I've been using Linux Mint for a while now, and while I really enjoy it, I'm curious to try out some other distros like CachyOS. My current setup has Mint 22.3 installed on a 2TB SSD, where I originally created one big partition, which is now about 1TB full (mostly with Steam games I can reinstall). The Disks tool in Mint shows that I can resize this partition to free up around 900GB of space. I'm wondering if I can safely use the Resize tool to shrink the partition while Mint is running or if I need to boot from the CachyOS USB to do that. Also, once I've created a new partition for CachyOS, will I be able to dual boot alongside Mint automatically? Additionally, will CachyOS recognize all my existing drives, particularly the NTFS ones, and will it allow me to access files from Mint's filesystem? Lastly, is it possible to set up my existing Home folder in Mint to be shared across all the distros I install? I know it's generally easier to set this up initially but I wonder how complicated it would be at this stage.
2 Answers
It’s definitely possible to share your Home folder! You’ll need to create a new partition for your Home, copy over the files from your existing Home, and then edit the `/etc/fstab` file to point to the new partition. You can format it as ext4, which is the most common for Linux. Just remember to ensure you carry over all hidden files too! After mounting the new Home, you can reboot and confirm everything's running smoothly.
You can definitely use the Resize function in Mint to shrink your partition without needing to boot from a USB. Just make sure to close any apps that might be accessing the drive to avoid any issues. As for dual booting, CachyOS should set up the bootloader, but you might want to check if GRUB needs configuration later to ensure both distros are recognized at startup. Regarding your drives, CachyOS should be able to read Mint's filesystem and the NTFS ones as long as the correct support packages are installed. No worries there!
Make sure you check for the `ntfs-3g` package in CachyOS; that will help with NTFS compatibility.
So, just to clarify, I create the new Home partition, copy the files over, and then add the entry in fstab for that partition? Sounds doable! Will CachyOS recognize it immediately too?