Is it possible to have 2 different distros using the same /tmp partition?
According to the gentoo wiki … YES
http://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Knowledge_Base:Sharing_partitions_between_Linux_systems
although it would be an “odd” system that put /tmp on it’s own partition … ??
I agree, I can’t really see the point in a /tmp partition ???
The general advice for keeping SSD drives at optimal performance is not to put the /tmp partition on one.
So I have root on the SSD drive and swap, tmp and home all on the SATA platter drive. This means I can have a relatively cheap 30GB SSD drive and an older 500GB SATA drive.
The answer to my question appears to be yes, both distros have zero problem with using the same /tmp partition. Or at least, thus far both have behaved as expected.
Or you could shift /tmp to your ram
See here.
Which would be a better idea, as having it on the HDD is negating some of the benefit of an SSD
Many thanks for that.
Your quote;
The general advice for keeping SSD drives at optimal performance is not to put the /tmp partition on one.
On the other hand, for keeping your system at optimal performance, put the /tmp partition on an SSD.
Alternative add this to /etc/fstab and reboot;
tmpfs /tmp tmpfs defaults,noatime,mode=1777 0 0
One of the tips on the linked page is to instruct the browser to use /tmp as its cache, after putting /tmp into RAM.
Isn’t that a bit dangerous? Surely that exposes the system to buffer overflows?
I’m not knowledgable about such exploits so may have got the wrong end of the stick.
One of the tips on the linked page is to instruct the browser to use /tmp as its cache, after putting /tmp into RAM.
That may be no longer necessary.
In Firefox go to about:cache and see the current status.
If you see something like this:
Memory cache device
Number of entries: 339
Maximum storage size: 29696 KiB
Storage in use: 2571 KiB
Inactive storage: 2571 KiB
Then you do not need to do anything. If it is not like that then you can change the settings.
Go to about:config
Search: cache.
Set:
browser.cache.memory.enable true
browser.cache.disk.enable false (this may not be needed)
Restart Firefox to check status:
about:cache