Best practise in Partitioning Slackware
 

Hi,

I am new to Slackware but I'm a bit familiar with Ubuntu. I normally partition my ubuntu using /swap, /root and /home. In ubuntu it is recommended to separate /home and /root partitions so that later on if something to be changed in the system we just need to apply on that /root without affecting our old data in /home. Is it the same way in Slackware applied?

If so, is it the same as having /swap, /root and /home partitions as well? Can anyone suggest for the harddisk distribution of my 320GB space..

Thanks in advance..

-alfa-

Yeah, that is the way I partition my Slackware boxes. I have swap, root, and home partitions. Having a separate home partition is nice as it makes upgrading to a new version of Slackware painless as you keep all of your data in home. The way that you allocate space for /root and /home will depend on what you plan to use your box for. I usually allocate more space for home than root.

Thanks a lot for the information..That really helped!

First of all, the root directory / should not be confused with the root user's home directory, which is /root, and swap is denoted as swap, not /swap

Second, I usually create separate partitions as follows:
This is overkill for your needs.

At a minimum it is best if you create the following:
On a 320GB disk it would be safe enough to go with the following sizes:

This is overkill for everyone :-)

Kind regards

Yeah, You're right, I should not have said /root when I meant /. Thanks for the correction. :)
Your partition scheme is excellent, however, for a newcomer to Slackware I think swap, /, and home will suffice. As the OP gains more experience in Slackware then he/she can further customize their HD layout.
Also, to the OP I suggest that you use cfdisk to partition your hard drive as that is a little more user friendly than fdisk. At the root prompt type:

# cfdisk /dev/sda

:)
It just means runaway log files and an overflowing /tmp dir don't bring the computer to its knees. It also means local software can be preserved when reinstalling. And finally I think it makes for a snappier disk. Yes it is overkill for the OP but I for one would never have learnt anything if other people hadn't explained these things to me at the beginning. It is always good to raise the level of knowledge, not to keep beginners forever at a low level.

I was replying to the OP hitest but feel free to eavesdrop and learn from me.
:)

Ha-ha, will do! :)

Doesn't anyone use LVM? As long as you leave some unallocated space and use a resizeable file-system, your initial choices are not so important as you have the freedom to change it around later.

This is the way to go, IMO. If you use a file system that can be resized while mounted, it's even easier. Plus you can use pvmove to migrate data from one physical drive to the others so that you can replace it.

I normally use the following scheme for all my Linux installs -
/
/home
/usr
swap

I have separated /boot yet..

and I suggest the OP to start learning using fdisk.

# fdisk -H 32 -S 32 /dev/sda

even better, he should start using GPT if he's not using M$ Windows.

Do what you want. There is as I know only 4 DOS primary partition but you can also create extended partitions. Each directory may refer to a partition or device. Say your /home/myhome can be on your USB drive. This means all private files will be placed on that USB and during a boot USB will be mounted at /home/myhome. I used this solution for my 8 GB hard disk computer. I added an USB port on PCI and it was mounted as my user directory. You may also consider using LVM - I have no much experience in that but it may interesting.