Get help on partitioning here [Part 1]

Echtelion · n00b Joined: 26 Jul 2004 Posts: 20

I have used Red Hat Linux for 6 months. Two weeks ago I started to try Gentoo Linux. I registered to this forum today

In my opinion, from what I tried and learned in the last two weeks, if you are a beginner you should keep it simple. Later, you can always reinstall your system. And I think you will. At least I did...

If you intend to have a personal desktop, with no services available to the Internet, or at least not available to the general public, you should have something like:

/dev/hda1 p ntfs 40960MB # for Windows
/dev/hda2 p ext3 /boot 100MB # ext3 on all Linux filesystems
/dev/hda3 p swap swap 1024M # doesn't heart anyone
/dev/hda4 e # expanded partition
/dev/hda5 l ext3 / 20480MB # for Gentoo

(some free space)

This should work fine for one 80GB disk drive. There is some free space left in case you want a Windows/Linux FAT32 partition for sharing documents or media. You can easily create it on Windows and add it to Gentoo's /etc/fstab (mounted on /win for example). I use only one standard filesystem and prefer ext3. If have a disk smaller than 80GB adjust the size of /dev/hda1, /dev/hda5 and the free space to your own needs.

With two 80GB disk drives you could do something a little better but still simple:

/dev/hda1 p ntfs 30720MB # Windows C: System
/dev/hda2 e # expanded partition
/dev/hda5 l ntfs whats left # Windows D: My Documents

/dev/hdb1 p ext3 /boot 256MB # boot partition
/dev/hdb2 p swap 1024MB # swap partition
/dev/hdb3 p ext3 / 20480MB # for Gentoo

/dev/hdb4 e # expanded partition
/dev/hdb5 l ext3 /home 40960MB # for your documents
/dev/hdb6 l fat32 /win whats left # for shared documents

This is my own partition scheme. I think is nice because it splits system space and documents space in both Windows and Linux so I can reinstall any of them easily (if reinstall Windows I have to reconfigure the bootloader with the LiveCD).

But I would like to hear what experts have to say about this basic partitioning scheme intended for beginners.

sandeep · Posted: Wed Jul 28, 2004 5:51 am Post subject:

Hi,
Yes you can install gentoo after installing XP.

you should go for atleast these 3 partitions one each for boot, swap and "/". Having /home on a seperate partition is also a good option.
For partitioning, You can use any partitioning utility like fdisk.
You can even use disk-management tool of XP to partition.

However please remember to
1. Prepare suitable file systems before installation. You can safely use mke2fs for boot, mkswap for swap and mkreiserfs for /.
2. Install grub on the MBR of the disk from where the XP is booting, ususlly hd0 for grub.

Regards,
Sandeep
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Contributing to the World by creating indispensable value !

gi1242 · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 29 Jul 2004 Posts: 146

Illissius · Guru Joined: 31 Jul 2004 Posts: 395 Location: Hungary

I have a 40GB drive which has so far been windows-exclusive, configured like so:

2GB NTFS - Windows 2000, minus swap file and programs
A complete and utter mess of ~5GB partitions, usually FAT32 (I plan on getting around to condensing it into one big partition someday, because it's a *mess*) - music, games, videos, Windows programs, and so on (basically everything else)
6.5GB - Space I've managed to free up for Gentoo
1GB - Swap, also have my Windows swap file on it via swapfs

So my question is how to partition the remaining 6.5GB. 50-100MB for /boot is a given (how big is a kernel? If I were to have more than one, how much additional space does it need?). I'd otherwise just give the remaining space entirely to /, but putting /home in a seperate partition seems tempting. No idea how much space I should allocate it, though. For the most part, I plan on putting anything that I can and makes sense (eg documents, media, but not for example linux programs, scripts and such) on one of the existing FAT32 partitions, so that I can access it from both OSes. What stuff is there that would still go into /home, and how big is it? Or should I just map /home to an existing FAT32 partition?
And one more question. What filesystem? I've managed to gather that ext3 is the most stable, and reiser is the fastest (and iirc has other good properties) but is less stable; and that there is also reiser v4 which is even faster but even less stable. How much faster is each than the other, and how much less stable? Which should I use?

w0nderpun · n00b Joined: 05 Aug 2004 Posts: 4 Location: Lithuania

Hello

I'm new here, so first I'd like to say hello to everybody and then I'd like to say that I'm sorry to be hijacking PsychoJKL's thread but I thought this would be a good place to ask this. In the Gentoo installation guide it is said that a seperate partition for /var should be ~3GB if you want to compile KDE and Gnome. Well I got all my partitions configured and the only space I got left for /var is 2GB. So I wanted to ask if this is OK and if I won't run out of space while compiling KDE or Gnome? How much space did /var take up when you compiled KDE/Gnome? (if you compiled them at all) Thank you in advance for your answers!

php shrew · Posted: Thu Aug 12, 2004 6:26 am Post subject:

n00bage question here, I'm new to Linux and I was wondering, I have stuff already on a hd but I don't want to format it. Can I make a partition and keep my windows stuff on here but make it from the free space?

Zxaos · n00b Joined: 21 Aug 2004 Posts: 1 Location: Canada

Would it make sense for the following layout?(2 80gig SATA drives)
SDA - WinXP system 40 gig, Gentoo system (/boot/, and the main one)
SDB - Shared documents for XP and Gentoo (so /home/ and My Documents), and the swap partition?

If so, what would the actual partition table look like?

And I could do so without damaging an existing Win XP partition?

mightymouse · n00b Joined: 28 Aug 2004 Posts: 1

newbie question

i'm planning to set the partitioning for dual boot as

/dev/hda1: Windows (already installed)
/dev/hda2: /boot (32M)
/dev/hda3: swap
/dev/hda4: the rest

i was wondering do i leave the boot * on hda1 with windows or do i change it to /dev/hda2

Synthos · n00b Joined: 10 Jan 2004 Posts: 14

Here are my impressions of what kind of scheme would work, spaces are mostly minimums

hda1 /boot 32 Mb
hda2 / 5 Gb
hda3 C: 4 Gb
hda4 extended
hda5 swap 512 Mb
hda6 /tmp 1Gb(?)
hda7 /home 1 Gb
hda8 /usr 13 Gb
hda9 /opt 1.5 Gb
hda10 E: 13 Gb (windows program partition)

Is this a good setup? Should partition out 3GB for /var? Also, someone mentioned you could user swap and /tmp in the same partition, how do you do that exactly?

tolkachev · n00b Joined: 11 Sep 2004 Posts: 1

If you are puzzled designing a partitioning scheme for gentoo, then you will probably need NOTHING but /boot (+32M), swap (double your mem), / (the rest). Ok, a separate /home is generally a good idea, but if you don't know how large it should be, DON'T MAKE IT. Why should you have things more complicated than they are?

KikyoMerc · n00b Joined: 04 Oct 2004 Posts: 61

If i make a /home, is there anything i need to do to make it mount at boot? I am installing gentoo, (i had it before but pretty much had no idea what i was doing and still dont). If i make my hd...

/dev/hde1 ext2 32mb /boot
/dev/hde2 swap 1024mb swap
/dev/hde3 reiserfs 40gb /
/dev/hde4 reiserfs (the rest) /home

I have a 120gb hd

kanaberra · n00b Joined: 05 Oct 2004 Posts: 1

lo & thx for your links Deathwing00

helped me a lot !

br

k

Maedhros · Posted: Mon Oct 11, 2004 9:10 am Post subject:

jcosters · Posted: Tue Oct 12, 2004 3:40 pm Post subject:

I also have a 120GB HD and 512MB RAM. I run a home server system on an old Compaq Deskpro (P2 350Mhz).

I have partitioned my drive like so (no dual-boot, bah):

hda1: /boot, 100MB - kernel(s), bootmanager
hda2: swap, 1GB - 2x size of RAM
hda3: /, 3GB - system software
hda5: /usr, 10GB - portage, software
hda6: /var, 25GB - compiling, storing mail (IMAP server)
hda7: /home, 80GB - storing data for users and samba shares

This works extremely well for me.

n3r8d · n00b Joined: 18 Oct 2004 Posts: 3 Location: USA

ATA RAID & partitioning errors...

I guess this is the appropriate place for this... though it has as much to do with RAID as partitioning (I think?).

Boot with -doataraid option.

edit /etc/raidtab...

Set up ATA RAID with /etc/raidtab:

birdo · Posted: Tue Oct 19, 2004 6:18 pm Post subject:

The_Saint · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 15 Mar 2004 Posts: 108

Is it possible to have two or more directories at the same partition? For instance, can I have something like this?
hda1: /boot
hda2: swap
hda3: /
hda5: /usr and /opt
hda6: /home and /var

kopfsalat · Posted: Mon Nov 08, 2004 9:29 pm Post subject:

nikoladsp · n00b Joined: 10 Nov 2004 Posts: 3

Hi,
i encountered some problems during gentoo install routine,and i suspect that my partition scheme maybe is wrong...anyway,before i continue in my attempts to install gentoo,is this scheme is OK:

/dev/hda:
/boot 128 MB
swap 1024 MB
/var 4 GB
/ 2GB

/dev/hdb:
/usr 3.5GB
/usr/portage 3.5 GB

and now some words about problems:
when i try:

JohnerH · Posted: Fri Nov 12, 2004 12:53 pm Post subject:

Afternoon' all,

Kinda a newbish question but :roll:

, when your intalling gentoo does it really make a diference where you mount your instalation? Can you change it after it's installed?

Eg.: I have about 9 partions setup for the various parts of the system, (i.e: /var, /opt, /home, etc etc etc) and I want the final result be that of having those parts of the system mounted on each partition.

For instance, I'm worried that after installing the base system I wont be able to mount portage on the partition I really want it to be in.

So, would I need to mount everything from the beggining or could I just install everything and do it later?

I know it's bit hard answering this without concrete examples (aka my partition tree) but I'm at work and can't really remember it all.....

Thank you all in advance for the help....

Maedhros · Posted: Fri Nov 12, 2004 1:25 pm Post subject:

You can mount them afterwards, but you'll need to move all your files over to the new partition. This usually involves mounting the partition somewhere temporary, copying the files over, unmounting and remounting where you want it to be, and then testing it. If it doesn't work, unmount it and check that you copied the files with all their permissions and so on. (Tip: use cp -a)

Hope this makes sense!
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Maedhros · Posted: Fri Nov 12, 2004 1:28 pm Post subject:

nikoladsp: Your partition scheme looks fine, although 3.5Gb for portage is excessive unless you're also sharing it over a network. For home use, 2Gb should be fine. When you got messages about running out of space, are you sure you were extracting the stage tarball to the right place, as opposed to somewhere in the filesystem of the livecd? That's just RAM, so that would probably cause you to run out of space...
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MickKi · Veteran Joined: 08 Feb 2004 Posts: 1179

Hi All,

I was about to start a new thread, but this seems to be suitable for my query:

I am about to install Gentoo on a new 80G ATA disk (hdb). This and my 40G hda have a 7200rpm speed. They are both fitted on the primary controller as master (hda) and slave (hdb). The third disk (hdc) weighing in at just 8G and a 5400rpm speed, is connected to the secondary controller as a secondary master along with a CDRW (secondary slave).

hda contains DOS, WinXP, and 5 more partitions with user documents and data.

hdb currently contains MSDOS & WinXP which will be promptly wiped out as soon as I decide on the details of the Gentoo partition scheme.

hdc contains an ~x86 Gentoo installation which I will use to bootstrap the new Gentoo x86 installation on hdb, copy existing portage and /home from and also the contents of any config file settings which I would like to retain. Once the hdb installation is complete, I will wipe hdc and use it for data back ups.

The box is used for general office, browsing, and multimedia work. At some point in the future I would also like to use it like a Tivo box to record TV programmes (DVB-T card is on the Christmas shopping list!

) and if I can convince my other half to move to Linux she will start using it for her web design and video editing work, instead of WinXP.

Having pondered on this I have come up with the following partition sizes and mount points for my new installation and would like to check these and my thinking against your experience.