If you could really use every GB of the SSD, I would recommend you modify things so that everything is in a single partition that takes up the entire SSD. Only have a true swap partition if you use the hibernation feature (suspend to disk). If you don't use hibernation, but you still want swap, create a swapfile. With a swapfile, it's easy to delete it at any time if you need more disk space.
I've used Debian for many years, but honestly I have never used /var on a separate partition. But I can say 2GB would definitely be enough unless you have, say, a humongous web site stored on /var/www (the default location for a web site). Some stuff you can do to clean up disc space:
Code:
apt-get clean
apt-get install localepurge
apt-get remove --purge packageYouDontWant
apt-get autoremove --purge
I always run apt-get clean to flush out cached archives after installing regular updates. Localepurge is a package to get rid of stuff for languages other than the one(s) you need. It doesn't actually free up much space, so don't be surprised when it doesn't really help much.
Another thing that can help conserve disc space, but at the expense of RAM, is to mount /home/user/.cache on a tmpfs RAM disk. Depending on your web browser(s) and web browsing habits, this might amount to a large fraction of a GB. Of course, moving it from the SSD to RAM isn't a free ride. It consumes space in RAM, and also it gets wiped clean when you reboot. Still, there are various things I like to mount on RAM disks:
Code:
Filesystem 1M-blocks Used Available Use% Mounted on
none 3950 33 3917 1% /var/log
none 3950 0 3950 0% /var/tmp
none 3950 1 3950 1% /tmp
none 3950 0 3950 0% /media
none 3950 246 3705 7% /home/kuo/.cache
The /etc/fstab entries for these look like:
Code:
none /tmp tmpfs defaults 0 0
none /var/tmp tmpfs defaults 0 0
none /media tmpfs defaults 0 0
none /var/log tmpfs defaults 0 0
none /home/kuo/.cache tmpfs defaults 0 0
Anyway, the basic steps for converting to a single large partition would be:
1) copy /etc/fstab and prepare a modified fstab:
Code:
cp -vax /etc/fstab /etc/fstab.backup
vi /etc/fstab
Modify it by deleting or commenting out the entries for /var and /home and other such things, as well as comment out the swap partition entry.
2) Boot up to a liveCD.
3) Use gparted to resize/move partitions, if necessary, to provide adequate room in the / partition to store everything. Delete the swap partition at this time (depending on the liveCD, you might need to run "swapoff -a" first to unlock the swap partition.)
4) Mount the various partitions.
5) Copy the contents of various partitions to the appropriate locations in the / partition. Something like this:
Code:
cp -vax /media/user/VARPART/* /media/user/ROOTPART/var/
6) After all contents have been copied, reboot the system to make sure everything works. Use "fdisk -l" to confirm that none of the other partitions are mounted.
7) Boot back into the liveCD; use gparted to delete the now unused partitons. Resize the main partition to use the entire space of the SSD.