Is it possible to install Asahi with /home and/or /root folders on external drive?

Our Neighbors Asahi Linux Ask Asahi
1

Hi,

I would like to install Asahi Linux or the Asahi Fedora remix alongside MacOS on my M1 Macbook Pro, however I have the base 256GB model and there isn’t much room for a second whole file system on it. Does anyone know if it is possible to have an installation of Asahi where at least the home folder is on an external drive and any other partitions needed are on the internal drive? Thanks.

2

I wouldn’t recommend moving /root to an external USB drive on any Linux distro (if you need to store many files under /root, just create a subdirectory that is mounted to an external USB drive).

/home could safely be moved after installation by modifying the appropriate line in /etc/fstab or the appropriate Systemd mount unit file (the modern way :-), but it may be more appropriate to instead create a subdirectory of /home/user (e.g., /home/user/stuff) after installation that is mounted to external USB storage for storing large files.

Say, for example you want to mount it to /home/bob/stuff and it contains an ext4 filesystem and you boot to a desktop (graphical.target). Just create a /etc/systemd/system/stuff.mount file with the following contents (replace the UUID with the right one for the filesystem on your external USB drive from the output of blkid):

[Unit]
Description=Mount stuff filesystem in graphical target
 
[Mount]
What=/dev/disk/by-uuid/4f07cfa5-fb5b-4511-8688-3305759d9006
Where=/home/bob/stuff
Type=ext4
Options=defaults
 
[Install]
WantedBy=graphical.target

Then, enable it with systemctl enable stuff.mount

2 Likes
3

This is the answer :slight_smile:

One caveat: suspend will currently cause a USB reconnect for all devices, due to some issues with the USB controller. We’re working on that, but until that’s sorted out, it’s not safe to move any critical part of your mounts to a USB drive and use it simultaneously with suspend. If you do this, I recommend making sure you disable automatic suspend (on low battery, on lid close, etc.) in your power settings.

3 Likes
4

Great, thank you! For now I have managed to remove enough junk from my laptop to make room for both OSes, but this will be a good option if I run out of storage.