On Fri, 30 May 2008 10:48:49 -0500 Hechler Family wrote:

Carlos E. R. wrote:

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The Friday 2008-05-30 at 08:31 -0500, Hechler Family wrote:

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I noticed the placement of the swap file was first. What is the reasoning behind this?

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(I've always set mine up as /, swap, /home - that way there's less head movement and better performance - my thinking)

Yep, but that's not always true. Measure the speed and see... in my case (seagate 300GB class) it was faster at around 1/3 of the space.

Yeah, I can understand the speed advantage but that means more head/arm movement.

Swap file placement really depends on how the system will be used. If you have a layout with: /, /home, /application-data set up as partitions, and most of your I/O is going to /application-data, then you probably want to put the swap closer to /application-data. I usually place it between / and /home. I've seen some defaults where the swap and /boot are defined the primary partitions where /, /home, and other file systems are allocated as logical partitions. Personally, I never allocate primary partitions. I always use logical partitions for everything. -- -- Jerry Feldman Boston Linux and Unix PGP key id: 537C5846 PGP Key fingerprint: 3D1B 8377 A3C0 A5F2 ECBB CA3B 4607 4319 537C 5846

On Fri, 30 May 2008 17:11:47 -0400 Felix Miata wrote:

That's fine as long as you're not a multibooter, but it can make life more difficult than necessary to install your bootloader in the preferred location if you are. http://en.opensuse.org/SDB:Prefered_bootloader_options

I doubt I have any disks that I installed anything on that have fewer than 4 primaries.

Putting the boot loader in a primary does make sense. I usually install SuSE as a dual boot with it's predecessor. The bottom line is that the stage1 must be addressable from the MBR. If you are dual booting with Windows, Windows is usually installed in one or 2 primaries. So, if you use Part 1 and 2 for Windows (C and D), Part 3 for /boot, then you generally need Partition 4 for the extended. But, for the most part, Linux file systems can exist very nicely in logical partitions, and these are more flexible than primaries, although LVM is more flexible than using hard partitions. If I were to do a complete reinstall I would use LVM and allocate my backups either to a USB drive or a separate non-LVM drive. -- -- Jerry Feldman Boston Linux and Unix PGP key id: 537C5846 PGP Key fingerprint: 3D1B 8377 A3C0 A5F2 ECBB CA3B 4607 4319 537C 5846

<snip>

Swap file placement really depends on how the system will be used. If you have a layout with: /, /home, /application-data set up as partitions, and most of your I/O is going to /application-data, then you probably want to put the swap closer to /application-data. I usually place it between / and /home.

I've seen some defaults where the swap and /boot are defined the primary partitions where /, /home, and other file systems are allocated as logical partitions. Personally, I never allocate primary partitions. I always use logical partitions for everything. Thanks to all. I was beginning to think along the same lines - it depends on your going to use the system. -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org

On Fri, May 30, 2008 at 2:22 PM, Larry Stotler wrote:

On Fri, May 30, 2008 at 5:14 PM, Duaine & Laura Hechler wrote:

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Thanks to all. I was beginning to think along the same lines - it depends on your going to use the system.

I generally put swap at the front of the drive because it's easier to calculate the space for the rest of the drive. While there may be a performance hit depending on location, I doubt that it's too excessive. Heck, on my desktop with 2GB RAM, it never even touches the swap anyway. I've been half tempted to just eliminate it. --

Your choice makes the most sense, do it based on simplicity and spend the time saved figuring out how to scam enough ram to make the whole point moot. Swap doesn't get used all that heavily on a system with enough ram. -- ----------JSA--------- -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org

Jerry Feldman wrote:

On Fri, 30 May 2008 15:21:03 -0700 "John Andersen" wrote:

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Thanks to all. I was beginning to think along the same lines - it depends on your going to use the system. I generally put swap at the front of the drive because it's easier to calculate the space for the rest of the drive. While there may be a

On Fri, May 30, 2008 at 5:14 PM, Duaine & Laura Hechler wrote: performance hit depending on location, I doubt that it's too excessive. Heck, on my desktop with 2GB RAM, it never even touches the swap anyway. I've been half tempted to just eliminate it. -- Your choice makes the most sense, do it based on simplicity and spend the time saved figuring out how to scam enough ram to make

On Fri, May 30, 2008 at 2:22 PM, Larry Stotler wrote: the whole point moot.

Swap doesn't get used all that heavily on a system with enough ram.

Agreed here. Another option is to use a file instead of a physical partition. While this option is available, I think it is a bad idea.

A very bad idea for primary swap, although I have used swap files for "emergency" swap space. -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 The Friday 2008-05-30 at 17:00 -0400, Jerry Feldman wrote:

I've seen some defaults where the swap and /boot are defined the primary partitions where /, /home, and other file systems are allocated as logical partitions. Personally, I never allocate primary partitions. I always use logical partitions for everything.

Then, you should be aware that you have only 11 logical partitions available. - -- Cheers, Carlos E. R. -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v2.0.4-svn0 (GNU/Linux) iD8DBQFIQHcutTMYHG2NR9URAqQyAJ0Ws3v6b5h8V46kpKu/xaOMeIb3nQCfc9A4 T5vQbOSz9qWu3MSd5yekSHk= =RSek -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 The Saturday 2008-05-31 at 08:56 -0400, Jerry Feldman wrote:

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Then, you should be aware that you have only 11 logical partitions available.

I don't think that is correct. The information that I have is that it is a much larger number. I've seen things like 64 and unlimited.

Yes, you have seen, past tense. You will not see them in the future, libata does not support them. The disk themselves support unlimited numbers of partitions, but the operating system doesn't. Currently, Linux is more limited in this respect that Windows: you are limited to a total 15 partitions per disk, of which 1..4 are primaries, and 5..15 are logical. Number 0 is the entire disk (that's where 2^4 comes into).

But, really, anything over a half dozen starts to become unwieldy.

Not really. It has its uses.

Again, IMHO, LVM is more flexible.

And some disadvantages. It is not portable, for instance. - -- Cheers, Carlos E. R. -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v2.0.4-svn0 (GNU/Linux) iD8DBQFIQU85tTMYHG2NR9URAvbqAJ4lHBoj8po/NTm/QSt7THJ/yUlQ6gCgllbo +nqdIHBDr/H78ld72SqcLEY= =dfqh -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org

On 2008/05/31 09:52 (GMT-0400) Jerry Feldman apparently typed:

"Carlos E. R." wrote:

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Yes, you have seen, past tense. You will not see them in the future, libata does not support them.

Just because libata does not support them doesn't mean you won't see partitions beyond #15. It has been proposed that libata's next rewrite will exclude the arbitrary SCSI limit. In the meantime, kpartx and device mapper can be used to access them if you can figure out how they work. AFAIK, there are no installers that include this facility.

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The disk themselves support unlimited numbers of partitions, but the operating system doesn't. Currently, Linux is more limited in this respect that Windows: you are limited to a total 15 partitions per disk, of which 1..4 are primaries, and 5..15 are logical. Number 0 is the entire disk (that's where 2^4 comes into).

I was thinking in terms of the hardware and partition tables, not Linux device mappings. I stand corrected in that you can only have 15 numbered partitions 1 - 15.

The number usable for filesystems through libata is actually 14. One of 1-4 has to be an extended for any logicals to exist. More than 15 can certainly exist; they just can't be accessed directly via libata.

And as you mentioned, LVM is not portable.

No small limitation for multibooters. -- ". . . . in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you . . . ." Matthew 7:12 NIV Team OS/2 ** Reg. Linux User #211409 Felix Miata *** http://fm.no-ip.com/ -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org