Symbloic or Hard Link?

Linux on Laptops
1

I volunteer with a guy setting up OLD laptops with Linux Mint. I have been task with trying to figure out how I can set up an Acer Aspire one laptop that only has a 32gb of storage on it. We are wanting to put a 64bit sd card in and have Mint save everything to it.

I had tried using Gemini and I ended up getting a run around with it. Gemini was giving me instruction to create sysm-links for all the folders, but it did not work. It had me using the UUID of the sd card when creating the link.

I know this isn’t the best way to go about this. We do not have money to go out and by new sd cards or anything else.

Is it possible to set Mint to automatically write everything to the sd card?

Thanks in advance. :slight_smile:

2

I know on some laptops you can’t boot directly from the SD card because of BIOS limitations. Have you stumbled across this blog post? https://barryhubbard.com/index.php/2017/08/04/booting-acer-aspire-one-from-sd-card/

3

I have not seen that post. What we are trying to do is have to most storage. Mint will take almost half of the 64gb sd. After the last Mint update, I received a warning that storage on the MB was full. We don’t have money to go out and buy sd cards, especially with the prices these days. I did install Mint Xfce, and it used about half the space Mint Cinnamon did. Wanting for the leader to see if he wants to use it or not.
Thanks for your reply.

4

Hello friends…

I am replying to your question,based on the info on your post…

Now if i haven’t misunderstood something…

There is an Acer Aspire that has 32GB of storage (internal) and you want to install Mint on a 64GB SD card (external)…

Have i got that right?

In that case…i suggest you take a completely different approach on the matter…

Use both (internal and external) to set up the system…

I don’t know your “experience level” in GNU/Linux,so i will try to explain with as much detail as i can…

1.Your choice of XFCE desktop is the right one,both on storage space and performance point of view

2.Booting from an SD card can hove serious impact on the performance of the system

Generally an SD card is a storage device with low speeds

To get good performance you would have to use an SD card with high speeds,which implies that you might have to go and buy a new SD card,which to my understanding is not an option based on your “financials”.

If that Acer is an old one,booting from an SD card might not even be possible (i had that problem in a very old Acer machine) or could be “glitchy”

3.I would suggest something i have done in the past…

In my opinion,you should use the internal (32GB) storage to install the root partition (/) and your 64GB SD should be your /home directory

So,if the SD card is actually visible to you during the installation process,choose Manual partitioning,not automatic…

In the partitioning menu,choose the 32GB (internal) as the root partition and format it in ext4.

Then choose your SD card and create the /home partition.

Leave a 2 GB on the end of the partition (just trust me on this)

For example,if the usable space in your SD is 61GB from the 64GB,create the /home partition with a size of 59GB

Generally SD’s are said to be better formatted as an ext2 partition,but you can test it…

I have used SD cards in the past formatting them as ext4 with no problem and you could even try FAT32

Once you have created the partitions,proceed with the installation and when asked where to store the GRUB,choose your 32GB internal device

32 GB is more than enough to store your root partition (/) and now you 'll have the whole SD card as your storage space as /home

If you got the patience and time to try it,i 'd say,go for it…

Anyway,that is my suggestion…take it under consideration

If you choose to test it…Best of luck…