Re: Simple Install Question
Quoting Kevin Stokes ([EMAIL PROTECTED]): I wanted to have three partitions on my D: drive for Linux. One was going to be for the root only, which I alloted 65mb for. Another 1150mb partition was for /usr, /var and everything else. Lastly was another 65mb partition for swap. If you can manage it, it would be a good idea to have four partitions rather than three. Two (/ and swap) would be good too, but you don't gain a lot with three. To get root small (65MB is fine), you need to kick out /usr, /var, /tmp and /home. With four, you can separate /usr and make it readonly. Then the other three can share. One way of sharing is, at the installation stage, Initialise a linux partition for / Initialise a linux partition for /usr Initialise a linux partition for /foo where foo is any short name. Now switch to VC2 (Alt-F2) and cd /target/foo mkdir /target/foo/var mkdir /target/foo/tmp mkdir /target/foo/home cd /target ln -s foo/var var ln -s foo/tmp tmp ln -s foo/home home Now switch back to VC1 and Install OS Kernel and Modules. But while you're getting started, you might want to stick with only two. By the time you decide you need more partitions, you'll have the experience to decide just what size you ought to make them (different for everybody). Cheers, -- Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Tel: +44 1908 653 739 Fax: +44 1908 655 151 Snail: David Wright, Earth Science Dept., Milton Keynes, England, MK7 6AA Disclaimer: These addresses are only for reaching me, and do not signify official stationery. Views expressed here are either my own or plagiarised.
Simple Install Question
My apologies for stupid question, I've known nothing but Microsoft stuff until yesterday. After much learning, I finally got debian to the point where APT was almost configured when I ran out of disk space. Reason: I wanted to have three partitions on my D: drive for Linux. One was going to be for the root only, which I alloted 65mb for. Another 1150mb partition was for /usr, /var and everything else. Lastly was another 65mb partition for swap. However, if I make the first partition the root, and then choose /usr for the 2nd partition, it then puts /var, /home and /tmp in the little root partition. I don't want to have seperate partitions for each of these, because that would waste too much of my limited hd space. Is there a way to have the root in my small partition, and all the others (except for the swap) in a different partition? Many thanks to those who have already helped me; I finally got my internet access working with a static IP address; I could not get DCHP to work even though the Windows machines on my LAN manage to get their IP's assigned automatically. However, it works and can find www.debian.org now, so it will work to download the rest of Linux hopefully, once I can work out the partition problem. Kevin Stokes Pie in the Sky Software www.pieskysoft.com
Re: Simple Install Question
On Tue, 3 Apr 2001, Kevin Stokes wrote: I wanted to have three partitions on my D: drive for Linux. I assume you mean your second hard drive? It's only a D: drive under DOS or Windows. :) Seriously, it is a useful distinction to make because if you call it my second hard drive, everyone will know what you're talking about. My D: drive could refer to a second hard drive or just a partition. Since Linux gives you explicit control over your disks, it's a good idea to use more precise language. Enough of that tangent; on to your question... One was going to be for the root only, which I alloted 65mb for. Another 1150mb partition was for /usr, /var and everything else. Lastly was another 65mb partition for swap. However, if I make the first partition the root, and then choose /usr for the 2nd partition, it then puts /var, /home and /tmp in the little root partition. I don't want to have seperate partitions for each of these, because that would waste too much of my limited hd space. It's doing exactly what it's supposed to. Unfortunately, there's no way to do what you want. Think of each partition as containing a single directory tree (a file system). One of these gets to be the root file system, and the root of that tree is the root of the whole file system tree. Then you can mount another file system at any directory in the tree. When you do that, the root of the mounted file system takes the position on the tree of that directory. If you're mounting a partition at /usr, you're saying to make /usr refer to the root of the file system on that partition. If you wanted to also mount it at /var, /home and /tmp all of those directories would refer to the same node. That doesn't make sense, so you can't do it. Ideally, you would put /usr, /usr/local, /var, /home, and /tmp on their own partitions, but if disk space is a problem, and you need to combine them, it's going to have to be on your root partition. Sorry. For this situation, I would recommend that you at least give /home its own partition, and then leave / for everything else. It's not ideal, but at least you'll be able to hold on to your personal data (the stuff that really matters) if anything happens to the other file system. Good luck. -- David Steinberg -o) Computer Engineering Undergrad, UBC / \ [EMAIL PROTECTED]_\_v
Re: Simple Install Question
-BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE- Hash: SHA1 On Tue, 3 Apr 2001, Kevin Stokes wrote: My apologies for stupid question, I've known nothing but Microsoft stuff until yesterday. After much learning, I finally got debian to the point where APT was almost configured when I ran out of disk space. Reason: I wanted to have three partitions on my D: drive for Linux. One was going to be for the root only, which I alloted 65mb for. Another 1150mb partition was for /usr, /var and everything else. Lastly was another 65mb partition for swap. However, if I make the first partition the root, and then choose /usr for the 2nd partition, it then puts /var, /home and /tmp in the little root partition. I don't want to have seperate partitions for each of these, because that would waste too much of my limited hd space. Is there a way to have the root in my small partition, and all the others (except for the swap) in a different partition? symlinks. Make the directories in /usr then link them to the real directories... mkdir /usr/var cp -r /var /usr/var ln -s /usr/var /var mkdir /usr/home cp -r /home /usr/home ln -s /usr/home /home tmp is a special case: most things look for a global variable $TMPDIR that first looks for /tmp, then /usr/tmp, depending on available space. Many thanks to those who have already helped me; I finally got my internet access working with a static IP address; I could not get DCHP to work even though the Windows machines on my LAN manage to get their IP's assigned automatically. However, it works and can find www.debian.org now, so it will work to download the rest of Linux hopefully, once I can work out the partition problem. Kevin Stokes Pie in the Sky Software www.pieskysoft.com - -- The early worm gets the bird. Who is John Galt? [EMAIL PROTECTED], that's who! -BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE- Version: PGP for Personal Privacy 5.0 Charset: noconv iQA/AwUBOsphch9mehuYcOjMEQJ0jQCg3hv6hJc5nlwG/LO4Qz3280ZGi1UAoPYr nR3QqNA3/RC1mFErBTFP/jiv =CILk -END PGP SIGNATURE-
Re: Simple Install Question
I assume you mean your second hard drive? It's only a D: drive under DOS or Windows. :) How about if I call it 'the little shiny box that makes whirring and clicking noises which is under the other one which is sort of like it?' :) Thanks for your consise and perfectly clear explanation of why I can't do what I wanted. If only that had been in the Debian install documentation, I wouldn't have wasted hours, and I wouldn't have had to bother everybody. Don't get me wrong, I think the Debian install doc is terrific, and has plenty of detail. However, some details which are natural to Linux people are alien to newbies. I got stuck for a while because I didn't realize you had to set the type of a partition, after you made it, so it wouldn't accept my swap partition. I am also confused about what difference it makes between making primary or logical partitions. Since I'm only making three, it didn't seem to make any difference at all if the 2nd two were logical or primary. Thanks again for the help. Kevin Stokes Pie in the Sky Software www.pieskysoft.com
Re: Simple Install Question
On Tue, Apr 03, 2001, Kevin Stokes wrote: I assume you mean your second hard drive? It's only a D: drive under DOS or Windows. :) How about if I call it 'the little shiny box that makes whirring and clicking noises which is under the other one which is sort of like it?' :) Thanks for your consise and perfectly clear explanation of why I can't do what I wanted. If only that had been in the Debian install documentation, I wouldn't have wasted hours, and I wouldn't have had to bother everybody. Don't get me wrong, I think the Debian install doc is terrific, and has plenty of detail. However, some details which are natural to Linux people are alien to newbies. I got stuck for a while because I didn't realize you had to set the type of a partition, after you made it, so it wouldn't accept my swap partition. I am also confused about what difference it makes between making primary or logical partitions. Since I'm only making three, it didn't seem to make any difference at all if the 2nd two were logical or primary. Hi, This distinction was introduced by MS-DOS, I believe, and linux partitioning tools simply adopt the distinction (though it is unnecessary) to help coexist when multiple OS's are on a single machine, I think (but it's been a while since I've used anything other than Linux or *BSD). May I also suggest that you check out: Linux, 2nd Edition by Michael Kofler (pub. by Addison-Wesley). While it's geared for three distributions (Debian, RedHat, and Suse), it will probably answer lots of your questions, especially since it covers not only core OS issues, but introduces one to the vast array of wonderful free software that you'll use on your linux system: emacs/vi, latex/tex, gimp, apache, programming development tools, etc. It's a really great all-around linux intro. Hope this helps, Daniel Thanks again for the help. Kevin Stokes Pie in the Sky Software www.pieskysoft.com -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED] -- Daniel A. Freedman Laboratory for Atomic and Solid State Physics Department of Physics Cornell University
