windows system). Your /data partition is set to auto-mount in your fstab, everything looks grand.

Just to confirm, open a shell and do a 'cd /data', then a 'pwd'. Assuming all's well, you should see yourself in the /data partition/directory.

corblimey

FruitLover wrote: »

Sorry, I just re-read your OP and realized you can in fact access your /data partition. Everything is perfectly fine. As someone mentioned before, if you created a new partition, what would be in it? Nothing, obviously (except a 'lost+found' directory on a linux system, or maybe a 'Recycled' directory on a Windows system). Your /data partition is set to auto-mount in your fstab, everything looks grand.

Just to confirm, open a shell and do a 'cd /data', then a 'pwd'. Assuming all's well, you should see yourself in the /data partition/directory.

Not strictly true, FruitLover. If I go into /data and check the properties in Nautilus, it gives me a location of "/" implying to me it's on the main Linux partition - /sda9. I try this with /home and I get /home. So while I can reach /data and it has a lost+found folder, it's not my /data partition, which doesn't appear to be reachable.

GreenHell

Do a "df"

This will show all the mounted partitions and their labels.

corblimey

GreenHell wrote: »

Do a "df"

This will show all the mounted partitions and their labels.

Filesystem           1K-blocks      Used Available Use% Mounted on
/dev/sda9             88888888   8888888  88888888   9% /
varrun                  888888       888    888888   1% /var/run
varlock                 888888         0    888888   0% /var/lock
udev                    888888        88    888888   1% /dev
devshm                  888888        88    888888   1% /dev/shm
lrm                     888888     88888    888888   8% /lib/modules/2.6.24-19-generic/volatile
/dev/sda6             88888888    888888  88888888   1% /data
/dev/sda7             88888888    888888   8888888   5% /home
/dev/sda8            888888888    888888 888888888   1% /media/shared
gvfs-fuse-daemon      88888888   8888888  88888888   9% /home/michael/.gvfs
/dev/sdb5             88888888  88888888  88888888  49% /media/disk
/dev/sda2             88888888  88888888  88888888  51% /media/HP_PAVILION

(I'm not sure what I obliterated the sizes, but I started doing it and couldn't stop!)

I'm not sure what this tells me above what I already knew, /dev/sda6 is partitioned as /data and 1% of it is being used?

ntlbell

I'm totally lost to what your problem is now..

if you cd to /data

create a folder

do an ls

can you see the folder? what is the actuall problem?

corblimey

ntlbell wrote: »

I'm totally lost to what your problem is now..

if you cd to /data

create a folder

do an ls

can you see the folder? what is the actuall problem?

Yes, I can see the folder no problem. My actual problem is that this, as far as I can tell, is a /data folder on the / partition, rather than a /data folder on the /data partition (sda6). I can't seem to be able to access my /data partition at all, even though it's defo there.

If I type in /data directly at the top of the Nautilus file browser and check the properties, it tells me that I'm on the / partition. If I try this for my /home folder, it (correctly) tells me I'm on the /home partition.

So I guess my issue is how the flip do I access /dev/sda6?

ntlbell

corblimey wrote: »

Yes, I can see the folder no problem. My actual problem is that this, as far as I can tell, is a /data folder on the / partition, rather than a /data folder on the /data partition (sda6). I can't seem to be able to access my /data partition at all, even though it's defo there.

If I type in /data directly at the top of the Nautilus file browser and check the properties, it tells me that I'm on the / partition. If I try this for my /home folder, it (correctly) tells me I'm on the /home partition.

So I guess my issue is how the flip do I access /dev/sda6?

from the above sda9 is /

and /data is sda6

so if you go cd /data

mkdir mybigpairofballs

do an ls in /data

do you see mybigpairofballs ?

and /data is sda6

so it looks like /data is mounted fine and dandy?


do a df -h and paste it here

and cat /etc/fstab and paste here also

corblimey

ntlbell wrote: »

do a df -h and paste it here
and cat /etc/fstab and paste here also

Casual swearing aside (;)), I can see the directory I created, but like I said, how do I know that's my /data partition and not the /data folder on my / partition.

xxx@xxx:/data$ df -h
Filesystem            Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/sda9              xxG  xxxG   xxG   9% /
varrun                xxxM  xxxK  xxxM   1% /var/run
varlock               xxxM     x  xxxM   0% /var/lock
udev                  xxxM   xxK  xxxM   1% /dev
devshm                xxxM   xxK  xxxM   1% /dev/shm
lrm                   xxxM   xxM  xxxM   8% /lib/modules/2.6.24-19-generic/volatile
/dev/sda6              xxG  xxxM   xxG   1% /data
/dev/sda7             xxxG  xxxM  xxxG   5% /home
/dev/sda8             xxxG  xxxM  xxxG   1% /media/shared
gvfs-fuse-daemon       xxG  xxxG   xxG   9% /home/michael/.gvfs
/dev/sdb5              xxG   xxG   xxG  49% /media/disk
/dev/sda2              xxG   xxG   xxG  51% /media/HP_PAVILION
xxx@xxx:/data$ cat /etc/fstab
# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# <file system> <mount point>   <type>  <options>       <dump>  <pass>
proc            /proc           proc    defaults        0       0
# /dev/sda9
UUID=ca81323c-98eb-41dc-af29-a03e945aea4b /               ext3    relatime,errors=remount-ro 0       1
# /dev/sda6
UUID=cf62862d-abd7-47eb-9c30-e68c8e348ed4 /data           ext3    relatime        0       2
# /dev/sda7
UUID=18758ddb-3998-4909-a443-409fca4e503f /home           ext3    relatime        0       2
# /dev/sda8
UUID=2c08e682-a19c-4eaf-a169-b0cba2a0686f /media/shared   ext3    relatime        0       2
# /dev/sda5
UUID=97257c4c-a31a-4a50-978c-ea29030762a8 none            swap    sw              0       0
/dev/hdd        /media/cdrom0   udf,iso9660 user,noauto,exec,utf8 0       0
/dev/hdc        /media/cdrom1   udf,iso9660 user,noauto,exec,utf8 0       0

Am I being dumb here?

ntlbell

corblimey wrote: »

Casual swearing aside (;)), I can see the directory I created, but like I said, how do I know that's my /data partition and not the /data folder on my / partition.

Heh,

I'll keep going back to windows to make it easier..

if you created a partition in windows called data and mounted it under c:\ (you can mount as folder like this in windows)

it would be access via C:\data so you wouldn't create a folder called C:\data

it would just like it was folder

so you created data and mounted it on / now why would you create a data folder now under / ?

am i making much sense?

NotMe

how do I know that's my /data partition and not the /data folder on my / partition.

If you do 'cd /' then you're looking at your /dev/sda9 partition and you'll see a folder called data. If you go into that folder then you'll be looking at your /dev/sda6 partition. In other words /dev/sda6 is mounted in the /data folder.

pickarooney

You appear to be missing an actual ~ folder for a user. /home should contain at least one directory corresponding to the first username you created on installation.

corblimey

NotMe wrote: »

If you do 'cd /' then you're looking at your /dev/sda9 partition and you'll see a folder called data. If you go into that folder then you'll be looking at your /dev/sda6 partition. In other words /dev/sda6 is mounted in the /data folder.

Okay, well if that's the case, great. I was just confused that Nautilus was reporting that I was on the / partition when I was in the /data folder.

I was about to throw a load of stuff in there and see if the space on my / partition remains unchanged and the space on my /data partition goes down, as expected.

pickarooney wrote: »

You appear to be missing an actual ~ folder for a user. /home should contain at least one directory corresponding to the first username you created on installation.

I'm not sure what a ~ folder is, but /home seems to be working okay.

corblimey

ntlbell wrote: »

Heh,

I'll keep going back to windows to make it easier..

if you created a partition in windows called data and mounted it under c:\ (you can mount as folder like this in windows)

it would be access via C:\data so you wouldn't create a folder called C:\data

it would just like it was folder

so you created data and mounted it on / now why would you create a data folder now under / ?

am i making much sense?

(Apologies for double post, just saw this reply). The /data folder was created, as far as I know, by the Linux installation. I set up a /data partition and left it at that. I assume if I hadn't, I'd still have a /data folder? Is Ubuntu clever enough to know that the /data folder should go on the /data partition if one exists? It seems to know about /home partition (ie set the /home folder on the /home partition if one exists) so perhaps?

ntlbell

corblimey wrote: »

(Apologies for double post, just saw this reply). The /data folder was created, as far as I know, by the Linux installation. I set up a /data partition and left it at that. I assume if I hadn't, I'd still have a /data folder? Is Ubuntu clever enough to know that the /data folder should go on the /data partition if one exists? It seems to know about /home partition (ie set the /home folder on the /home partition if one exists) so perhaps?

I don't really know much about Ubuntu specifically..

can you cd into /

and paste an ls -lag

FruitLover

IIRC, If you mount a partition with the same name as an existing directory that has stuff in it, the existing directory's contents get hidden.

Try unmounting your /data partition, then mount it as something else:

sudo umount /dev/sda6
sudo mkdir /mnt/tmp
sudo mount /dev/sda6 /mnt/tmp (you might need to throw a '-t ext3' after the mount)
cd /mnt/tmp
ls -al

This way you can see exactly what's in /dev/sda6, and you can see exactly what's in the /data directory without /dev/sda6 being mounted in it.

ntlbell

why does ubuntu create a data folder during the install?

seems a bit odd, do you use postgreSQL?

corblimey

ntlbell wrote: »

why does ubuntu create a data folder during the install?

seems a bit odd, do you use postgreSQL?

Ah, I just assumed that /data was a standard installation folder.

FruitLover wrote: »

IIRC, If you mount a partition with the same name as an existing directory that has stuff in it, the existing directory's contents get hidden.

Try unmounting your /data partition, then mount it as something else:

Okay, that proved your theory, Fruitlover. After this, /mnt/tmp contains the folders I saw earlier under /data (including ntl's big balls ) and /data contains nothing. Anyway, that seems to be it. I can now mount /sda6 as whatever I want and used it for whatever I need. I assume if I umount and mount again, this will stick between restarts? Or do i have to change some config scripts to get it to stick? (check the WinXP n00b!)

ntlbell

corblimey wrote: »

Ah, I just assumed that /data was a standard installation folder.


Okay, that proved your theory, Fruitlover. After this, /mnt/tmp contains the folders I saw earlier under /data (including ntl's big balls ) and /data contains nothing. Anyway, that seems to be it. I can now mount /sda6 as whatever I want and used it for whatever I need. I assume if I umount and mount again, this will stick between restarts? Or do i have to change some config scripts to get it to stick? (check the WinXP n00b!)

you may need to edit /etc/fstab

FruitLover

corblimey wrote: »

I assume if I umount and mount again, this will stick between restarts?

Nope, you'll have to put it in your /etc/fstab. Probably the easiest way is to edit the existing file (back it up first just in case!) and change /data to /mnt/tmp (or make a more descriptive mount point like /mnt/stuff or whatever). Might be a bit cleaner doing it this way rather than having a data dir right on your root.