I might suggest using LVM for all filesystems and swap, except for /boot and if applicable, EFI (/boot/efi). I'd also suggest tmpfs for /tmp (I think that also becomes the default with trixie 13). With LVM, one can grow LVs, and then filesystems atop that, and generally avoid further mucking about with partitions. I've been using LVM since 1995 ... in fact before I was using it on Linux and Debian, so it's very stable, works very well, and has been around a very long time. Easier to set that up initially, rather than after-the-fact, but one can also change later. E.g. you've got quite large /home filesystem, I'm guessing you've got lots of space available there. Well, reduce that filesystem size, shrink the partition, then create additional partition(s) with the space that frees up, and hand those over to LVM as PVs. Then you can create LVs there, then filesystems atop that (even directly copy identically over, but do fix things up after so you don't have duplicate UUIDs hanging around), and essentially continue converting. And as you free up other partitions, you can likewise hand those over to LVM for use as PVs.
Also, tmpfs, you can use the size= to set how large it is - notably how much (virtual) memory it can take. And tmpfs can also be dynamically resized by remounting with a different size= (by default it uses half of RAM). And if tmpfs runs out of physical RAM, it will use swap as needed (one can also add and remove swap dynamically too, but if one is doing that on a frequent basis, one may not have allocated/planned appropriately). And tmpfs will always be more efficient, even when it also uses swap, notably as it primarily caches to RAM, which will be faster than drive I/O, and even if it spills over to swap, it's still somewhat faster, due to the RAM caching. But note per FHS, etc., /tmp is volatile - as is tmpfs - if you reboot the contents are not preserved - but that's often also a good thing (security, efficiency). The other way to go and which is often suggested/default for new users (simpler), is just have almost everyting on root (/) filesystem. That's simpler, but in other ways can't be as well optimized, and it also doesn't scale beyond exactly one drive. And there are other approaches besides LVM for doing those types of volume management, e.g. ZFS, Btrfs, but those are also the newer kids on the block, and have their own complications and such, so LVM is comparatively simple, and has highly well established long excellent track record. There do exist also other Linux distros that do LVM by default upon install. Debian doesn't do LVM by default on install, but it's easily selectable at installation time. Also, if using LVM, generally to create LVs and filesystems of ample, but not excessive size. Very easy to grow LVs and filesystems dynamically. Shrinking isn't so trivial (generally have to have the filesystem umounted, shrink it, then shrink the LV to not less than the size of the filesystem). Note also some filesystems (notably xfs) don't have a capability to shrink, so in most circumstances I'd avoid xfs for that reason (the only way to effectively shrink xfs filesystem is to create new xfs filesystem, and copy the data over - often not so convenient, and notably also requires the available storage to do those operations). See also: https://www.mpaoli.net/~michael/linux/lvm/ On Thu, May 15, 2025 at 2:31 PM Default User <hunguponcont...@gmail.com> wrote: > > Hi. > > I currently run Debian 12 Stable, amd64. > Unexceptional single-user SOHO setup on a relatively current > (2023) low-end Dell laptop. > Intel Core i3 processor. > 8Gb ram. > UEFI booting. > Internal nvme SSD, 256 Gb, for mass storage. > Partitions: > nvme0n1 259:0 0 238.5G 0 disk > ├─nvme0n1p1 259:1 0 512M 0 part /boot/efi > ├─nvme0n1p2 259:2 0 23.3G 0 part / > ├─nvme0n1p3 259:3 0 9.3G 0 part /var > ├─nvme0n1p4 259:4 0 977M 0 part [SWAP] > ├─nvme0n1p5 259:5 0 1.9G 0 part /tmp > └─nvme0n1p6 259:6 0 202.6G 0 part /home > > Note: 10 Gb for /var is barely adequate. I have to > periodically do surgery to cut out the built-up bloat there. > > Since Debian 13 should soon be released, what should I be doing > ahead of time to prepare for the upgrade? For me, upgrading is > always a major hassle, so I try to make it as easy as possible. > > OT rant (probably irrelevant): > The laptop does NOT support virtualization. The DOES, but the > BIOS does NOT! > > Apparently the tightwads at Dell are punishing me for being poor. > "Hey dude, you've got a Dell!" Sorry to hear that . . . > > (Grrr . . .) > > Advice? >
