Get help on partitioning here [Part 2]

[anchorman082589]

MOD EDIT: Part 1 of this topic was split: [topic=188770]Get help on partitioning here [Part 1][/topic]
-- Deathwing00


I know this has been asked a millon times but, i was wondering if anybody could tell me if i am on the right track

I have a laptop with a 1.4 pentium M, 1280mb ram, and a 60gb HD.

My hard drive is split into three sections, 20gb for windows, 20gb for gentoo, 20gb for common filles (music, documents... on a fat32 partition)

Here is how i partitioned the gentoo part:

Swap: 500mb
/Var: 5gb
/Usr: 5 gb
/ : 1 gb
/opt :6 gb
/tmp: 1
/home : 2gb

Am i on the right track?

[Ma3oxuct]

Make your life easier and do this:

/ : 16
/home : 3
swap: 500 mb
/boot: 500 mb

There really is no reason to split up /usr and /opt. You can separate /tmp and /opt, but you will not get any performance boost...You will simply waste hard-drive space. You should have a /boot though (I mean you could go without it, but it is highly recommended that your kernels are on a separate partition).

PS. if you are really inclined to split up your /opt and /usr, then it would be most efficent to make a /usr partition and link /opt to usr. i.e. ln -s /usr /opt

[jmbsvicetto]

Hi.

I agree with Ma3oxuct that it will be easier if you have less partiitons. I would only suggest that you use at most 128MB for /boot. If you use an ext2 partition, it's very unlikely that you will ever go beyond 64MB.

[anchorman082589]

I already had taken into account /boot, i forgot to mention it, but i olny made it 50mb, why make it 500?

[Ma3oxuct]

I already had taken into account /boot, i forgot to mention it, but i olny made it 50mb, why make it 500?

I personally have a lot of kernels for a number of systems that I have on my harddisk, that is why I automatically recommend 500. 50 megs should be sufficient. Go with 128 as jmbsvicetto suggested becuase you cannot go wrong with that.

[anchorman082589]

K, thanks.

Can somebody explain to me which folders holds what type of files in linux (specifically gentoo) ?

[anchorman082589]

Also: my goal in separating /tmp was not as much a performance boost as an organizational boost.

[jmbsvicetto]

I think you should look at the following
http://www.pathname.com/fhs/
http://www.tldp.org/LDP/Linux-Filesyste ... rchy/html/
http://www.tldp.org/LDP/Linux-Filesyste ... rarchy.pdf

[anchorman082589]

thanks

[anchorman082589]

I read through some of those sites and i think i understand everything a bit better.

Let me clarify myself a bit, for years in windows i have split my installation into a few partitions, one for the OS, one for the prog. files, one for the user data, and one for temp files; doing this makes reinstallations more bearable, and smoother. Now that I’m trying to seriously use linux i was trying to do something similar, after reading those guides i think i have a bit of a better idea, can anybody give their opinion on it?

Here is what i'm thinking:

Part 1: / Boot
Part 2: /Var (separated to be placed at the front for performance reasons)
Part 3: Swap
Part 4: /etc, /home (all my personal settings)
Part 5:/Opt, (the program files)
Part 6: /Temp (the temp files- at one point i came across a site that showed a way to use the same temp partition for windows and linux, i might try that at some point)
Part 7: /sbin, /lib, /svr and everything else (the system files)

[jmbsvicetto]

At this point you're better off having a smple partitioning scheme. Later, you can rethink your scheme.
One important notice is that you can't separate /etc and /sbin from /. They must all belong to the same partition.
I would recommend 4 partitions: /boot, /, /home and SWAP. If you want to use more, you can always have a separate partition for /var and /opt.

[anchorman082589]

Thanks, I guess i'll go with this:

1. /boot
2. /home
3. /var
4. /opt
5. swap
6. /

How how should i divide up 20gb of space between these? (don't take the /boot into account)

Thanks for all the help,

Dan

[Insulator]

Is there any reason why Gentoo shouldn't be installed entirely (ie boot, swap and root) within an extended partition?
Or does boot have to be a primary partition?

Sorry if this has been answered, I'm having trouble wading through all the docs, and I'm trying to install onto a computer that already has hda1, hda2 and hda5 used by windows. (hda1 is windows ME backup, and hda5 is windows xp within extended partition hda2) (I know, too much microsoft for one poor computer)

[jmbsvicetto]

Thanks, I guess i'll go with this:

1. /boot
2. /home
3. /var
4. /opt
5. swap
6. /

How how should i divide up 20gb of space between these? (don't take the /boot into account)

Thanks for all the help,
Dan

If you only have 20GB, I would use 4 partitions:

Code: Select all

/boot 128MB
/home X
SWAP 512MB
/        20GB - X - 640MB

Since you have over 1GB RAM, you might opt for not using SWAP - that's your choice. The size of /home should be determined by what you want to store in your home dir. Since you're planning to use a 20GB partition to share data between Gentoo and Windows, you might use 2GB or less. The size and number of partitions should also take into account the role your system will have. I know that you're talking about a laptop, but will it be used exclusively as a Desktop system, will you use it as a development station, or will you run it also as a server? All those roles should affect your choice.
As a "crude" example, these are my partitions on my "minimal" server:

Code: Select all

fw postfix # df -h
Filesystem            Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/hda3              20G  193M   19G   1% /
udev                  252M  248K  251M   1% /dev
cachedir               20G  193M   19G   1% /lib/splash/cache
/dev/hda2             9.6G   33M  9.6G   1% /home
/dev/hda6             9.6G  2.9G  6.8G  30% /usr
/dev/hda7              30G  346M   30G   2% /var
none                  252M     0  252M   0% /dev/shm
/dev/hda1             122M  9.6M  106M   9% /boot
fw postfix # 

and these are my partitions on my AMD64 Desktop system:

Code: Select all

atlantis@atl64 ~/Documents/UoL $ df -h
Filesystem            Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/sdb1              21G   12G  8,9G  56% /
udev                 1004M  260K 1004M   1% /dev
cachedir              4,0M   72K  4,0M   2% /lib64/splash/cache
/dev/md/0              70G   50G   21G  71% /home
/dev/sda5              21G  3,0G   18G  15% /opt
/dev/sda6              44G   41G  3,3G  93% /srv
/dev/sdb6              22G  8,1G   14G  38% /var
tmpfs                1004M     0 1004M   0% /dev/shm
/dev/sda1             122M   24M   92M  21% /boot
atlantis@atl64 ~/Documents/UoL $ 

Don't worry about /home and /srv as I filled them with data. This system has KDE, GNOME, OpenOffice.org, many multimedia applications and some development tools.

[jmbsvicetto]

Is there any reason why Gentoo shouldn't be installed entirely (ie boot, swap and root) within an extended partition?
Or does boot have to be a primary partition?

Sorry if this has been answered, I'm having trouble wading through all the docs, and I'm trying to install onto a computer that already has hda1, hda2 and hda5 used by windows. (hda1 is windows ME backup, and hda5 is windows xp within extended partition hda2) (I know, too much microsoft for one poor computer)

Hi.

You can install Gentoo exclusively in extended partitions. However, you must have free space on your disk to create the partiitions to Gentoo.
From your description it's not clear if you have unused disk space or if you were thinking in installing in some free space on your /dev/hda5 partition. THe latter doesn't work. You'll have to get some unused disk space to create your partitions with Gentoo.

[Insulator]

Yeah OK. I have space on the drive, its 120G and the 2 windows installs are 20G each.

Thanks for the response

[crazy_wookie]

this would be my first contact with linux so sorry if i am stupid
i want to install gentoo x86.. but i have a hdd at 30 gb with 2 partitions : c for winxp and d for anything else.. i cannot change nothing at c..
so please tell me how should i do the partitions (with qtparted) considering the fact that i still should be able to run winxp
please keep in mind that i am newbie so the explication should be very easy to understand (i can't do anything in linux!)
thank you very much

[morodoch]

Do you have anything on d: that you want to keep? Do you want to shrink this partition and keep its contents? Or do you want to trash d: and use it in its entirety?

[opqdan]

If trashing d (hereafter refered to hda2, which it probably is), then simply:
1. Delete the hda2 partition
2. Create a new boot primary partition of 32MB - hda2
3. Create a new swap primary partition of 512MB and set it's type to 0x83 - hda3
4. Create an extended partition - hda5 (although it won't be listed)
5. Create new partitions in the extended one for whatever else you want (/ etc.)- hda6 - ...

It is possible to also put the boot and swap in the extended partition (I believe). You could also get by with all primary partitions, but you would never be able to add another without deleting one.
1) windows (c)
2) boot
3) swap
4) root

I could give the the process of doing the above with fdisk, but I have never used qtparted.

[VStrider]

i have a hdd at 30 gb with 2 partitions : c for winxp and d for anything else.. i cannot change nothing at c..
so please tell me how should i do the partitions (with qtparted) considering the fact that i still should be able to run winxp

First of all, you won't be able to run qtparted. Qtparted is a graphical partitioning tool. You'll need to have gentoo already installed with X and Qt to run it, which you don't. So you'll have to use fdisk or parted.

Second, I don't think you have enough space. If this is gonna be a desktop, you'll need at least 15-20 Gb for root and at least 5-15 Gb for home(depending on your use).

[nixnut]

Merged above four posts here.

[jmbsvicetto]

Hi and welcome to the forums crazy_wookie.

If you want to use qtparted, you should download the knoppix live-cd. You can install Gentoo using the Knoppix live-cd using the alternative install guide.

[Mart352]

Hi

First I hope I posted this in to the right place.


I would like to have some help on how to partition the hard drive.
Computer is HP Compaq NC8000 notebook

Pentium M 1.6GHz
512 MiB DDR SDRAM
15-inch color TFT SXGA+ 1400x1050
ATI Mobility Radeon 9600 Pro 64MiB
DVD/CD-RW combo
40 GB (37.26 GiB) (5400 rpm) 8MiB HDD
802.11 b/g/super-g wireless LAN, 10/100/1000 NIC
bluetooth, IR

Is this ok?

50 MiB /boot
768 MiB /swap
6 GiB /Gentoo
30 GiB /home

Or is there a better solution and what about file systems, wich ones should i use?
If it's any help then usually my hard drives are filled up as much as possible.
Notebook uses: web browsing, work, music, movies, games etc. I would like to get the most of its performance.

Maybe someone has experiences with Gentoo on NC8000 and wishes to share them.


Happy Holidays

[VStrider]

6 GiB /Gentoo

Hi, your root partition is too small. Gentoo needs alot of space for source files etc. My root currently uses about 11Gb out of 25. Give something like 15Gb to root and you should be ok.

which ones [filesystems] should i use?

Use ext2 for your /boot. As for the rest, it's up to you. I use reiser4 for root and ext3 for home.

[luddite]

Is it possible to have two or more directories at the same partition? For instance, can I have something like this?
hda1: /boot
hda2: swap
hda3: /
hda5: /usr and /opt
hda6: /home and /var

Just create symlinks instead. For example,

Code: Select all

ln -s /usr/local /opt

ensures that all binary/optional packages are installed to /usr/local on the /usr partition.
If you already have an /opt directory, simply mv it to the new destination and symlink afterwards.

As was mentioned before, for people new to the linux world using just one / and a /boot partition is recommended. It works and you will reinstall anyway once you know your way around.

I've got a similar problem. I've outgrown the hard disk that hosts my Gentoo system, so I'd like to move the /home and /opt directories to another hard disk that's only got one partition available on it. I don't want to re-partition the disk because it already has data on it.

So here's what I want to do: Right now my Gentoo installation looks like this:

Code: Select all

/dev/hda1    /boot
/dev/hda2    /swap
/dev/hda3    /

I have copied my /opt and /home directories to the partition on /hdc3. I want to mount both /opt and /home on /dev/hdc3. How do I mount the drive in /etc/fstab with those two folders on the same partition? Do I need two separate entries in FSTAB? What symlinks do I need to create, and where do I need to create them?

Thanks.