When I run 'fdisk -l' my disks report something like this:

Disk /dev/hdc: 255 heads, 63 sectors, 1027 cylinders Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 bytes = 8225280 = 8 Mb

So that's the minimum partition size one could get. If you have a different disk geometry, you could get a smaller partition, but the above is true for most large disks.

Acually, this is when using LBA mode. On my Alpha w/o LBA the output goes: Disk /dev/hda: 16 heads, 63 sectors, 16383 cylinders Units = cylinders of 1008 * 512 bytes Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System /dev/hda1 1 261 131512+ 82 Linux swap /dev/hda2 262 16383 8125488 83 Linux (This is from my 21164a, but it shouldn't be any diffrent from i386, according to field studies) and therefore the smallest partition size is approx. 0.5 MB. Generally, when not using Windows, NORMAL mode is the best to use, for better use of your cylinders. On bigger drives you would still need a /boot partition, due to the fact that these are bigger than 1024 cylinders in LBA mode. In normal mode the biggest (guaranteed) bootable partition is around 504 Mb and for a /boot partition that's alot. I've been using this way of booting my P133 since 5.2 and it works really great. The only annoyance is the warning message printed by fdisk...:) /Mattias -- To unsubscribe send e-mail to suse-linux-e-unsubscribe@suse.com For additional commands send e-mail to suse-linux-e-help@suse.com Also check the FAQ at http://www.suse.com/Support/Doku/FAQ/