Block Device Partitions

[djgil]

Hello, I am a relatively new user to Rocky Linux running 8.9. I am trying to understand the various partitions it has created by default (I believe). I am using a 120 GB SSD and it made 3 partitions:

75 GB Block Device
/dev/rl/root

6.3 GB Block Device
/dev/rl/swap

37 GB Block Device
/dev/rl/home

Is there a way to just have it utilize the entire 120gb disk space instead of these various partitions?

Thank you!

[jlehtone]

Yes, the installer has a default. On the “Storage” pane of the installer is “Customize” checkbox. If selected, installer will take you to manual partitioning, where you can choose differently.

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The default creates three partitions:

1. One with FAT32 filesystem. This is EFI System Partition. It is not created on system that boots with “legacy BIOS mode”
2. One with XFS filesystem for /boot. This has kernels and initramfs. They must be on something that bootloader can load from
3. One with LVM physical volume. It is part of LVM volume group

The volume group gets three LVM logical volumes:

1. For / with XFS. This has system files
2. For /home with XFS. This has user homes – user data
3. The swap. Separate partition for swap is not compulsory; swap can be on file within filesystem

There are two benefits from the separation of system and user data:

1. User cannot accidentally fill the / filesystem with, for example, downloading files. Full / does cause problems to the system
2. One can wipe the filesystem of /, reinstall, and remount the /home – no need to touch the user data. If everything were in one filesystem, then one would have to restore user data from backups