I am getting ready to partition my drives for debian, but there are
a few things that I don't quite understand.

1) I was told to setup my drives as such:
/root 250mb
/usr 4-6gig
/var 2-3 gig
/tmp 200mb
/home 4gig
/swap 2 gig

I plan to run a dual boot of windoze and Debian
right now I have 2 partitions C:/ 30 gigs D:/ 650 gigs

I was thinking that I should setup
C:/ 30 gigis then Debian 15gigs divided as above then win data

2) I need primary paritition for C:/ and Debian/?
Do I need to put usr/ var/ tmp/ home/ and swap/ in the extended partitition?
Do I create one partition for Debian and let it partition the 15gigs that I
will allot?

I'm just a little nervous setting up this dual boot, as it takes the better
part of a day to reintstall windoze
with all the bloody patches and software that I run.

thank you
Kevin

* krraleigh wrote in alt.os.linux.debian:

> I'm just a little nervous setting up this dual boot, as it takes the
> better part of a day to reintstall windoze
> with all the bloody patches and software that I run.

LOL, check out nlite, you can slipstream the install so you only have to do
it once.

http://www.nliteos.com/

--
David

· krraleigh <kraleigh@sbcglobal.net> schrieb:

> I'm just a little nervous setting up this dual boot, as it takes the
> better part of a day to reintstall windoze
> with all the bloody patches and software that I run.

If you install Debian after Windows, it will recognize the Windows partition
and include it into GRUBs menu.lst.

If you are afraid, just create a partition image of the windows partition
before you install Debian.

Martin.
--
OS: openSUSE 10.2 (i586)
Kernel: 2.6.18.8-0.10-default
KDE: 3.5.9 "release 64.2"

"Martin Schnitkemper" <news.trash.5.mschnitk@spamgourmet.com> wrote in
message news:vte7l5xhg8.ln2@schnitkemper.de.ms...
>· krraleigh <kraleigh@sbcglobal.net> schrieb:
>
>> I'm just a little nervous setting up this dual boot, as it takes the
>> better part of a day to reintstall windoze
>> with all the bloody patches and software that I run.
>
> If you install Debian after Windows, it will recognize the Windows
> partition
> and include it into GRUBs menu.lst.
>
> If you are afraid, just create a partition image of the windows partition
> before you install Debian.
>
> Martin.
> --
> OS: openSUSE 10.2 (i586)
> Kernel: 2.6.18.8-0.10-default
> KDE: 3.5.9 "release 64.2"
>

Tried to create partitions using partition commander for
/root
/usr
/var
/tmp
/home
/swap

but I am only allowed to create four ext 3 partitions is there something
that I am missing?

Kevin

SINNER <arcade.master@gmail.com> wrote:
> * krraleigh wrote in alt.os.linux.debian:
>
>> I'm just a little nervous setting up this dual boot, as it takes the
>> better part of a day to reintstall windoze
>> with all the bloody patches and software that I run.
>
> LOL, check out nlite, you can slipstream the install so you only have to do
> it once.
>
> http://www.nliteos.com/
>
Damn that sounds good. Thank you.

krraleigh kraleigh@sbcglobal.net wrote previously in alt.os.linux.debian:

>
> "Martin Schnitkemper" <news.trash.5.mschnitk@spamgourmet.com> wrote in
> message news:vte7l5xhg8.ln2@schnitkemper.de.ms...
>>· krraleigh <kraleigh@sbcglobal.net> schrieb:
>>
>>> I'm just a little nervous setting up this dual boot, as it takes the
>>> better part of a day to reintstall windoze
>>> with all the bloody patches and software that I run.
>>
>> If you install Debian after Windows, it will recognize the Windows
>> partition
>> and include it into GRUBs menu.lst.
>>
>> If you are afraid, just create a partition image of the windows partition
>> before you install Debian.
>>
>> Martin.
>> --
>> OS: openSUSE 10.2 (i586)
>> Kernel: 2.6.18.8-0.10-default
>> KDE: 3.5.9 "release 64.2"
>>
>
> Tried to create partitions using partition commander for
> /root
> /usr
> /var
> /tmp
> /home
> /swap
>
> but I am only allowed to create four ext 3 partitions is there something
> that I am missing?
>
> Kevin


Everything would be easier to set-up with a "Live CD" using gparted.
Knoppix is a good candidate (ubuntu, PCLinuxOS, also work).
Then install debian on the partitions that you already have set up.

krraleigh <kraleigh@sbcglobal.net>:
> I am getting ready to partition my drives for debian, but there are
> a few things that I don't quite understand.

Yes, understood. PCs allow *either* four primary ptns OR three
primaries and an extended ptn. That extended ptn can hold any number
of *logical* ptns.

(0) phreaque [root] /root_ fdisk -l /dev/hda

Disk /dev/hda: 40.0 GB, 40020664320 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 4865 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hda1 * 1 30 240943+ 83 Linux
/dev/hda2 31 638 4883760 83 Linux
/dev/hda3 639 1003 2931862+ 83 Linux
/dev/hda4 1004 1764 6112732+ 5 Extended
/dev/hda5 1004 1034 248976 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/hda6 1035 1399 2931831 83 Linux
/dev/hda7 1400 1764 2931831 83 Linux

hda[5-7] are inside hda4.

> 1) I was told to setup my drives as such:
> /root 250mb
> /usr 4-6gig
> /var 2-3 gig
> /tmp 200mb
> /home 4gig
> /swap 2 gig

Looks good. A little fatter than necessary, but what do I know?

> I plan to run a dual boot of windoze and Debian
> right now I have 2 partitions C:/ 30 gigs D:/ 650 gigs
>
> I was thinking that I should setup
> C:/ 30 gigis then Debian 15gigs divided as above then win data
>
> 2) I need primary paritition for C:/ and Debian/?

No. You need a bootloader installed which knows where they are.

> Do I need to put usr/ var/ tmp/ home/ and swap/ in the extended partitition?

You don't need to. You could manage with one huge monolithic ptn
which holds all of /, /tmp, /home, /usr, ...

> I'm just a little nervous setting up this dual boot, as it takes
> the better part of a day to reintstall windoze with all the bloody
> patches and software that I run.

Solution to that is to get a second "sandbox" machine and do your
research there. Production box vs. Development box.


--
Any technology distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced.
(*) http://blinkynet.net/comp/uip5.html Linux Counter #80292
- - http://www.faqs.org/rfcs/rfc1855.html Please, don't Cc: me.

krraleigh <kraleigh@sbcglobal.net>:
>
> "Martin Schnitkemper" <news.trash.5.mschnitk@spamgourmet.com> wrote in
> message news:vte7l5xhg8.ln2@schnitkemper.de.ms...
> >· krraleigh <kraleigh@sbcglobal.net> schrieb:
> >
> >> I'm just a little nervous setting up this dual boot, as it takes the
> >> better part of a day to reintstall windoze
> >> with all the bloody patches and software that I run.
> >
> > If you install Debian after Windows, it will recognize the Windows
> > partition
> > and include it into GRUBs menu.lst.
> >
> > If you are afraid, just create a partition image of the windows partition
> > before you install Debian.
>
> Tried to create partitions using partition commander for
> /root
> /usr
> /var
> /tmp
> /home
> /swap
>
> but I am only allowed to create four ext 3 partitions is there something
> that I am missing?

See my other reply. Four primary ptns OR three primaries and one
extended which may contain any number of logical ptns.


--
Any technology distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced.
(*) http://blinkynet.net/comp/uip5.html Linux Counter #80292
- - http://www.faqs.org/rfcs/rfc1855.html Please, don't Cc: me.

krraleigh wrote:
>
> "Martin Schnitkemper" <news.trash.5.mschnitk@spamgourmet.com> wrote in
> message news:vte7l5xhg8.ln2@schnitkemper.de.ms...
>> · krraleigh <kraleigh@sbcglobal.net> schrieb:
>>
>>> I'm just a little nervous setting up this dual boot, as it takes the
>>> better part of a day to reintstall windoze
>>> with all the bloody patches and software that I run.
>>
>> If you install Debian after Windows, it will recognize the Windows
>> partition
>> and include it into GRUBs menu.lst.
>>
>> If you are afraid, just create a partition image of the windows
>> partition
>> before you install Debian.
>>
>> Martin.
>> --
>> OS: openSUSE 10.2 (i586)
>> Kernel: 2.6.18.8-0.10-default
>> KDE: 3.5.9 "release 64.2"
>>
>
> Tried to create partitions using partition commander for
> /root
> /usr
> /var
> /tmp
> /home
> /swap
>
> but I am only allowed to create four ext 3 partitions is there
> something that I am missing?
>
> Kevin
>


Four "primary" drive partitions are all the PC's BIOS can see on each
hard drive. So you are limited to 16 total, with four physical hard
drives: Primary Master, Primary Slave, Secondary Master, and Secondary
Slave.

Remember that any optical drive (CD, DVD, etc.) using the PATA/IDE/EIDE
interface, will count as one drive as well, and nearly everybody has at
least one CD or DVD drive, and usually on the Secondary Master
interface. Keeping hard drives on the Primary interface lets them
transfer data without being slowed down to an optical drive's bus speed.

If you have your complete file system on one PC, you will need to use at
least one one of the four "primary" drive partitions as an "extended
partition," which is a descriptor for any additional partitions.

One extended partition per hard drive is allowed. This extended
partition can then be sub-divided into logical drives, the number only
limited by the partitioning software used (except fdisk for DOS/Windows
usually limits these to 23, since A:, B: and C: are already reserved,
leaving only 23 assignable letters available).

I stated "complete file system on one PC" because there is a possibility
you may someday choose to place some of your file system's mount points
on remote drives. Generally you want the heavily-used mount points on
local drives for the much better speed the PATA/IDE/EIDE interface
provides compared to some network.

For your situation, you would be better using the following (substitute
sda for hda, or whatever numbering scheme your OS uses):

hda1 for /
hda2 for the extended partition
hda5 for swap
hda6 for /usr
hda7 for /var
hda8 for /home

The hda5 through hda8 are contained within hda2 and are the logical
drives in the extended partition hda2. Of course hda indicates the
Primary Master hard drive.

You shouldn't need a /root mountpoint because /root is the superuser's
("Root") home directory. Not much is there, so it can reside in the
root-level directory "/" where all of the filesystem mountpoints will be
except those you specify elsewhere (like hda5 through hda8). I suspect
you used "/root" when you were thinking about "/" the root-level directory.

There is no /swap mountpoint. It is simply called "swap" and is a
special type of filesystem, not ext2, ext3, resierfs, etc., but simply
swap. It should be around double the size of your physical RAM. That
allows the PC to swap the total physical RAM to the disk spool and bring
back into RAM what was previously spooled. Any additional space is
mostly a waste, and less will slow the PC down considerably.

The sizes needed for each mountpoint will depend on your use. If you
create a lot of data files, then you need a lot of /home to contain
them. If you install many packages of software, you need more /usr
space. If you utilize the build-in mail server (exim/postfix,
dovecot/courier, etc. or mailx) then /var should be larger, or very
large if you run a news server.

As a guide, I run an INN news server on an old AMD-K6 266 MHz computer,
under Debian 3.1 Sarge. Everything (except swap) is in / on the small
4.3 GB hard drive. Very few binary groups are handled, but the daily
message traffic is usually around 7000 articles. That drive is only
about 66% full.

As you use your OS over the years, you will start to get a feel for what
size a filesystem should be. Until then, there's no real hard answer
since the variable values are not yet known.


--
John

No Microsoft, Apple, AT&T, Intel, Novell, Trend Micro, nor Ford products were used in the preparation or transmission of this message.

The EULA sounds like it was written by a team of lawyers who want to tell me what I can't do. The GPL sounds like it was written by a human being, who wants me to know what I can do.

s. keeling <keeling@nucleus.com> wrote:

>> 1) I was told to setup my drives as such:
>> /root 250mb
>> /usr 4-6gig
>> /var 2-3 gig
>> /tmp 200mb
>> /home 4gig
>> /swap 2 gig
>
> Looks good. A little fatter than necessary, but what do I know?

I would probably make

/tmp 650mb

and reduce the swap partition to 512Mb. The memory management model is
different in Linux to that of Microsoft Windows and it is not necessary
for the swap space to be larger than the amount of physical memory. The
reason that a large swap space is required in Microsoft Windows, is that
a Microsoft Windows swap file contains a full copy of the physical
memory. In Linux, only the swap data is contained in the swap space.

You might also be able to take 1Gb from /usr and put it in /var. It
depends on what you are doing really.

Instead of creating separate partitions for /var and /home, I create
just a single /local partition. I then map /var and /home to to this
using symlinks, but this is a bit tricky for a new user using an
installation disk. (To do this, do not create /home, just create /var,
on completion shutdown to single user mode, unmount /var, create a
directory /local, remount the partition as /local, remove the /var
directory, create a symlink for /var as /local/var, remove /home
directory, and create a symlink for /home to /local/home, and recreate
your primary account directory in /local/home (changing the ownership
and access permissions to suit the system).

Regards,

Mark.

--
Mark Hobley,
393 Quinton Road West,
Quinton, BIRMINGHAM.
B32 1QE.