Today I accidentally rebooted my computer while performing a massive system upgrade, which nuked my Manjaro install. After live booting from an USB, mounting my /dev/sda3 partition (which stores the OS) and realizing through chmod that the mess was to big, I decided to simply reinstall Manjaro. It’s always fun, isn’t it?
This is my HDD partition table.
>>> sudo fdisk -l
Device Start End Sectors Size Type
/dev/sda1 2048 1026047 1024000 500M EFI System
/dev/sda2 1026048 17410047 16384000 7,8G Linux swap
/dev/sda3 17410048 222210047 204800000 97,7G Linux filesystem
/dev/sda4 222210048 1953523711 1731313664 825,6G Linux filesystem
As I understood, the OS would live inside /dev/sda3 while the root directory (together with folders such as Documents and the like) would be inside the /dev/sda4 drive.
This by the way actually worked with my previous install: the OS was at sda3 while my “personal” files lived in /sda4. Now, however, /sda4 appears as an additional device and, if I run cd or ls, for example, I navigate within /sda3.
Is there a way can somehow “link” the OS partition with /sda4 and go back to normal?
Thanks.
you mean you want to have the old home partition in the new install?
I think you have to modify your /etc/fstab to mount your /dev/sda4 to /home.
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Correct, but I don’t want to merge the partitions or expand /sda3 to the left.
I see. Let me try out that option. Thanks!
Okay, checking /etc/fstab shows:
>>>> nano fsatb
GNU nano 6.3 fstab
# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# Use 'blkid' to print the universally unique identifier for a device; this may
# be used with UUID= as a more robust way to name devices that works even if
# disks are added and removed. See fstab(5).
#
# <file system> <mount point> <type> <options> <dump> <pass>
UUID=C01A-E1F4 /boot/efi vfat umask=0077 0 2
UUID=0e5444a1-6464-4a06-9991-9bf167730f47 / ext4 defaults,noatime 0 1
It also shows that the file is unwritable. How would I modify it?
Thanks. I was just reading it!
Okay, so after reading the article that you provided (thanks!) as well as this very similar question, I have to:
- Mount
/sda4 (my old partition) inside my home directory, as I’m the only user in my laptop.
- Then, edit the entry in
/etc/fstab where type is / (which is root), so that it points to the recently created mount point in home?
How do I avoid a duplicate home directory? And wouldn’t the second step remove the mount I just created?
The root mount cannot be moved.
You simply need to add the configuration for mounting /sda4 – actually, it is recommended to use its UUID instead – to /home.
Check the configuration works with 
and if it’s right, you’re done.
mount -a