Installing applications on removable storage

[The Stig 2.0]

I know it is possible to install programs on removable hdds in Windows, but i would like to know if and how this can be done on linux as i only have an 80gig hdd as internal, but an 640gig external.

Thanks

 

[MyWorld]

Yes, it can be done. There are a couple of ways to do this.

The easiest way to do this would be to define your removable media as the /usr partition in /etc/fstab. Just make sure the media is present when booting otherwise nothing will work (except for a basic shell account).

EDIT:
That being said, you will almost never use more than 20GB for apps in general on linux. My desktop PC has a couple of games and all the apps you can shake a stick at and it sits at under 20GB.

 

[milomak]

Yes, it can be done. There are a couple of ways to do this.

The easiest way to do this would be to define your removable media as the /usr partition in /etc/fstab. Just make sure the media is present when booting otherwise nothing will work (except for a basic shell account).

EDIT:
That being said, you will almost never use more than 20GB for apps in general on linux. My desktop PC has a couple of games and all the apps you can shake a stick at and it sits at under 20GB.

yeah the only time i have issues with my 20GB sized partitions is with gentoo. and that's an issue with a term i can't quite remember now - maybe extents.

but debian, fedora and suse have never come close to filling my standard 20GB / partition.

 

[MyWorld]

yeah the only time i have issues with my 20GB sized partitions is with gentoo. and that's an issue with a term i can't quite remember now - maybe extents.

but debian, fedora and suse have never come close to filling my standard 20GB / partition.

What I also found that what usually takes up a lot of space is the package manager download cache, storing all those installed packages through hundreds of version changes. Anyone running Linux should learn how to clean their package manager cache and free up a few GB after a few months.

 

[ponder]

but debian, fedora and suse have never come close to filling my standard 20GB / partition.

With Arch I usually only have a 7GB / partition and that has never come close to being filled up.

What I also found that what usually takes up a lot of space is the package manager download cache, storing all those installed packages through hundreds of version changes. Anyone running Linux should learn how to clean their package manager cache and free up a few GB after a few months.

+1 I clear the cache once in a while, I prefer keeping it for a while though in case I have issues with newer packages but if I know everything is working fine I will clear the cache.

 

[milomak]

With both arch and debian (my main OS ) I hardly have to clear. But i agree it is good practice nonetheless.

@ponder - i used to run my partitions at 10gb with no problem. However with terabytes of space available i thought it wouldn't hurt.