Get help on partitioning here [Part 2]

[NathanZachary]

So your saying to make my partition something like this:

/dev/sda1 --> /boot (50MB, ext2)
/dev/sda2 --> Windows XP (40GB, NTFS)
/dev/sda3 --> swap (1024MB, swap)
/dev/sda4 --> extended
/dev/sda5 --> / (15GB, ext3)
/dev/sda6 --> /shared (~14GB [whatever is left], NTFS or VFAT)

And then install grub on boot before continuing with anything else?

I've never had to have a partition scheme like this one, but this concept will work as well. I set my dual-boot machine up like this:

/dev/sda1 --> Windows
/dev/sda2 --> /boot
/dev/sda3 --> swap
/dev/sda4 --> /

Then, I just make sure that I manually install GRUB into the MBR. However, the method of putting the /boot partition first should work nicely as well.

[Rede]

The stupidest thing is I have had gentoo and xp dual booted on the same lap before... I just can not remember how I set it up, I think I had xp installed first.

I am going to leave my partition scheme with /boot in sda2, just to save me setting up the partition again. The only problem now is I am having trouble finding help on how to manually install grub. Can anyone point me to some sort of tute?

Thanks.

[Lajasha]

You may wish to try to reinstall grub (or what ever boot loader you used) to you boot sector.

Personaly if you went with the last layout mentioned, I would set the boot partition as hda1 as I have seen some pretty od boot problems resolved by making sure your boot partition is the first partition. Windows wont see it and will still think it is the C: drive so no foul there.


Snipet from the manual so ya dont have to go fishing

Code Listing 2.27: Emerge grub and edit its configuration file

livecd conf.d # nano -w /boot/grub/grub.conf

Code Listing 2.28: Example grub.conf

default 0
timeout 10

title=Gentoo
root (hd0,0)
kernel /boot/kernel root=/dev/sda3

Code Listing 2.29: Install grub

livecd conf.d # grub
Probing devices to guess BIOS drives. This may take a long time.

grub> root (hd0,0)
Filesystem type is ext2fs, partition type 0xfd

grub> setup (hd0)
Checking if "/boot/grub/stage1" exists... yes
Checking if "/boot/grub/stage2" exists... yes
Checking if "/boot/grub/e2fs_stage1_5" exists... yes
Running "embed /boot/grub/e2fs_stage1_5 (hd0)"... 16 sectors are embedded.
succeeded
Running "install /boot/grub/stage1 (hd0) (hd0)1+16 p (hd0,0)/boot/grub/stage2 /boot/
grub/menu.lst"... succeeded
Done.

grub> quit

reboot

[Nazarchist]

ahoj
I'm currently using ubuntu and I want to install gentoo to try it out
would 10 gb be sufficient for installing and how should I partition it?
system is an intel 1.6ghz, 512mb ram, 80 hdd (I need at least 60 for ubuntu at the moment)
some help would be nice

[Lajasha]

ahoj
I'm currently using ubuntu and I want to install gentoo to try it out
would 10 gb be sufficient for installing and how should I partition it?
system is an intel 1.6ghz, 512mb ram, 80 hdd (I need at least 60 for ubuntu at the moment)
some help would be nice

10G is fine, depending on what your going to be doing. If your just doing a client box with X and what not then your good.

As far as partitions, given I do no know your current layout All you really need to do is make 1 partition as you can use the same swap and boot partitions ubuntu. So just image your current schema with one more part.

[nixnut]

merged some posts above

[Rede]

Hey guys,

I think I have gone down the wrong path to try get this working. I tried to install grub of the livecd but emerge didn't work? So then I decided to install gentoo onto the partition I had set up for it. All was going well until I got up to using fstab. Can anyone tell me if I am doing this right still? and if I am how to put:

/dev/sda1 --> /boot (50MB, ext2)
/dev/sda2 --> Windows XP (40GB, NTFS)
/dev/sda3 --> swap (1024MB, swap)
/dev/sda4 --> extended
/dev/sda5 --> / (15GB, ext3)
/dev/sda6 --> /shared (~14GB [whatever is left], NTFS or VFAT)

Into fstab.

Thanks.

[Lajasha]

Hey guys,

I think I have gone down the wrong path to try get this working. I tried to install grub of the livecd but emerge didn't work? So then I decided to install gentoo onto the partition I had set up for it. All was going well until I got up to using fstab. Can anyone tell me if I am doing this right still? and if I am how to put:

/dev/sda1 --> /boot (50MB, ext2)
/dev/sda2 --> Windows XP (40GB, NTFS)
/dev/sda3 --> swap (1024MB, swap)
/dev/sda4 --> extended
/dev/sda5 --> / (15GB, ext3)
/dev/sda6 --> /shared (~14GB [whatever is left], NTFS or VFAT)

Into fstab.

Thanks.

well fstab should look like this

Code: Select all

/dev/sda1               /boot           ext2            noauto,noatime  1 2
/dev/sda5               /               ext3            defaults        1 1
/dev/sda3               swap            swap            defaults        0 0
/dev/sda6               /shared         fat             defaults        1 1
/dev/cdroms/cdrom0      /mnt/cdrom      iso9660         noauto,ro       0 0
#/dev/fd0               /mnt/floppy     auto            noauto          0 0
usbfs                   /proc/bus/usb   usbfs           defaults        0 0
# NOTE: The next line is critical for boot!
proc                    /proc           proc            defaults        0 0

[Rede]

I set my fstab up like that, thanks.

I just finished the install and went to reboot. I got an error with my grub config file.

It looks like this:

default 0
timeout 30
splashimage=(hd0,0)/boot/grub/splash.xpm.gz

title=Gentoo Linux 2.6.19-r5
root (hd0,0)
kernel /boot/kernel-genkernel-x86-2.6.19-gentoo-r5 root=/dev/ram0 init=/linuxrc ramdisk=8192 real_root=/dev/sda5 udev
initrd /boot/initramfs-genkernel-x86-2.6.19-gentoo-r5

# Only in case you want to dual-boot
title=Windows XP
rootnoverify (hd0,1)
makeactive
chainloader +1

Can someone please tell me where i went wrong.

[Lajasha]

I set my fstab up like that, thanks.

I just finished the install and went to reboot. I got an error with my grub config file.

It looks like this:

default 0
timeout 30
splashimage=(hd0,0)/boot/grub/splash.xpm.gz

title=Gentoo Linux 2.6.19-r5
root (hd0,0)
kernel /boot/kernel-genkernel-x86-2.6.19-gentoo-r5 root=/dev/ram0 init=/linuxrc ramdisk=8192 real_root=/dev/sda5 udev
initrd /boot/initramfs-genkernel-x86-2.6.19-gentoo-r5

# Only in case you want to dual-boot
title=Windows XP
rootnoverify (hd0,1)
makeactive
chainloader +1

Can someone please tell me where i went wrong.

What is the error?

[Rede]

Error is as follows:

Booting 'Gentoo linux'

root (hd0,0)
Filesystem type is ext2fs, partition type 0x83
kernel /boot/kernel-genkernel-x86-2.6.19-gentoo-r5 root=/dev/ram0 init=linuxrc ramdisk=8192 real_root=/dev/sda5 udev

error 15: File not found

Press any key to continue...

[Lajasha]

Error is as follows:

Booting 'Gentoo linux'

root (hd0,0)
Filesystem type is ext2fs, partition type 0x83
kernel /boot/kernel-genkernel-x86-2.6.19-gentoo-r5 root=/dev/ram0 init=linuxrc ramdisk=8192 real_root=/dev/sda5 udev

error 15: File not found

Press any key to continue...

double check that this file exists

Code: Select all

/boot/kernel-genkernel-x86-2.6.19-gentoo-r5

Also make sure you have /boot mounted when you do so, this is very important. If boot is not mounted and you copy the kernel over then it will be hidden once the /boot part is mounted.

Code: Select all

mount -t ext2 /dev/sda1 /boot
copy arch/i386/boot/bzImage  /boot/kernel-genkernel-x86-2.6.19-gentoo-r5

[Rede]

Ok I'll check those now. I am just chucking the livecd back on.

[Rede]

/boot/kernel-genkernel-x86-2.6.19-gentoo-r5 Is not there.

?

[Lajasha]

Then copy it there. the command I posted should help

[Rede]

cp: cannot stat 'arch/i386/boot/bzImage': No such file or directory

[Lajasha]

cp: cannot stat 'arch/i386/boot/bzImage': No such file or directory

Check into the handbook here

[oegat]

I'm building an amd64 system for dual desktop/server use, it will both run as my primary X desktop but also serve my other computers with home dirs and media files. I have one 300G samsung sata disk for the system + general storage (except /home that goes on its own disks). These are my figures so far:

Code: Select all

sda1 /boot    100M	 ext2
sda2 swap     2G
sda3 /	      2G	ext3
sda5 ext'd
sda6 /usr	20G	   ext3
sda7 /var	20G	   reiser3
sda8 /store	~250G	ext3
md0  /home    80G       ext3     (soft raid1, ata100, dedicated ide channels) 
tmpfs /tmp

With the follwing symlink modifications:

Code: Select all

/usr/src	     -> /var/build/src
/usr/portage	  -> /var/build/portage
/opt		      -> /usr/opt

I will use it as a normal desktop but with matlab7 installed, I might also play around with virtualization software or try some game at times. I try to optmize after access patterns, thats why I'm moving sources and portage out of usr. So the questions:

Wasting size is not a big issue, but excessive disk head movements are. Is /usr (including /opt) way too big for normal use?

Would it be a better idea to leave the frequently accessed parts of /var on / and use the other partition only for build and /var/tmp?

Given that I have 2 gigs of ram, and 2 other ata100 disks that may host additional swap partitions (i actually plan to use striped swap on the ata100 disks primarily and the swap on sda mostly as backup), should it pay to let portage do the building on tmpfs instead?

Anything regarding my choice of filesystem types?

Thankful for your thoughts or suggestions.

[ColeSlaw]

I've come across two 120 GB hard drives, so I'm going to start with a new install on my main desktop PC. I want some recommendations as to what I should do, because I want to attempt something particularly difficult.

I want to install 4 operating systems. Gentoo - my workhorse, Windows XP for gaming, Windows Vista to try it out, and Mac OSX to see if I can. My delima is how to setup my partitioning scheme.

I'm not worried about having a lot of storage space on any given partition, because I have a file server (running Gentoo!) with half a terabyte of storage for media, documents, etc.

I'm thinking something like this so far:

hda1 /boot 32M ext2
hda2 /swap 512M swap
hda3 /root 30G reiser3 - Gentoo
hda4 Windows XP

hdb1 Windows Vista
hdb2 Mac OSX

If anybody has any other suggestions, I would be interested to hear them. Also, any help setting up grub would be greatly appreciated.

[the.ant]

I don't know anything 'bout macos or vista, but I would not use reiserfs for / if you don't have further partitions, because of it's fragmentation problems.
Also, if you can spare some space on the second HD, you could create a PV on each disk to create a striped LVM for gentoo, might give you a nice perfomance increase.

Personally however, I would try out vista first and only set up the rest of the machine after you are annoyed by it and have deleted it again. That way you can integrate the diskspace right away when setting everything up. For the unlikely possibility that you are not horribly annoyed by it, you could scrap xp instead.

[onmmno]

Hello,

i'm going to setup a dualboot system with Gentoo and Windows Vista on a 500 GB sata HD, but I'm stil unsure about the partitioning and the filesystems. Here is what I'm going to do, maybe you have some better ideas:

/dev/sda1: Primary partition (about 50 GB): Windows Vista on NTFS
/dev/sda2: Extended partition (about 22 GB): Gentoo
/dev/sda3: Primary partition (about 200 GB): Personal data
/dev/sda4: Primary partition (about 200 GB): Personal data (One of those should be useable by Vista and Gentoo. Is NTFS already write-stable or is there another FS both can use (maybe better than FAT32)? The other partition only has to be used by Gentoo and is for backups of files between 5 MB and 1 GB. Any ideas for a FS?)
/dev/sda5: Logical partition (about 100 MB): /boot (Do I still need that or is one / partition ok? Which FS for /boot should I use?).
/dev/sda6: Logical partition (about 20 GB): / (Which FS would you recommend? I'm a little bit confused about all the advantages and disadvantages I heared about Reiser4, ext4 etc...)
/dev/sda7: Logical partition (about 2 GB): swap (Is that ok with 4 GB ram or should I use a swap file instead?)


I thank you for your help!

[alphonce]

Hi,

I've ordered a new computer which will arrive next week
I have had a lot of time to think of my setup, mainly partition and filesystem choice.
l also thought of doing a lvm setup, but read some articles of lvm and performance loss and heard numbers up to 50%.
Yet I also read some text about performance gains with lvm + jfs, which is the filesystem I'm probably going to use.
Any comments on this?
I really want to use lvm because it's very convenient in all sorts of ways, but is a bit afraid of performance losses.

Here is what I thought of without lvm on a 320Gb drive. I'm going to use the computer for everything. Running Gnome, Openoffice, programming apps, music apps, a bit of everything really.

Code: Select all

boot      256Mb
swap      2Gb
root      1Gb
usr       10GB
opt       1Gb
var       3Gb
home      100+Gb

Is the sizes of these partition enough? I really would like to not resize these if these will run out of free space (LVM ). mainly thinking of the usr partition.

All comments appreciated, please.

[nixnut]

merged above post here.

[TheNewOsiris]

Hello. I just finished intalling a new gentoo system in a new partition. So now I have 2 gentoo partitions and some other stuff.
Here is what the partition table looks like:

Code: Select all

Disk /dev/sda: 250.0 GB, 250059350016 bytes 
 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 30401 cylinders 
 Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes 
 Disk identifier: 0x000a198e 
 
    Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System 
 /dev/sda1   *           1        8642    69416833+   7  HPFS/NTFS 
 /dev/sda2           12749       30083   139243387+  83  Linux 
 /dev/sda3           30084       30401     2554335   82  Linux swap / Solaris 
 /dev/sda4            8643       12748    32981445   83  Linux 

sda2 is the old gentoo partition. sda4 is the new one.

Whenever I try to boot into sda4 I get the following error message: "/dev/sda4 is not a valid ROOT partition. Type shell or q to quit."

Here is a copy of my grub.conf:

Code: Select all

default=0
timeout=10
splashimage=(hd0,1)/gentoo_splash/boot/grub/gentoo.xpm.gz

title Gentoo Linux (1)
	root (hd0,1)
	kernel /boot/kernel-genkernel-x86-2.6.19-gentoo-r4 root=/dev/ram0 ramdisk=8192 real_root=/dev/sda2   vga=791 CONSOLE=/dev/tty1 pci=nomsi
	initrd /boot/initramfs-genkernel-x86-2.6.19-gentoo-r4

title  Gentoo Linux (2)
root (hd0,3)
kernel /boot/kernel-genkernel-x86-2.6.23-gentoo-r8 root=/dev/ram0 init=/linuxrc ramdisk=8192 real_root=/dev/sda4 udev 
initrd /boot/initramfs-genkernel-x86-2.6.23-gentoo-r8


title Windows Vista Ultimate
	rootnoverify (hd0,0)
	chainloader +1

Here is what /etc/fstab looks like in sda2:

Code: Select all

/dev/sda2               /                       ext3    defaults,user_xattr 1 1 
 /dev/sda3               swap                    swap    defaults        0 0 
 /dev/sda4               /mnt/gentoo2            ext3    defaults        0 3 
 tmpfs                   /dev/shm                tmpfs   defaults        0 0 

And fstab in sda4:

Code: Select all

 
/dev/sda2               /mnt/gentoo1            ext3    defaults,user_xattr 0 2
/dev/sda3               swap                     swap    defaults        0 0 
 /dev/sda4               /                        ext3    defaults,noatime 0 1 
 shm                     /dev/shm                 tmpfs   defaults        0 0 
 proc                    /proc                    proc    nodev,nosuid    0 0      
 /dev/cdrom              /mnt/cdrom               auto    noauto,user     0 0 

Can someone please tell me what I'm doing wrong?
I find it strange that the new installation thinks that /dev/sda4 is not a valid root partition. Also the text of the boot-sequence is about twice as large as the text in the boot sequence of the original installation.
Also, I can mount and chroot into /dev/sda4 from sda2.

Thanks in advance.

[ATA]

greetings,
first what i have :
2 hdds both 160gb.

what i want :
close to maximal space for userfiles,
minimal size for backups.

OS : xp, vista +gentoo ofc

currently :
hdd1 : 10gb xp, 40gb vista (will be shrunken to 20 or so)
hdd2 : 80 gb ntfs for both vista and xp. the other 80gb should go for /home

as far as i remeber i would need something like that :
<512mb /boot
2 or 4 GB /swap (8gb usefull for 4gb ram?) /nothing that big running though
and a / with the rest of hdd1 (about 100gb)
cause i didnt want to backup all of the used space there probably is a way to just backup the needed cfg files. (ofc portage wont need to be backuped)

my last install was with /usr /opt /home and / seperatly, but it so happend that /usr got full (didnt have the time to read howto delete unnessecary stuff back then, if theres a guide, programm or whatever : plz hint me to there