From: cmb@epcc.ed.ac.uk (C M Brough) Subject: Partitioning advice for Linux, 2 hard drives Date: 7 May 1993 13:47:38 GMT
I will shortly be installing Linux on my 386-40 (8M) PC (once it gets
back from being upgraded). Looking forward to having Unix at home, but
wanted some advice on partitioning the disks. I have two IDE drives
(C: and D:). C: is a 105M drive, and D: is a 214M drive.
I want a small DOS partition - say 30M - that I can boot through LILO
if I need to. The rest of the space will be devoted to Linux, which
LILO will boot by default. I want at least one 16M swap partition -
would a second swap partition be a good idea? (I will be doing some
compiles, frequent LaTeXing, idraw, as well as X based previewing, if
I can manage it.) I am intending to use the SLS 1.02 distribution as
the starting point for my installation, and hope to install pretty
much everything (though comms stuff will be mostly irrelevant as the
machine is standalone).
Now, the real question, what is the best way to partition the rest of
the space?
I have seen figures quoted for the total size of the different
installations, but none of them describe how that is divided up - what
size is /usr, /bin, etc.? I don't want to end up with a partition
devoted to /usr or /home or whatever that either can't take all that
needs to go in there or has a whole load of space left over that I'd
like to use for other purposes.... It'd be nice to get it right first
time round!
I've looked through the FAQ, and it seems clear enough on how to
partition the drives, but doesn't offer advice on how to choose sizes
for the partitions. If I manage to collect enough useful information,
I am happy to arrange it into a form that can be submitted for
inclusion in the FAQ (modulo the fact that I'm still a "newbie"). Mail
or follow-ups to c.o.l. are fine.
__________________________________________________________________________
Colin Brough cmb@epcc.ed.ac.uk Edinburgh Parallel Computing Centre