On Wednesday 03 December 2003 13:04 pm, Thinker wrote: <SNIP>
Yes, I want to use it for linux. My questions are, what is the best way to set it up for this box? What should I edit and how? Is there a way I can add this drive to the current configuration and make the machine more efficient?
I'm not sure you could use it to make the machine more efficient, except maybe by using some of it for a second swap partition - although I doubt that will increase performance. You could easily use it a a data drive, like you say to unclutter your /home directory. Alternatively you could use it for one or more of /opt, /usr, /var or /tmp. /var and /tmp don't need to be very large (1GB for /var and maybe 2GB for / tmp should be more than enough.) Putting these often-accessed directories on a separate drive splits the drive access across separate interfaces, hence potentially increasing performance (but unlikely by enough to notice in normal usage.) To move these directories to the new drive: partition and format the drive using YaST's partitioner Assuming you made 3 partitions: hdh1 1GB hdh2 2GB hdh3 the rest of the drive make some temporary directories under /mnt, say /mnt/hdh1 etc... and one for the / of the installed system (maybe /mnt/instroot) MAKE A BACKUP OF /etc/fstab: cp -a /etc/fstab /etc/fstab.bak.thinker open /etc/fstab and add the lines for the new partitions: /dev/hdh1 /var ext3 defaults 1 1 /dev/hdh2 /tmp ext3 defaults 1 1 /dev/hdh3 /usr ext3 defaults 1 1 (change ext3 to your chosen filesystem.) reboot using the rescue system on the first CD/DVD mount the installation's / on /mnt/instroot: mount -t auto /dev/hdb2 /mnt/instroot and the new partitions on their directories: mount -t auto /dev/hdh1 /mnt/hdh1 etc... now copy the relevant directories from /mnt/instroot to the appropriate destination. In the example: cp -a /mnt/instroot/var /mnt/hdh1 cp -a /mnt/instroot/tmp /mnt/hdh2 cp -a /mnt/instroot/usr /mnt/hdh3 (it's not strictly necessary to copy the contents of /tmp) reboot as normal. You should now have the new copies of the directories mounted over (and hiding) the old copies. If all works well (for a day or so) you can boot with the rescue system again to delete the old contents of the directories which are still there on the / partition. Dylan
-thinker
-- Sweet moderation Heart of this nation Desert us not We are between the wars - Billy Bragg