Ubuntu
synaptic package

Is there a way to install apps to another disk too when/if my ssd will be filled up i have 1tb mechanical hdd how i can install apps (from synaptic or software-center) on it.

Asked by Carnalbeast on 2011-09-20

1)
Is there a way to install apps to another disk too when/if my ssd will be filled up ??
I have 1tb mechanical hdd how i can install apps (from synaptic or soft-center) on it.
Apps usually are installed on /usr/bin sbin but some are installed on other directories how is it possible to install them via synaptic or software-center when my first ssd hdd will be filled ???
Is there even a way to do that ??
Can i mount my mechanical 1tb hdd on root / ??

Help me please.

2) Ubuntu is very slow (without ssd hdd) when launching apps , also when there is disk access apps are affected badly !
For example i tried to download some torrents with transmission and window was frozen all the time, same thing with firefox some times, i dont know why but it is not GOOD. In general its performance its not good on mechanical hdd.
Maybe there is a problem with filesystem? i dont know but really it needs a lot of work.

Question information

Language:: English Edit question

Status:: Answered

For:: Ubuntu synaptic Edit question

Assignee:: No assignee Edit question

Last query:: 2011-09-20

Last reply:: 2011-09-20

Link existing bug

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Carnalbeast (carnalbeast) said on 2011-09-20:

Also when i try to copy some files from home folder to another drive system seems to be affected , gray windows and similar stuff.

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actionparsnip (andrew-woodhead666) said on 2011-09-20:

You can move folders to removable storage and then symlink the files, this link is very small and and files copiedto the link are actually stored on the removable storage. If space is an issue I can suggest a few steps:

1) Remove old kernels.

Ubuntu doesn't remove old kernels as you get new ones. These take up 120Mb each so having a lot is bad news. If you run:

iname -r

You can see the CURRENT kernel, if you run:

dpkg -l | egrep 'linux-image-2|linux-image-3'

You can see the INSTALLED kernels. You can remove the old kernels but do NOT remove the CURRENT kernel. This can save tonnes of space.

2) Old debs

Ubuntu by default does not clear old deb files used for updates and installs, again this can get quite large and you can clear them out with:

sudo apt-get clean

3) Libreoffice

If you only use writer in libreoffice, or even if you only use writer and math then you can uninstall bulky libreoffice (300Mb) and install abiword for a word processor (12Mb) and / or gnumeric (13Mb) for spreadsheeting. This saves further space.

4) Browsers

This will also be a huge culprit, browsers use drive space to store web caches, these can amount to Gbs of data and fill partitions easily. You should use the options in your browser to clear this down. You can also move the cache to a RAM drive to reduce write cycles on the SSD as the write cycles are limited, this will make the drive last longer as well as save the space on the drive.

5) Remove unused apps

Many users don't do this and they really should. A default install of Ubuntu comes with a LOT of crap apps you will never use and you can easily remove to save space and resources. If you don't use remote desktopping, remove vinagre, vino, rdesktop and tsclient. They are there occupying space and you are never going to use them. There are tonnes of things like this. Uninstall the default email client if you only use webmail (if you have evolution installed, you will need to KEEP evolution-data-server-common as it is a dep of gnome-panel). Uninstall the games if you don't use them, and so on. My install is usually around the 3Gb mark with all the codecs and flash and java you can need with a full compiz and gnome desktop just by removing the fluff.

ALl in all that should reduce used space nicely. I especially suggest you use the RAM drive for your browser.