Partitions

[ponygirldefiance]

i was able to set up my system but wanted a little better clarification of what i did, if someone could explain it to me a little bit more in detail. Thanks

i have a 160GB hard drive i use just for Linux. it was asking for at least 2 GB to set a side for the root. my question is how big should you make the root, and what exactly is the purpose of the root? i am use to the recovery partition and the storage partition. is the root the same as the storage or what am i missing.

[Qqmike]

Re: Partitions

Here’s some guidelines I use:

Your Linux should have 3 partitions:
/ (the root files of the operating system, including the kernel files)
/swap (swap files for memory management—used by the OS)
/home (a place for all your stuff—data, photos, music, etc.)
You do not need to put /home on a separate partition. The advantage of doing so is that if you update the kernel through Adept Manager, the update will not overwrite your personal /home files (where your personal data, settings, and programs are kept).

Others here will give you recommendations for the sizes of these partitions.
- - Usually, /swap is 1 ½ times the size of your PC’s RAM (but many will say that’s a bit too much). So if your RAM is 1 GB, /swap would be set at 1.5 GB. Many will say that 500 MB – 1 GB is plenty.
- - /, root files – a minimum of 3-5 GB, many will recommend 6-10 GB.
- - /home – Gosh, anything from 1 GB on up, depending on your needs. 10-50 GB would be a typical number you’d see for average users.

[dibl]

Re: Partitions

Yep, what Qqmike said.

On "/", a fresh install will only use about 3GB, but after you've run it for awhile, and if you're not real diligent about frequent "cleaning", you'll soon find it creeping up over 4.5GB. Since it's worse to run out of space than to waste a little, I'd say don't set it less than 6GB -- that way you can scratch that concern off your list of things to worry about.

[ponygirldefiance]

Re: Partitions

Thank you, that is what i needed to know you were both helpful.

[eriefisher]

Re: Partitions

I would create a fourth partition just for you personal stuff and mount this partition in /home for easy access. This way you can keep the actual /home down to a few gig just for storing system config files. By doing it this way you could upgrade or completely change OS's and not affect your personal data. This is not a substitute for backing up.

eriefisher

[kubicle]

Re: Partitions

You do not need to put /home on a separate partition. The advantage of doing so is that if you update the kernel through Adept Manager, the update will not overwrite your personal /home files (where your personal data, settings, and programs are kept).

Just to clarify a bit, kernel upgrades don't mess with your /home (unless something is very, very wrong in an unimaginable way :P)...Having a separate /home is still a good idea because you can reinstall (k)ubuntu while keeping your users' personal settings intact (you can also install a different distribution and keep your /home...although this may lead to some compatibility conflicts).

[ponygirldefiance]

Re: Partitions

Thanks for the additional info. the question i have now is this. i have never put a partition inside of another partition. how is that done?

[klerfayt]

Re: Partitions

I would create a fourth partition just for you personal stuff and mount this partition in /home for easy access. This way you can keep the actual /home down to a few gig just for storing system config files. By doing it this way you could upgrade or completely change OS's and not affect your personal data. This is not a substitute for backing up.

eriefisher

what are the advantages of "having /home partition just a few GBs for storing system? (did you mean user ?) config files" compared to : 6-10GBs for / ; something for swap or 1.5x_the_size_of_ram if you want to use suspend to disk ; and rest for /home?

[klerfayt]

Re: Partitions

Thanks for the additional info. the question i have now is this. i have never put a partition inside of another partition. how is that done?

Do you mean extended partition?
You should be able to create max. 4 primary parititions without the need for extended partition.

[ponygirldefiance]

Re: Partitions

I would create a fourth partition just for you personal stuff and mount this partition in /home for easy access. This way you can keep the actual /home down to a few gig just for storing system config files. By doing it this way you could upgrade or completely change OS's and not affect your personal data. This is not a substitute for backing up.

eriefisher

unless i read this post wrong they are saying you can create a partition inside of a partition. so if i read this right i was wondering how to do this. i wasn't looking at extending a parttition in that question but always willing to learn if you are to explain that as well. Thanks

[Qqmike]

Re: Partitions

First, I think eeriefisher is talking about a separate, primary partition, not a partition within a partition (which, can’t be done except in the case of creating partitions within an extended partition).

Second, while klerfayt is technically correct about being able to create 4 primary partitions and not to worry about any extended partition, there’s a risk in doing so, as many of us unpleasantly know. If you do that, and later you need another primary partition (a fifth one), then you must first create a logical partition (and so you must mess with your fourth primary partition in doing so), place your old fourth partition in the newly created extended partition, and in the unallocated space remaining in the extended partition, you would then create your new (the fifth) primary partition. Morale to the story: It’s better to plan ahead and create your extended partition from the get-go (from the start), especially if you think you might need more primary partitions (like for installing more Linux distros or another instance of Kubuntu for experimentation or whatever).

[kubicle]

Re: Partitions

unless i read this post wrong they are saying you can create a partition inside of a partition. so if i read this right i was wondering how to do this.

On a linux machine the physical partitions can be basically anywhere (different disk, different machine, different continent), they're just mounted under the same filesystem hierarchy (directory tree), so it appears that /home/data is inside /home, for example.

You don't have to worry about that when creating partitions, just create the number of partitions you want. However, if you're not sure how much room you would need for different partitions, it's usually best to keep the scheme as simple as possible.

As for the Extended Partition, the main partition table on a disk only has room for four (primary) partitions. To work around this limitation, one can create an extended primary partition which has it's own partition table that can contain multiple logical partitions inside the extended partition. These logical partitions work the same as primary partitions for most purposes (though windows has traditionally preferred a primary partition for installation). Anyway, you don't have to worry about primary/extended/logical partitions if you're not planning to create more than four partitions on a single disk.

what are the advantages of "having /home partition just a few GBs for storing system? (did you mean user ?) config files" compared to : 6-10GBs for / ; something for swap or 1.5x_the_size_of_ram if you want to use suspend to disk ; and rest for /home?

I think the idea is to separate user data from user configuration files, if one only wishes to save data and not configuration on new (re)installations. On a desktop machine I'd keep /home on root partition and just create a separate partition for /home/data (or equivalent). This is of course mostly a matter of personal preferences and use cases.

EDIT: Qqmike's point is also valid

[eriefisher]

Re: Partitions

Yes this is what I meant.

/-------root partition
-/home--Could stay on the / or by itself(your preference) for config files only(user config,bookmark, all the hidden stuff)
/swap---Whatever you require
/personal files--- to keep independent of the OS

This way you could completely reinstall on the existing partitions and then mount the /personalfiles to /home when your up and running.

eg:/home/user/personalfiles

I hope this clears up the confusion.

eriefisher

[ponygirldefiance]

Re: Partitions

Thanks again all of you were helpful in explaining that. Yes it did clear up the confusion for me on this issue. Thanks again for everyones help.

[klerfayt]

Re: Partitions

Yes this is what I meant.

/-------root partition
-/home--Could stay on the / or by itself(your preference) for config files only(user config,bookmark, all the hidden stuff)
/swap---Whatever you require
/personal files--- to keep independent of the OS

This way you could completely reinstall on the existing partitions and then mount the /personalfiles to /home when your up and running.

eg:/home/user/personalfiles

I hope this clears up the confusion.

eriefisher

why would anyone want to loose their $HOME/.kde? or $HOME/.mozilla?