Newbie: Partitioning Question
Hi, friends. I plan to install SuSE Linux on a new hard drive today. It is a Western Digital, 120 GB, 7200 RPM, 8 MB Cache drive (I hope it's compatible). My question is this: Is there a better way to partition this big drive, other than what will be recommended during the installation? I believe the default is a boot partition, a swap partition, and the rest for root. Thanks in advance. I hope for a prompt response, as I'm anxious to begin using SuSE Linux. -- Daly (daly.gutierrez@cox.net)
On Saturday 14 June 2003 13:20 pm, Daly Gutierrez wrote:
Hi, friends.
I plan to install SuSE Linux on a new hard drive today. It is a Western Digital, 120 GB, 7200 RPM, 8 MB Cache drive (I hope it's compatible). My question is this: Is there a better way to partition this big drive, other than what will be recommended during the installation? I believe the default is a boot partition, a swap partition, and the rest for root. Thanks in advance. I hope for a prompt response, as I'm anxious to begin using SuSE Linux.
-- Daly (daly.gutierrez@cox.net)
1) Keep it simple. Others will tell you to divide things into /var /usr /home /etccccccc 2) Don't let the install use up all your space! 3) I usually make a: /boot 23m /home 2G (in your case you might want 3G) / 6G (is plenty) /swap 1G (is plenty) That's all I would do... What this will do is to leave you plenty of space to ADD SuSE 8.3 when it comes along... or to set up other directories. It also makes it easy to have just a /boot82 and a /boot83 and a /for 82 and a / for 83 instead of having 5 to 10 different partitions for each version of the system. Have more than one release of SuSE on your drive is a real benefit when something breaks, or you want to do a new install. (fresh install... don't ever upgrade if you can help it.) -- +----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ + Bruce S. Marshall bmarsh@bmarsh.com Bellaire, MI 06/14/03 13:27 + +----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ "The police are not here to create disorder, they're here to preserve disorder" -Former Chicago Mayor Daley during 1968 convention
On Sat, 2003-06-14 at 19:31, Bruce Marshall wrote:
On Saturday 14 June 2003 13:20 pm, Daly Gutierrez wrote:
Hi, friends.
I plan to install SuSE Linux on a new hard drive today. It is a Western Digital, 120 GB, 7200 RPM, 8 MB Cache drive (I hope it's compatible). My question is this: Is there a better way to partition this big drive, other than what will be recommended during the installation? I believe the default is a boot partition, a swap partition, and the rest for root. Thanks in advance. I hope for a prompt response, as I'm anxious to begin using SuSE Linux.
-- Daly (daly.gutierrez@cox.net)
1) Keep it simple. Others will tell you to divide things into /var /usr /home /etccccccc
It depends on what type of installation it is. On a server, having a separate /var can make a lot of sense. I don't think I've ever seen a separate /etc though
2) Don't let the install use up all your space!
3) I usually make a:
/boot 23m /home 2G (in your case you might want 3G) / 6G (is plenty) /swap 1G (is plenty)
That's all I would do...
You would use 10GB out of 120, leaving 110 wasted, simply so you can install 8.3 when it comes out? Tell me, do you do anything with your machine besides installing OSes? :) The default as of 8.1 is swap and /. I would recommend going with that. A good chunk of swap, and the rest for the root partition.
(fresh install... don't ever upgrade if you can help it.)
Why on earth not?
On Saturday 14 June 2003 13:41 pm, Anders Johansson wrote:
On Sat, 2003-06-14 at 19:31, Bruce Marshall wrote:
On Saturday 14 June 2003 13:20 pm, Daly Gutierrez wrote:
Hi, friends.
I plan to install SuSE Linux on a new hard drive today. It is a Western Digital, 120 GB, 7200 RPM, 8 MB Cache drive (I hope it's compatible). My question is this: Is there a better way to partition this big drive, other than what will be recommended during the installation? I believe the default is a boot partition, a swap partition, and the rest for root. Thanks in advance. I hope for a prompt response, as I'm anxious to begin using SuSE Linux.
-- Daly (daly.gutierrez@cox.net)
1) Keep it simple. Others will tell you to divide things into /var /usr /home /etccccccc
It depends on what type of installation it is. On a server, having a separate /var can make a lot of sense. I don't think I've ever seen a separate /etc though
Here we go..... I made the assumption that anyone asking a partioning question as a newbie was not going to be building a server. And I run what I would call a 'server' in my home environment (hosts a couple of web sites) but I still would not partition it any differently.
2) Don't let the install use up all your space!
3) I usually make a:
/boot 23m /home 2G (in your case you might want 3G) / 6G (is plenty) /swap 1G (is plenty)
That's all I would do...
You would use 10GB out of 120, leaving 110 wasted, simply so you can install 8.3 when it comes out? Tell me, do you do anything with your machine besides installing OSes? :)
Wasted??? I would call a 110GB partition that the install might want to set up 'wasted'... definitely. What good is a '/' paritition that is about 3% utilized? I would call about 92% of the remainder as 'wasted'.
The default as of 8.1 is swap and /. I would recommend going with that. A good chunk of swap, and the rest for the root partition.
That's great.... about about 100GB sit there in root as idle space.
(fresh install... don't ever upgrade if you can help it.)
Why on earth not?
If it doesn't go right (and someday it won't) there is no return unless you are fully backed up and want to do a full restore. I'd rather just reboot to my old system until I get things worked out. And there are about 5 other good reasons not to upgrade but I'm not going to get on the bandstand for those. -- +----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ + Bruce S. Marshall bmarsh@bmarsh.com Bellaire, MI 06/14/03 13:50 + +----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ "If a man says something in the forest and there is no woman there, is he still wrong?"
On Sat, 2003-06-14 at 19:56, Bruce Marshall wrote:
2) Don't let the install use up all your space!
3) I usually make a:
/boot 23m /home 2G (in your case you might want 3G) / 6G (is plenty) /swap 1G (is plenty)
That's all I would do...
You would use 10GB out of 120, leaving 110 wasted, simply so you can install 8.3 when it comes out? Tell me, do you do anything with your machine besides installing OSes? :)
Wasted??? I would call a 110GB partition that the install might want to set up 'wasted'... definitely.
What good is a '/' paritition that is about 3% utilized? I would call about 92% of the remainder as 'wasted'.
I take that as a "no" then. Geez, 110GB is gone in no time on my machines
don't ever upgrade if you can help it.)
Why on earth not?
If it doesn't go right (and someday it won't) there is no return unless you are fully backed up and want to do a full restore. I'd rather just reboot to my old system until I get things worked out.
And there are about 5 other good reasons not to upgrade but I'm not going to get on the bandstand for those.
Silly FUD. I would agree that a fresh install is the "safer" option, but to say "never, ever do it" is going too far. I've upgraded several times with no issues whatever
On Saturday 14 June 2003 14:03 pm, Anders Johansson wrote:
On Sat, 2003-06-14 at 19:56, Bruce Marshall wrote:
2) Don't let the install use up all your space!
3) I usually make a:
/boot 23m /home 2G (in your case you might want 3G) / 6G (is plenty) /swap 1G (is plenty)
That's all I would do...
You would use 10GB out of 120, leaving 110 wasted, simply so you can install 8.3 when it comes out? Tell me, do you do anything with your machine besides installing OSes? :)
Wasted??? I would call a 110GB partition that the install might want to set up 'wasted'... definitely.
What good is a '/' paritition that is about 3% utilized? I would call about 92% of the remainder as 'wasted'.
I take that as a "no" then.
Geez, 110GB is gone in no time on my machines
You must be editing video then.....
don't ever upgrade if you can help it.)
Why on earth not?
If it doesn't go right (and someday it won't) there is no return unless you are fully backed up and want to do a full restore. I'd rather just reboot to my old system until I get things worked out.
And there are about 5 other good reasons not to upgrade but I'm not going to get on the bandstand for those.
Silly FUD.
Don't think so..... I did an upgrade from 8.0 to 8.1. My first upgrade ever with SuSE... (started with 7.2 on SuSE) 8.1 did not go well. Lots of things broken. I spent 3 days trying to sort things out and then had to do a FRESH install of 8.0 just to get back where I started. And I dumped 8.1 totally. About 4 days of wasted time to get back where I started. I will never do an upgrade again, even though I have 5 machines to install on. I'll do a fresh install on each one.
I would agree that a fresh install is the "safer" option, but to say "never, ever do it" is going too far. I've upgraded several times with no issues whatever
Good for you. :-) -- +----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ + Bruce S. Marshall bmarsh@bmarsh.com Bellaire, MI 06/14/03 14:11 + +----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ "Traditionally, most of Australia's imports come from overseas" -Former Australian Cabinet minister Keppel Enderbery
On Sat, 14 Jun 2003 10:20:01 -0700
Daly Gutierrez
Hi, friends.
I plan to install SuSE Linux on a new hard drive today. It is a Western Digital, 120 GB, 7200 RPM, 8 MB Cache drive (I hope it's compatible). My question is this: Is there a better way to partition this big drive, other than what will be recommended during the installation? I believe the default is a boot partition, a swap partition, and the rest for root. Thanks in advance. I hope for a prompt response, as I'm anxious to begin using SuSE Linux.
At the very least, make a separate partition for /home. That way, you can test out other linux versions, and keep your same homedir. It also makes backups easier. With a giant drive like that, you should also think ahead to what you might want to do later....like have a windows partition, or a couple of spare partitions to do some moving of big data, or backups. Personally I would do this: /dev/hda1 about 100 meg for /boot /dev/hda2 about 5 gigs for a windows partition or another test version of linux /dev/hda3 about 20 gig for / /dev/hda4 extended partition covering the rest of the disk. Then divide the extended into /dev/hda5 about 20 gigs for /home /dev/hda6 about 1 gig for swap Use the following as multi purpose partitions, you can partition and use them anyway you want at the time. If you need more room in /home, just mount 1 of them on /home/user/somedir. If you want to test a new version of suse, install it in one of them. /dev/hda7 about 20 gigs /dev/hda8 about 20 gigs /dev/hda9 about 20 gigs /dev/hda10 --the rest It really dosn't pay to make really huge partitions, there is a certain point where it will slow things down. -- use Perl; #powerful programmable prestidigitation
On Sat, Jun 14, 2003 at 10:20:01AM -0700, Daly Gutierrez wrote:
Hi, friends.
I plan to install SuSE Linux on a new hard drive today. It is a Western Digital, 120 GB, 7200 RPM, 8 MB Cache drive (I hope it's compatible). My question is this: Is there a better way to partition this big drive, other than what will be recommended during the installation? I believe the default is a boot partition, a swap partition, and the rest for root. Thanks in advance. I hope for a prompt response, as I'm anxious to begin using SuSE Linux.
I'd certainly recommend making /home. Bruce and Anders make good points. But in any case having /home is just a Good Thing. Whether you decide to leave space for parallel installs of 8.3/9.0/other distro or whatever, having your data in /home will save you the trouble of having to move everything off the system, if (or when) you decide to change your partition layout, at a later stage. The downside being that kde (f.x.) stores your settings in a directory in your home. Which means that you could see some strangeness if you some day have 8.2/kde3.1 *and* 8.3/kde3.2 accessing the same files in ~/.kde/ What's that quote? "For the homeless, the journey is endless"? ;) HTH Jon Clausen -- If we can't be free, at least we can be cheap!
On Saturday 14 June 2003 11:23, Jon Clausen wrote:
On Sat, Jun 14, 2003 at 10:20:01AM -0700, Daly Gutierrez wrote:
Hi, friends.
I plan to install SuSE Linux on a new hard drive today. It is a Western Digital, 120 GB, 7200 RPM, 8 MB Cache drive (I hope it's compatible). My question is this: Is there a better way to partition this big drive, other than what will be recommended during the installation? I believe the default is a boot partition, a swap partition, and the rest for root. Thanks in advance. I hope for a prompt response, as I'm anxious to begin using SuSE Linux.
I'd certainly recommend making /home.
Bruce and Anders make good points. But in any case having /home is just a Good Thing.
Whether you decide to leave space for parallel installs of 8.3/9.0/other distro or whatever, having your data in /home will save you the trouble of having to move everything off the system, if (or when) you decide to change your partition layout, at a later stage.
The downside being that kde (f.x.) stores your settings in a directory in your home. Which means that you could see some strangeness if you some day have 8.2/kde3.1 *and* 8.3/kde3.2 accessing the same files in ~/.kde/
What's that quote? "For the homeless, the journey is endless"? ;)
HTH Jon Clausen
-- If we can't be free, at least we can be cheap!
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- My sincere thanks to all for your input. You have all, definitely, pointed me in the right direction. This list is indeed an excellent source of information. Wish me luck on my installation.. ;) -- Daly
participants (5)
-
Anders Johansson -
Bruce Marshall -
Daly Gutierrez -
Jon Clausen -
zentara