Re: Understanding /root Re: My solution
Alexander N. Benner [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: Filesystem 1024-blocks Used Available Capacity Mounted on /dev/hdb1 63885 2864231944 47% / /dev/hdb9 761184 142804 579045 20% /var /dev/hdb52270179 210241050415 98% /usr /dev/hdb61014784 481124 481221 50% /usr/local /dev/hdb71014784 423447 538898 44% /home /dev/hdb81014784 71737 890608 7% /tmp /dev/hda3 653192 56610353347 91% /home/ftp/pub/data/sounds /dev/hda1 307240 21889688344 71% /misc/d00F Partition checks are only paralelized on several disks. So it would be the same if you had 2 partitions. And logical partitions don't offer the same protection than primary partitions, no ? But yes in case of troubles you'll have a quick start... -- o-o [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Michel Verdier) http://www.chez.com/mverdier
Re: Understanding /root Re: My solution
Hello, I decided to partition my hard disk into: /boot 50MB /home 50MB (maybe more) /root 50MB /var150MB (maybe more) /usr700MB /etc50MB /swap 128MB /dos200MB /tmp50MB - Sum.1428MB - rest: 270MB for ??? Would this be a good idea? Any criticism welcome!!! Probably better to design it by starting out with everything in one big partition (/) and saying *why* you want things separate for each one. As others have pointed out, having many partitions wastes space, because you need to leave a bit to spare in each one separately. Perhaps more importantly, it'll end up making things *messy* rather than organized, because when you run out of space on one of them (and you will), you'll start putting things where they don't belong, soft-linking them all over the place. On my disk, the only thing I have separate is the swap partition. That said, here's the things you might reasonably want to make separate: Most likely: swap space - much more efficient /boot - if your disk is over 1023 cylinders and you boot with LILO Maybe: /tmp, /var, /home - try stop runaway processes (either 3 partitions or 1) /usr - to be mounted read-only Probably not: /etc - some of the files are needed during boot /bin, /sbin, /lib - programs needed for boot and minimal admin /root - too small to worry about You can, of course, divide it finer - eg have a partition for /var/spool to guard against mailbombs, but leave the rest of /var on the root partition. Usually, when you see a system with a bunch of mount points, it's because there's more than one disk. Using 4 2GB drives is better than one 8GB drive because: 1. if one drive goes down, you only lose the data on that one drive, not the other 3. 2. there are 4 I/O paths for data (i.e. you can read from more than one disk simultaneously) which reduces I/O wait times and speeds up the system. And a couple of others: 3. cheaper 4. you can do RAID if you like HTH Jiri [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Understanding /root Re: My solution
Hi Now I also want to write :) Ship's Log, Lt. Jiri Baum, Stardate 041298.1122: Usually, when you see a system with a bunch of mount points, it's because there's more than one disk. Using 4 2GB drives is better than one 8GB drive because: And a couple of others: 3. cheaper 4. you can do RAID if you like one more : I have a 2 GB partition and it neets hours to be checked. I would not want to wait for a 8GB partition. Sure now I have to wait for the others to ... But geuess how fast my 60MB / is ready in case of an emergency ... Filesystem 1024-blocks Used Available Capacity Mounted on /dev/hdb1 63885 2864231944 47% / /dev/hdb9 761184 142804 579045 20% /var /dev/hdb52270179 210241050415 98% /usr /dev/hdb61014784 481124 481221 50% /usr/local /dev/hdb71014784 423447 538898 44% /home /dev/hdb81014784 71737 890608 7% /tmp /dev/hda3 653192 56610353347 91% /home/ftp/pub/data/sounds /dev/hda1 307240 21889688344 71% /misc/d00F *sigh* I guess I need a new HD ... (oh yes, the last one is my win partition 300MB should be enough for everyone ...) bye -- Alexander N. Benner - [EMAIL PROTECTED] - Christian - PHI-Student WEB: http://www.nikodemus.home.pages.de/ IRC: Efnet Nikodemus #Hosanna, #Baptist, #Ixthys ## 82.64% of all statistics are made up !! ##
Re: Understanding /root Re: My solution
So, I make a guess: For my first time installation: 1.7GB hard disk, 98MB RAM -NT40, Win95 (Im not sure about this) -Staroffice -ME10, ProE (CAD Software) -Excel -Neoplanet (Net Browser) -CorelDraw7 -Some Games (WingCommander, Forsakken) -other stuff (collecting pictures) I decided to partition my hard disk into: /boot 50MB /home 50MB (maybe more) /root 50MB /var150MB (maybe more) /usr700MB /etc50MB /swap 128MB /dos200MB /tmp50MB - Sum.1428MB - rest: 270MB for ??? Would this be a good idea? Any criticism welcome!!! Thanks a lot. Michael, Trier, Germany -- Eat my Shorts ! - Bart Simpson -- __ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com
Re: Understanding /root Re: My solution
So, I make a guess: For my first time installation: 1.7GB hard disk, 98MB RAM -NT40, Win95 (Im not sure about this) -Staroffice -ME10, ProE (CAD Software) -Excel -Neoplanet (Net Browser) -CorelDraw7 -Some Games (WingCommander, Forsakken) -other stuff (collecting pictures) I decided to partition my hard disk into: /boot 50MB /home 50MB (maybe more) /root 50MB /var150MB (maybe more) /usr700MB /etc50MB /swap 128MB /dos200MB /tmp50MB - Sum.1428MB - rest: 270MB for ??? Would this be a good idea? Any criticism welcome!!! Thanks a lot. Michael, Trier, Germany -- Eat my Shorts ! - Bart Simpson -- APPENDIX: I forgot the space for KDE !!! __ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com
Re: Understanding /root Re: My solution
At 02:10 AM 12/3/98 PST, Michael Wahl wrote: So, I make a guess: For my first time installation: 1.7GB hard disk, 98MB RAM -NT40, Win95 (Im not sure about this) -Staroffice -ME10, ProE (CAD Software) -Excel -Neoplanet (Net Browser) -CorelDraw7 -Some Games (WingCommander, Forsakken) -other stuff (collecting pictures) I decided to partition my hard disk into: /boot 50MB /home 50MB (maybe more) /root 50MB /var150MB (maybe more) /usr700MB /etc50MB /swap 128MB /dos200MB /tmp50MB - Sum.1428MB - rest: 270MB for ??? Would this be a good idea? Any criticism welcome!!! First, I'm assuming that /dos is going to be where you install NT40/Win95? if this is correct, then you definitely need to rethink that partition. Win95 will take ~120MB to install just the OS. NT40 takes even more. If you're going to have any applications at all for Windows, you'll need even more space. Next, you don't need to make separate partitions for /etc or /boot. If you want to make a separate directory for /tmp, 50MB is probably plenty there. here's how I would probably chunk this disk up: /dos500MB (maybe less depending how many Win apps you want) (I wouldn't go less than 350MB considering it's Windows) /usr/local 300MB (do this for local programs that won't change with upgrades) /home 100MB (this depends on # users, amt. stuff they'll have) /tmp50MB /swap 128MB / Rest With Debian, most of the stuff you install will be in .deb format. These packages have specific locations where they install the software (not usually in /usr/local) so the software is system software (not local software) so you'll probably want a pretty big / partition. Depending on how much you plan to compile and install yourself (without using .deb's) you can shrink or grow /usr/local accordingly. Actually, if you're only using one disk, you can get by with 3 partitions: /dos500MB /swap 128MB / REST On a single physical disk, you don't gain anything by making a bunch of partitions (although you get to know mount and /etc/fstab)--if your disk crashes, you lose everything anyway and you don't gain any speed since there's only one I/O path for the data. Usually, when you see a system with a bunch of mount points, it's because there's more than one disk. Using 4 2GB drives is better than one 8GB drive because: 1. if one drive goes down, you only lose the data on that one drive, not the other 3. 2. there are 4 I/O paths for data (i.e. you can read from more than one disk simultaneously) which reduces I/O wait times and speeds up the system. Hope this help you out. Erik
Re: Understanding /root Re: My solution
So, I make a guess: For my first time installation: 1.7GB hard disk, 98MB RAM -NT40, Win95 (Im not sure about this) -Staroffice -ME10, ProE (CAD Software) -Excel -Neoplanet (Net Browser) -CorelDraw7 -Some Games (WingCommander, Forsakken) -other stuff (collecting pictures) I decided to partition my hard disk into: /boot 50MB /home 50MB (maybe more) /root 50MB /var150MB (maybe more) /usr700MB /etc50MB /swap 128MB /dos200MB /tmp50MB - Sum.1428MB - rest: 270MB for ??? Would this be a good idea? Any criticism welcome!!! I think your hard disk is rather small to contain both Windows and linux, especially if all these applications you mention are Windows apps. To make optimum use of the disk it is a bad idea to have a lot of partitions, because each one will leave you with a rest space that would be more useful if it combined with the free space on the other partitions. My suggestion would be something like /dos: 800 MB /swap: 128 MB /: rest Remember you can write stuff on a vfat partition (Windows) from linux easily. On the other hand you cannot use the linux partitions from windows, so you may want to make /dos even bigger for more flexibility. You only really need a /boot partition if your disk has more than 1024 (1023?) cylinders in LBA mode. If it doesn't, you don't need it. If it does, but you put Windows 9x on the computer, you can use loadlin instead of lilo and you don't need a separate /boot either. HTH, Eric -- E.L. Meijer ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) | tel. office +31 40 2472189 Eindhoven Univ. of Technology | tel. lab. +31 40 2475032 Lab. for Catalysis and Inorg. Chem. (TAK) | tel. fax+31 40 2455054
Re: Understanding /root Re: My solution
On Thu, 3 Dec 1998, Michael Wahl wrote: [snip] I decided to partition my hard disk into: /boot 50MB about 2-3 would have done. I left mine on / . The main reason you'd separate it is to have it under the 540MB limit/1024 Cylinder limit on some old BIOS's. /home 50MB (maybe more) More would be an advantage /root 50MB leave it on the / partition. its not likely you'll have root using a lot of space in his/her home dir. /var150MB (maybe more) I think that would be about right. /usr700MB Yep. /etc50MB Leave this on / too... files in it are needed for boot, and for mounting partitions. Chicken and Egg. Go figure. /swap 128MB Yep. /dos200MB ?? What for? /tmp50MB I'd leave it on / - Sum.1428MB - rest: 270MB for ??? /home or /usr Mine is so: / - 200MB /usr- 800MB works like a charm. Michael Beattie ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) PGP Key available, reply with pgpkey as subject. - A feature is a bug with seniority. - Debian GNU/Linux Ooohh You are missing out!
Re: Understanding /root Re: My solution
I have run linux for years with just a linux native partition as big as I can make it, and a linux swap (= 2x my ram size) with no problem. I believe your approach is some kind of protection for runaway events, but in four years I have had no such event. I think the partitioning is not necessary, and I think it may have bad side effects (like wasting disk resources). This is just my opinion. joeh
Re: Understanding /root Re: My solution
Michael Wahl wrote: I decided to partition my hard disk into: /boot 50MB /home 50MB (maybe more) /root 50MB /var150MB (maybe more) /usr700MB /etc50MB /swap 128MB /dos200MB /tmp50MB - Sum.1428MB - rest: 270MB for ??? You seem to be confused about the role of partitions. Having this many would waste a lot of disk space, which would be tied up in underused partitions and not available to heavily used ones. You don't have enough space to spare to do it this way. The benefit of separate partitions is that the chance of loss of data due to filesystem corruption is reduced and its scope limited; the cost is the increased rigidity of the system. You need a root partition (which is /); normally this would contain /boot, /root, /etc and possibly /tmp. In fact, it MUST contain /etc and /root or you won't be able to start your machine -- only the root (/) partition itself is available before you go multi-user and mount the other filesystems. I suggest the following Linux partitions: /150Mb /var 120Mb /usr1300Mb or /210Mb /usr1360Mb and one swap partition: swap128Mb Make /home a symbolic link to /usr/home (my home directory takes as much space as anything else on my machine, so it needs to go on a large partition). You haven't got room on this disk for all those Windows programs as well as a decent Linux. If you need that, buy an extra disk. -- Oliver Elphick[EMAIL PROTECTED] Isle of Wight http://www.lfix.co.uk/oliver PGP key from public servers; key ID 32B8FAA1 What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? Romans 8:31
Re: Understanding /root Re: My solution
to add to the mess: I have three smaller disks, a 320mb, and two 500mb's, one of which is scsi. The 320mb is /dev/hda and is partitioned as 32mb swap, rest is /. The 500mb scsi is mounted as /usr, and the 500mb /dev/hdb is mounted as /usr/local. Weird maybe, but I had some special needs. df shows / at 9%, /usr at 52%, /usr/local at 24%. System is being used as a development / server. _ DO YOU YAHOO!? Get your free @yahoo.com address at http://mail.yahoo.com
Re: Understanding /root Re: My solution
On 03 Dec 1998q, Joseph Hartmann wrote: I have run linux for years with just a linux native partition as big as I can make it, and a linux swap (= 2x my ram size) with no problem. I believe your approach is some kind of protection for runaway events, but in four years I have had no such event. I think the partitioning is not necessary, and I think it may have bad side effects (like wasting disk resources). This is just my opinion. This is reassuring; I've also been doing this for some time, though not as long as 4 years. It saves a lot of hassle. Anthony -- Anthony Campbell - running Linux Debian 2.0 [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.achc.demon.co.uk The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ, Moves on... - Edward Fitzgerald
