Esp. with the upcoming release of SuSE 8.2, I'm going to do a new setup of my system. With a single 80 Gb hard drive, what would be the best way to set up the partitions. I intend to wipe and reload. Secondary question: If I wanted to have two versions of Linux on the system at the same time (e.g. 8.1 and 8.2), can that be done, and if so, how? tia ---Michael
Michael Satterwhite wrote:
Esp. with the upcoming release of SuSE 8.2, I'm going to do a new setup of my system. With a single 80 Gb hard drive, what would be the best way to set up the partitions. I intend to wipe and reload.
I use Filesystem 1k-blocks Used Available Use% Mounted on /dev/hda8 2104408 148724 1955684 8% / /dev/hda6 31079 3883 25592 14% /boot /dev/hda12 4401636 1472472 2929164 34% /home /dev/hda11 5245020 1657748 3587272 32% /opt /dev/hda9 12586504 6480144 6106360 52% /usr /dev/hda10 2104408 602856 1501552 29% /var on about 30Gb and there's plenty of spare space. I also has /tmp with about 2Gb on /dev/hdb until the controller failed. /tmp is now symlinked to /usr, which is why it's full and /home contains everything I want to transfer to 8.2
Secondary question: If I wanted to have two versions of Linux on the system at the same time (e.g. 8.1 and 8.2), can that be done, and if so, how?
tia ---Michael
Yes, I've done it in the past. Create two partitions of each of the sizes above and install twice. You'll probably need a boot disk to make sure that you can access the first installation if it all goes belly-up. The two installations can share a swap partition. -- JDL
On Wednesday 09 April 2003 16:30 pm, John Lamb wrote:
Michael Satterwhite wrote:
Esp. with the upcoming release of SuSE 8.2, I'm going to do a new setup of my system. With a single 80 Gb hard drive, what would be the best way to set up the partitions. I intend to wipe and reload.
I use
Filesystem 1k-blocks Used Available Use% Mounted on /dev/hda8 2104408 148724 1955684 8% / /dev/hda6 31079 3883 25592 14% /boot /dev/hda12 4401636 1472472 2929164 34% /home /dev/hda11 5245020 1657748 3587272 32% /opt /dev/hda9 12586504 6480144 6106360 52% /usr /dev/hda10 2104408 602856 1501552 29% /var
on about 30Gb and there's plenty of spare space. I also has /tmp with about 2Gb on /dev/hdb until the controller failed. /tmp is now symlinked to /usr, which is why it's full and /home contains everything I want to transfer to 8.2
Not to refute the above, but I use: / /boot /home swap and that's it... except for an additional area I call /ftparea which allows you to keep those neet things you downloaded and installed to be used for the next release. My motto: keep it as simple as possible, and when you start installing multiple versions/distros etc.... too much of a split gets confusing pretty fast. I see no real advantage to splitting out /opt, /usr, /var, or even /tmp. To each his own, and whatever works.
Secondary question: If I wanted to have two versions of Linux on the system at the same time (e.g. 8.1 and 8.2), can that be done, and if so, how?
tia ---Michael
Yes, I've done it in the past. Create two partitions of each of the sizes above and install twice. You'll probably need a boot disk to make sure that you can access the first installation if it all goes belly-up. The two installations can share a swap partition.
-- +----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ + Bruce S. Marshall bmarsh@bmarsh.com Bellaire, MI 04/09/03 16:39 + +----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ "`Contrariwise', continued Tweedledee, `If it was so, it might be; and if it were so, it would be; but as it isn't, it ain't. That's logic.'" - Lewis Carroll
* Bruce Marshall (bmarsh@bmarsh.com) [030409 13:41]:
My motto: keep it as simple as possible, and when you start installing multiple versions/distros etc.... too much of a split gets confusing pretty fast. I see no real advantage to splitting out /opt, /usr, /var, or even /tmp.
For a workstation, sure. With servers it's very different. You might want /var mounted sync and noatime because you're running a mail server, a seperate disk for /var/log, /tmp nodev and nosuid for security reasons, /usr and /opt ro to minimize downtime because of an fsck, etc. -- -ckm
On Wednesday 09 April 2003 16:48 pm, Christopher Mahmood wrote:
* Bruce Marshall (bmarsh@bmarsh.com) [030409 13:41]:
My motto: keep it as simple as possible, and when you start installing multiple versions/distros etc.... too much of a split gets confusing pretty fast. I see no real advantage to splitting out /opt, /usr, /var, or even /tmp.
For a workstation, sure. With servers it's very different. You might want /var mounted sync and noatime because you're running a mail server, a seperate disk for /var/log, /tmp nodev and nosuid for security reasons, /usr and /opt ro to minimize downtime because of an fsck, etc.
Sorry, I didn't see the word 'server' anywhere in his post. -- +----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ + Bruce S. Marshall bmarsh@bmarsh.com Bellaire, MI 04/09/03 17:04 + +----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ The code was willing, It considered your request, But the chips were weak.
Bruce Marshall wrote:
For a workstation, sure. With servers it's very different. You might want /var mounted sync and noatime because you're running a mail server, a seperate disk for /var/log, /tmp nodev and nosuid for security reasons, /usr and /opt ro to minimize downtime because of an fsck, etc.
Sorry, I didn't see the word 'server' anywhere in his post.
Actually, it's not a server (well not much anyway) but I do use another machine as a small server and the need for separate partitions is greater. My suggestion really is that on 30Gb, 2.0G / 100M /boot 4.5G /home 5.0G /opt 12G /usr 2.0G /var 2.0G /tmp and swap 2-3 times as big as the maximum memory you might install would be ample for an 8.2 installation and is roughly what I will use. They can of course be combined if you like and as you suggest. When I lost the /tmp partitition altogether, it took about two minutes to set up a new /tmp in the /usr partition - one advantage of multiple partitions ;-) -- JDL Non enim propter gloriam, diuicias aut honores pugnamus set propter libertatem solummodo quam Nemo bonus nisi simul cum vita amittit.
On Wednesday 09 April 2003 15:30, John Lamb wrote:
Yes, I've done it in the past. Create two partitions of each of the sizes above and install twice. You'll probably need a boot disk to make sure that you can access the first installation if it all goes belly-up. The two installations can share a swap partition.
Newbie followup - and this is probably obvious if I'm in the Install, but right now, it's not: You're saying to create two of each. When I'm doing the install, can I tell it which partition to use for what? e.g; If I have a /usr partition, won't the new install see that, and won't it conflict with the /usr for the new installation? How do I keep them separate? -- Penguins eat butterflies, don't they?
On Wed, Apr 09, 2003 at 07:26:47PM -0500, Michael Satterwhite wrote: <snip>
You're saying to create two of each. When I'm doing the install, can I tell it which partition to use for what? e.g;
yes
If I have a /usr partition, won't the new install see that, and won't it conflict with the /usr for the new installation? How do I keep them separate?
The new install will see the partition that contains your old /usr, but no it will not conflict. Because each install will hace a separate / mounted on different partitions, and each will have its own /etc/fstab, which i where the system gets its info of the partitions and mountpoints. Have a look at your current /etc/fstab, and you will notice entries like; jon@a13:~> cat /etc/fstab /dev/hda7 / reiserfs defaults 1 1 /dev/hda5 /data1 auto noauto,user 0 0 /dev/hda9 /data2 auto noauto,user 0 0 /dev/hda8 /home reiserfs defaults 1 2 /dev/hda6 swap swap pri=42 0 0 -now on another / mounted on, say /dev/hdb7 there could be a different set, specifying other partitions to use for *that* system... In the above, the data* mountpoints are actually from an 8.0 install that I still have lingering on my machine. Just because a partition is mounted as /usr by one system doesn't mean anything to another system, until you tell it in that systems fstab... Hope that clears it up a little? Jon Clausen
Michael Satterwhite wrote:
You're saying to create two of each. When I'm doing the install, can I tell it which partition to use for what? e.g; If I have a /usr partition, won't the new install see that, and won't it conflict with the /usr for the new installation? How do I keep them separate?
Yes. You'll have to go into expert mode to create the partitions during installation. If you want to do this, I would suggest you create one installation first, but leave enough hard disk space without partitions for a second installation. Then write down exactly which partitions you have used. When you do the second installation, use expert mode again because SuSE installer will probably try to use your existing partitions. Create new partitions and install in them. The partition table does not define the names of the partitions (/usr etc.); so the installation program only knows the partitions as /dev/hda1, /dev/hda2, etc. That means it can avoid conflicts, but it also means that it doesn't know you already have data you want to keep. Once you have two installations, you can read partitions of one installation from another by creating suitable mount points: for example, if /dev/hda8 is your first /home partition, you could put a line /dev/hda8 /home2 reiserfs defaults 1 2 in your second installation /etc/fstab, to make it accessible. It may be unwise to try to share the /home partition across both installations because the local settings in ~user/.kde (for example) may conflict if you have different versions of KDE. -- JDL Non enim propter gloriam, diuicias aut honores pugnamus set propter libertatem solummodo quam Nemo bonus nisi simul cum vita amittit.
On Thursday 10 April 2003 01:44, John Lamb wrote:
Once you have two installations, you can read partitions of one installation from another by creating suitable mount points: for example, if /dev/hda8 is your first /home partition, you could put a line /dev/hda8 /home2 reiserfs defaults 1 2 in your second installation /etc/fstab, to make it accessible. It may be unwise to try to share the /home partition across both installations because the local settings in ~user/.kde (for example) may conflict if you have different versions of KDE.
I want to thank you and Jon for the explanation. I think I see what's happening, Appreciate it much. -- Penguins eat butterflies, don't they?
participants (5)
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Bruce Marshall -
Christopher Mahmood -
John Lamb -
Jon Clausen -
Michael Satterwhite