How to change default download directory to /home rather than root

Question

I am a newbie and have a Ubuntu 20.04lts dual booted with windows 8.1 pro on

ssd and hdd
SanDisk SSD i100 24GB (11.56.04)
WDC WD5000LPVX-22V0TT0 (01.01A01)(500gb)

as you see my SSD size is small so I created a partition of 20gb for the root and mounted it on / and the rest of the free space i used it as a swap area(4 gb),

and then created a partition on my hdd of about 100gb and mounted it on /home

now the problem is that all the updates and software's I download via the terminal or Ubuntu store gets installed on the root and not on my home partition which is reducing my space on the SSD.

So what should I do so that only the OS stays on the root and the rest of the software's and updates get shifted/installed on the HDD rather than on the SSD

please tell a detailed method as I read a few articles about it and I am not able to guess what to do .i am afraid that i might not do anything that might corrupt my files

pls use the below devices name

hdd-    /dev/sda6   ,    mounted at -"/home"     ,    uuid-92dda774-f971-494a-a3ed-a4c7faeed5b8 
ssd-    /dev/sdb2   ,   mounted at -"Filesystem Root" , uuid-b302b753-d77e-47fd-9aaf-173edfc7ad6f
pwd-    "/home/lakshya"

also on the computer in the other location menu,can i just shift the /home/lakshya folder to my hdd or delete it?as i can access it in the files won't it be easier to do so

You are making two classic new-user mistakes: 1) You don't get to easily decide where deb-based software installs to - that's coded into the package. 2) You don't need a separate swap partition - the Ubuntu installer's default is to create a swapfile in /var. Whether 24GB is too small depends upon what you want to install. — user535733, May 15 '20 at 12:16
no i still have about 12 gb free space left on it,i am just worried as when i download new softwares or updates the size reduces and you know new updates/patches are going to come later ,so if i install a larger game on it ,it is going to fill up the ssd — lakshya, May 15 '20 at 14:41
Updated packages replace older packages, so use very little additional space. — user535733, May 15 '20 at 15:00
@lakshya so your question is moot. You will NEVER EVER install 12Gb in software from the repositories. Software is counted in Mb not Gb. Updates will take up kb's as they replace software. Or heck it is totally possible for an update to remove code making it smaller. — Rinzwind, May 15 '20 at 16:54

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered May 15 '20 at 11:24

How to change default download directory to /home rather than root

Impossible (mind that I assume you meant "installation of software" and not "download") as /home/ does not store installed software unless you switch to installing software from source and never use the software store. If you do that I would suggest using /opt/ as a mount point (as that makes the software available to all users and not just your user).

now the problem is that all the updates and software I download via the terminal or Ubuntu store gets installed on the root and not on my home partition which is reducing my space on the SSD.

These are 2 different issues:

The download is kept in a cache directory (/var/cache/apt/archives/). You can delete the contents of that directory to save up space (see for instance var/cache/apt/archives occupying huge space ).

That cache can get large so removing those files might make the next part of this obsolete.
The installation of the download goes into several directories that reside in / (the main 3 are /usr/, /var/, and /etc/; more on that below) so it is impossible to move those locations to something like a /home/.

In the old days to separate installed software we would create a mount point for /usr/ (software mostly goes to this directory) and for /var/ (location for log files, websites, mysql database) and /etc/ (configuration files). But even then that came with a warning to keep them on the same disk: if the hdd is too slow during boot when the system expects /usr/ and /var/ to be available you have a broken boot.

So to do what you are asking you would need to create a mount point for /usr/ on the hdd. If you do that my advice would be to install ALL of Ubuntu on the HDD if you believe 20Gb is not enough and live with the fact booting is going to be a bit slower than when it would be done from the sdd.

Personal note:

SSD size is small so I created a partition of 20gb for the root

I have never ever needed more than 15Gb for root and I do things with my system you might not do (like coding websites, and converting databases).

so if i donot use the terminal and the ubuntu store ,and download .deb package from the browser and then set the default download location on the /home will it help — lakshya, May 15 '20 at 11:30
also is the download folder in the the /home or in the root as when i open other location>computer>home>lakshya>downloads,so when i put something in the /home it will also consume the root memory too.what do you think about it — lakshya, May 15 '20 at 11:41
you mean from the source code(like i have to use github for it) — lakshya, May 15 '20 at 14:46
also could you tell me a software that can compress the root like in windows ,or a disk cleaup tool — lakshya, May 15 '20 at 14:48
we do not have that kind of crap in linux ;-) and regarding clean up: deborphan But it will remove mere kb's not mb's as Linux/packages really tend to clean up well by themself. We don't have a bloated register like windows ;-) Deleting the content of the cache dir is going to yield a lot more space. Do you have libreoffice installed? if so deleting that will be a good pick if you do not use it — Rinzwind, May 15 '20 at 16:53
Man don't get angry on me I just was trying to learn,I am just a 17 old boy who hasn't tried Linux, I just wanted to shift to Ubuntu as my primary os as windows was bugging me off. — lakshya, May 15 '20 at 19:39

How to change default download directory to /home rather than root

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