Re: [newbie] Does Linux use the Bios for Harddrives?
Matt Stegman wrote: ... The only reason you'd want to separate out /home is a) if your root partition becomes corrupted, you can still preserve your personal files and b) if you need to upgrade, you don't lose everything when you format the root partition. Something I've been wondering about: Let's say you have /, /usr, and /home partitions and you decide to upgrade. When you do the CD install, you say "No, please don't format /usr and /home, but go ahead and format /", right? You don't want to lose all those apps you've carefully downloaded. But what about the files from the CD that go to /usr, such as all the X11 stuff? Will the installer replace the old files in /usr with the new ones? Or will it put them in the /usr directory in the same partition as /? -- Joel VanderWerf [EMAIL PROTECTED]
RE: [newbie] Does Linux use the Bios for Harddrives?
That's actually a good question. My thought would be that as the partitions are all formatted you shouldn't need to re-format any of them, including /. The problem would be that anything in the upgrade that belongs in those partitions will overwrite anything it has to at will anyway. For stuff I've downloaded and added myself I usually try to make sure it goes into /usr/local which I have on a separate partition. I also have a partition called /misc1 which I have subdivided with various directories and I put source files and things like that on there. It keeps them safe from re-installs and upgrades while making backup strategy easier to figure out. -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]On Behalf Of Joel VanderWerf Sent: Sunday, August 22, 1999 12:09 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: [newbie] Does Linux use the Bios for Harddrives? Matt Stegman wrote: ... The only reason you'd want to separate out /home is a) if your root partition becomes corrupted, you can still preserve your personal files and b) if you need to upgrade, you don't lose everything when you format the root partition. Something I've been wondering about: Let's say you have /, /usr, and /home partitions and you decide to upgrade. When you do the CD install, you say "No, please don't format /usr and /home, but go ahead and format /", right? You don't want to lose all those apps you've carefully downloaded. But what about the files from the CD that go to /usr, such as all the X11 stuff? Will the installer replace the old files in /usr with the new ones? Or will it put them in the /usr directory in the same partition as /? -- Joel VanderWerf [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: [newbie] Does Linux use the Bios for Harddrives?
For stuff I've downloaded and added myself I usually try to make sure it goes into /usr/local which I have on a separate partition. I'd like to do that too, but RPM's usually put stuff in /usr/bin, /usr/lib, and so forth. Do you have to build from sources if you want things in /usr/local/bin, /usr/local/lib, ... ? BTW, I tried using RPM --relocate and the package turned out to be non-relocatable. Maybe I got unlucky and most of 'em are relocatable? -- Joel VanderWerf [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: [newbie] Does Linux use the Bios for Harddrives?
On Wed, 18 Aug 1999, you wrote: On Wed, 18 Aug 1999, you wrote: What's the sence to set up different mount points for / , /usr , /home , /anything_else if all of them are located on a single harddrive. I can understand this steps for /boot 'cause it must be located in first 1023 cyls, but what about / , /usr do you really need the separate diskspaces? Backup /restore is a lot easier. If you need to do a fresh install you can do it without killing your /home dirs if you have them on their own partition. Run a backup for each partition on it's own tape and when you need to restore a file is takes alot less time. -- Brett jones [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: [newbie] Does Linux use the Bios for Harddrives?
ok, I have one more question along this thread. I have a 520 meg harddrive on my NEC laptop.. I am going to run Slackware 4 on it.. because I can do a Floppy install with it. Can you do a FTP install of Mandrake?? Anyway.. how do you think I should partition my harddrive for a basic X internet laptop.. nothing too complicated.. just web email and IRC.. I will add whatever I can fit into it... so give me an idea? Should I just go with Swap and / or Swap / /boot /usr /home? and how much space out of 520 should I go? I am getting a 1.4 gig for the laptop.. so I will be using that in future for Linux I think. James
Re: [newbie] Does Linux use the Bios for Harddrives?
I have a 520 meg harddrive on my NEC laptop.. I am going to run Slackware 4 on it.. because I can do a Floppy install with it. Can you do a FTP install of Mandrake?? Yes, you can. Get the bootnet.img file from /updates/6.0/images off your local mirror Anyway.. how do you think I should partition my harddrive for a basic X internet laptop.. nothing too complicated.. just web email and IRC.. I'd say either: 1) / and swap space 2) / and /home and swap space The only reason you'd want to separate out /home is a) if your root partition becomes corrupted, you can still preserve your personal files and b) if you need to upgrade, you don't lose everything when you format the root partition. I am getting a 1.4 gig for the laptop.. so I will be using that in future for Linux I think. That sounds better. With the way distributions are these days, less than 1GB of hard drive space seems like way too little. -Matt Stegman [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: [newbie] Does Linux use the Bios for Harddrives?
I usually setup my partitions like this for a workstation/smb server install. I have two 4 GB HDDs. swap - 128MB / - 300MB /usr - 3GB (depending on the size of your HDD) /home - 4GB the rest usually around You might want to have more mount points if you are using the server for web serving or a hardcore server. You are most likely to get a little extra security if you put the files you are serving on a seperate HDD than your Linux system files, i.e. if you are serving out of /home/httpd, then mount that on a seperate HDD. * Original message from: Victor Richardson newbie@linux- mandrake.com Thanks for the info, I've beating my head against a wall for a week now. I won't be hosting websites, but it will be doing file/printer/email/internet routing. I'll just adjust the files accordingly. Did you mount "/usr" , "usr/src",and "/usr/local" within the "/" partition? How about a "/tmp"? Vic Brett Jones wrote: On Tue, 17 Aug 1999, you wrote: Would the same parameters hold true for a server? Vic I've got a server with 1 4.5 gig SCSI drive, and 1 8.4 gig IDE drive. This is what it's tables looks like. 4.5 /boot 20 m / 850 m /var400 m /home 600 m /home/httpd 1500 m /home/ftp bal. 8.4 /home/httpd/vhost bal. This box is going to host web sites for myself, and hopefully many others. This partition table is what made sense to me, I'm sure others have there own ideas. -- Brett Jones [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: [newbie] Does Linux use the Bios for Harddrives?
What's the sence to set up different mount points for / , /usr , /home , /anything_else if all of them are located on a single harddrive. I can understand this steps for /boot 'cause it must be located in first 1023 cyls, but what about / , /usr do you really need the separate diskspaces? It looks like disk partitions under DOS/Windows, but the ideo of splitting disks there is separating and more comfortable storage of information. At the same time all the mount points you make are connected do the same directory tree... I do not understand the sence of it... I usually setup my partitions like this for a workstation/smb server install. I have two 4 GB HDDs. swap - 128MB / - 300MB /usr - 3GB (depending on the size of your HDD) /home - 4GB the rest usually around You might want to have more mount points if you are using the server for web serving or a hardcore server. You are most likely to get a little extra security if you put the files you are serving on a seperate HDD than your Linux system files, i.e. if you are serving out of /home/httpd, then mount that on a seperate HDD. * Original message from: Victor Richardson newbie@linux- mandrake.com Thanks for the info, I've beating my head against a wall for a week now. I won't be hosting websites, but it will be doing file/printer/email/internet routing. I'll just adjust the files accordingly. Did you mount "/usr" , "usr/src",and "/usr/local" within the "/" partition? How about a "/tmp"? Vic Brett Jones wrote: On Tue, 17 Aug 1999, you wrote: Would the same parameters hold true for a server? Vic I've got a server with 1 4.5 gig SCSI drive, and 1 8.4 gig IDE drive. This is what it's tables looks like. 4.5 /boot 20 m / 850 m /var400 m /home 600 m /home/httpd 1500 m /home/ftp bal. 8.4 /home/httpd/vhost bal. This box is going to host web sites for myself, and hopefully many others. This partition table is what made sense to me, I'm sure others have there own ideas. -- Brett Jones [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: [newbie] Does Linux use the Bios for Harddrives?
NoOne wrote: What's the sence to set up different mount points for / , /usr , /home , /anything_else if all of them are located on a single harddrive. I can understand this steps for /boot 'cause it must be located in first 1023 cyls, but what about / , /usr do you really need the separate diskspaces? It looks like disk partitions under DOS/Windows, but the ideo of splitting disks there is separating and more comfortable storage of information. At the same time all the mount points you make are connected do the same directory tree... I do not understand the sence of it... / (root) should be it's own partition so that you can keep critical system libraries and binaries in their own little spot. This speeds up fsck time if you system crashes and also makes it likely that you'll be able to do more recovery if other partitions are badly damaged. /var should really be it's own partition so that system logs don't fill your system and make system recovery difficult. e2fs guarantees 5% of the drive will be available for root's use, but if your logs are owned by root, that's of no help. /usr as it's own partition allows you to mount that partition read-only. Not only does that mean that system crashes won't do any damage if they occur, it also means that cracking the system becomes a _bit_ more difficult for a would-be attacker. Going further with that idea, using chattr to set all of those files as immutable means that they're going to have to work even harder to screw up the system. /home as a separate partition means you get to keep that partition when you upgrade or reinstall your operating system. The same should probably be done for /usr/local, since those are locally installed packages that are not under the control of the package manager. Separate partitions mean that you get to make extremely intelligent choices about the amount of work you'll have to do to upgrade or protect your system. -- Steve Philp Network Administrator Advance Packaging Corp. [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: [newbie] Does Linux use the Bios for Harddrives?
On Mon, 16 Aug 1999, you wrote: I *think* that Linux will ignore the BIOS once it starts up. However, you're still dependant on BIOS until it boots. What I would suggest is making a "/boot" partition about 500 megs in size A 500 meg /boot partition. NO WAY. Just how big do your kernels compile. 500 megs wow, how about 15. The key is to make sure your boot partition is below the 1023 cyl on your drive. Make your first partition on your HDD about 15 megs in size and mount it as /boot. Do not use EZ drive or other drive tool, it's not needed with Linux if you keep it all below 1023. As far a partitioning goes a good setup for most people on say a 4.3 gig drive is /boot 15 megs / 1000 megs /home bal swap128 Extrapolate this for the size drive you have. A quick note on swap space: Any swap space above 128 megs is a waste. Linux will not use more than 128 megs per mounted swap partition. If you need more swap space, make 2 swap partitions at 128 megs. and then make another partition for "/" that takes up a large chunk (if not all) of the rest of the drive space. That should allow the system to boot with a hard drive larger than the system recognizes... John -- Brett Jones [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: [newbie] Does Linux use the Bios for Harddrives?
Would the same parameters hold true for a server? Vic Brett Jones wrote: On Mon, 16 Aug 1999, you wrote: I *think* that Linux will ignore the BIOS once it starts up. However, you're still dependant on BIOS until it boots. What I would suggest is making a "/boot" partition about 500 megs in size A 500 meg /boot partition. NO WAY. Just how big do your kernels compile. 500 megs wow, how about 15. The key is to make sure your boot partition is below the 1023 cyl on your drive. Make your first partition on your HDD about 15 megs in size and mount it as /boot. Do not use EZ drive or other drive tool, it's not needed with Linux if you keep it all below 1023. As far a partitioning goes a good setup for most people on say a 4.3 gig drive is /boot 15 megs / 1000 megs /home bal swap128 Extrapolate this for the size drive you have. A quick note on swap space: Any swap space above 128 megs is a waste. Linux will not use more than 128 megs per mounted swap partition. If you need more swap space, make 2 swap partitions at 128 megs. and then make another partition for "/" that takes up a large chunk (if not all) of the rest of the drive space. That should allow the system to boot with a hard drive larger than the system recognizes... John -- Brett Jones [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: [newbie] Does Linux use the Bios for Harddrives?
ok, so I want to install Mandrake on this computer. As it stands now I am having a very hard time getting support from NEC because the machine is so old. They did come out with a bios that would autoconfig a drive and also could do LBA mode. But I have had no luck flashing this machine with it. They say it might not work because its for European machines. But I own another slower laptop that HAS been upgraded to this bios. HO HUM.. ANyway.. what your saying is.. let the bios dectect it as whatever it wants.. then when I boot from the /boot partition which will be inside that "fake" drive it will then see the true size of the drive?? I am not sure on this.. as I have had problems with it finding incompatable drive sizes before (posted about a week ago) H /boot 15 megs / 1000 megs /home bal swap128 Extrapolate this for the size drive you have. A quick note on swap space: Any swap space above 128 megs is a waste. Linux will not use more than 128 megs per mounted swap partition. If you need more swap space, make 2 swap partitions at 128 megs. and then make another partition for "/" that takes up a large chunk (if not all) of the rest of the drive space. That should allow the system to boot with a hard drive larger than the system recognizes... John -- Brett Jones [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: [newbie] Does Linux use the Bios for Harddrives?
On Tue, 17 Aug 1999, you wrote: Would the same parameters hold true for a server? Vic I've got a server with 1 4.5 gig SCSI drive, and 1 8.4 gig IDE drive. This is what it's tables looks like. 4.5 /boot 20 m / 850 m /var400 m /home 600 m /home/httpd 1500 m /home/ftp bal. 8.4 /home/httpd/vhost bal. This box is going to host web sites for myself, and hopefully many others. This partition table is what made sense to me, I'm sure others have there own ideas. -- Brett Jones [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: [newbie] Does Linux use the Bios for Harddrives?
Thanks for the info, I've beating my head against a wall for a week now. I won't be hosting websites, but it will be doing file/printer/email/internet routing. I'll just adjust the files accordingly. Did you mount "/usr" , "usr/src",and "/usr/local" within the "/" partition? How about a "/tmp"? Vic Brett Jones wrote: On Tue, 17 Aug 1999, you wrote: Would the same parameters hold true for a server? Vic I've got a server with 1 4.5 gig SCSI drive, and 1 8.4 gig IDE drive. This is what it's tables looks like. 4.5 /boot 20 m / 850 m /var400 m /home 600 m /home/httpd 1500 m /home/ftp bal. 8.4 /home/httpd/vhost bal. This box is going to host web sites for myself, and hopefully many others. This partition table is what made sense to me, I'm sure others have there own ideas. -- Brett Jones [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[newbie] Does Linux use the Bios for Harddrives?
I have a question. Does Linux use the BIOS to get harddrive specifications?? I own an older 486/75 NEC Versa Laptop that I would like to use as a Linux machine. I have only a maximum of 540meg HD right now.. so because I wanted to run Linux I was thinking of Upgrading the HD.. to a GIG or over.. BUT!!! The bios is old.. and only allows me to go up to 1 gig exactly in size.. I could use a Disk manager .. but this is only useful for DOS partitions is it not? So the point is.. I want to use a 1 GIG + drive in a machine that does not have a bios that can support it. HOW WILL LINUX HANDLE IT?? James
Re: [newbie] Does Linux use the Bios for Harddrives?
I *think* that Linux will ignore the BIOS once it starts up. However, you're still dependant on BIOS until it boots. What I would suggest is making a "/boot" partition about 500 megs in size and then make another partition for "/" that takes up a large chunk (if not all) of the rest of the drive space. That should allow the system to boot with a hard drive larger than the system recognizes... John - Original Message - From: James Schofield [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Monday, August 16, 1999 3:44 PM Subject: [newbie] Does Linux use the Bios for Harddrives? I have a question. Does Linux use the BIOS to get harddrive specifications?? I own an older 486/75 NEC Versa Laptop that I would like to use as a Linux machine. I have only a maximum of 540meg HD right now.. so because I wanted to run Linux I was thinking of Upgrading the HD.. to a GIG or over.. BUT!!! The bios is old.. and only allows me to go up to 1 gig exactly in size.. I could use a Disk manager .. but this is only useful for DOS partitions is it not? So the point is.. I want to use a 1 GIG + drive in a machine that does not have a bios that can support it. HOW WILL LINUX HANDLE IT?? James
Re: [newbie] Does Linux use the Bios for Harddrives?
- Original Message - From: James Schofield [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Monday, August 16, 1999 3:44 PM Subject: [newbie] Does Linux use the Bios for Harddrives? I have a question. Does Linux use the BIOS to get harddrive specifications?? I own an older 486/75 NEC Versa Laptop that I would like to use as a Linux machine. I have only a maximum of 540meg HD right now.. so because I wanted to run Linux I was thinking of Upgrading the HD.. to a GIG or over.. BUT!!! The bios is old.. and only allows me to go up to 1 gig exactly in size.. I could use a Disk manager .. but this is only useful for DOS partitions is it not? So the point is.. I want to use a 1 GIG + drive in a machine that does not have a bios that can support it. HOW WILL LINUX HANDLE IT?? James Most large harddrives these days come with their own disk manager. It works for linux as well. My particular disk manager (E-Z Drive) lets me press CTRL before Windows starts so that I can boot from a floppy, or from C: drive. Because you would have a disk manager, you would not be able to use lilo, so a boot floppy would be the way to go. Manny Styles [EMAIL PROTECTED] --- NetZero - We believe in a FREE Internet. Shouldn't you? Get your FREE Internet Access and Email at http://www.netzero.net/download/index.html
