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I want to install Ubuntu 19.10 as dual-boot with Windows 10 and I'm trying to understand how not to mess up with partitions. Can anyone help me, please?

My stats:

  • only have one disk (C:) SSD (231gb total);
  • at least 16gb free space left for Ubuntu;
  • 8gb RAM.

Is the free space enough to install Ubuntu? If no, how much more should I give it?

How much space should I give to /root /swap and /home ?

Are there other partitions I should do?

mikewhatever
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Marethyu
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    You don't need sepatrate /root, /home and /swap. You can let Ubuntu installer do everything for you. 16 GB is just enough. I would suggest at least 30. – Pilot6 Jan 29 '20 at 21:20
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    Before doing anything should backup important data. I would like to use more than 16GBs myself. See how much of your windows partition is free of data, that is the max amount plus the 16GBs you can use. Use windows tools/programs if you want to shrink your windows partition, leave windows with free space for more data. should keep partitions at least 20% free. – crip659 Jan 29 '20 at 22:09
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    Dual Boot advice:

    I suggest you read https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power-on_self-test , https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BIOS , https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Master_boot_record , https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GUID_Partition_Table , https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UEFI . One will have the Answer. Read the others to understand that one.

     – waltinator Jan 29 '20 at 22:59
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    @K7AAY I'll definitely give it at least 30GB, but what's Snaps, and how exactly do I "add one ext4 partition for all of the Ubuntu filesystem" ? – Marethyu Jan 30 '20 at 17:31
  • @Pilot6 (and crip659) Thanks for the essential answers, but still, what if I'm doing the /root /swap and /home myself instead of letting the installer do it? – Marethyu Jan 30 '20 at 17:32
  • @walinator I don't know if that's a 'salty answer' however thanks for commenting and giving me that interesting bibliography ;F – Marethyu Jan 30 '20 at 17:32
  • Does this answer your question? How to use manual partitioning during installation? – Pilot6 Jan 30 '20 at 17:33
  • Why do you need /boot on a separete partition? You didn't answer. – Pilot6 Jan 30 '20 at 17:37
  • I was already reading that thread but unfortunately I haven't understood what's the actual size I should give to each /// meaning: If I find that 30GB free for the installation, can I give /root 16GB only, 4GB to /swap and 20GB for home? Because on the thread you linked someone says (for example) "swap should be twice your RAM size" and others say "you can only give swap 500mb": I'm confused, who's right? About /boot: I haven't written anything of it or did I? – Marethyu Jan 30 '20 at 17:52
  • @K7AAY thanks for the links and the care you're giving to such a noob as me, and about swap, so you tell me that even that 500mb would be wasted space? If so, what if one day I would like to be use hibernation again, will I be able to make the swap after having installed Ubuntu? – Marethyu Jan 30 '20 at 18:02
  • That Win hangover, I suspected it, and thanks for the new link and the clear explanation. One last question: ok with the "at least 30gb for Ubuntu", and nice that I shouldn't bother about the swap, but what would you suggest me for /root (given that /home should be as big as possible to host my files)? P.S.: how do you 'give kudos' here on askubuntu? Because I think you deserved... ;D – Marethyu Jan 30 '20 at 18:15
  • Click on the up arrowhead to the left of my answer if it's useful; also click on the checkmark below the arrowhead it it's the best solution provided. BTW, all the links from prior comments are now in my Answer; comments come and go but Questions and Answers last. – K7AAY Jan 30 '20 at 18:27

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16 GB of space for Ubuntu 18.04 in a dual boot environment would be adequate for the OS, its default apps, and the swapfile, but as you add apps, you may need to expand beyond 16 GB. It'd try for 30 GB, and if you can go into Windows and clean up its archive of old installers and such before booting from a LiveUSB and using Gparted to take another 14 GB from its NTFS partition, I think you'd be better off.

Swap, once upon a time, was faster when run in a separate swap partition, but ever since 2017, a swap file is as fast as a swap partition, so there's no justification to have a separate partition for it. Having a separate partition for swap complicates partition management, so just let Ubuntu create what it thinks is an optimum sized swap file in the Ubuntu filesystem. You can resize it later if you find you need Hibernation (a non-default option which uses more swap space), but with 8 GB RAM, you can reduce the frequency with which your system hits the swap file by adjusting swappiness (a whole 'nother topic). Commands to enable using a swapfile for Hibernation are here.

Since you can access the NTFS partition to use media and other files, you don't have to always store them in /home which reduces its potential size. Yeah, there's always another album or video to download, but the longer you wait to get a larger SSD, the cheaper and faster they will be.

The OS itself, with /root and /everythingelse, including the apps Ubuntu provides by default, used to fit very comfortably in 16 GB. However, Ubuntu's changing its software distribution model to add a different way to add apps, by Snaps which package everything you need for an app including its dependencies into one file. It's a nice idea which has been around for a while with AppImage and Flatpaks.

The only issue I have with Snaps is they take more disk space, which in your case, is important, so whenever you can add an app using good ol' sudo apt update && sudo apt install NAMEOFPACKAGEFORAPP, I'd recommend being Old School instead of reaching out for the convenient (but space-hoggish) Snap.

K7AAY
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