Partition
 

Hello

I am contemplating installing slackware to get experience with linux. I know there are lots of tutorials on how to install. My question is how do I know how much to partition each set. I have no experience with this. I am using an old toshiba satellite c655 here is basic info on it
Processor 1.6GHz Intel Celeron B815
Memory 3GB, 1,333MHz DDR3
Hard drive 320GB 5,400rpm
Chipset Intel HM65
Graphics Intel HD3000

Thank you

The Slackware installer says that a FULL install is "8.5+ GB", so in total you'll probably want to have at the very least 12GB hard drive space, but realistically I would think you'd really like to have more. The sky is the limit, though, so that's for you to decide; you're obviously free to have as much as your hard drive has to offer.

By "each" set I guess you mean each package set? I don't believe there's a running total of uncompressed install sizes per set. Since the data in each set gets installed to different places, I don't know if that's the best way to look at it; better to ask how much room you should provide per partition, if you intend to create separate partitions for key areas (like /usr/bin, /home, /var), but you'd have to decide that for yourself, since only you know what you intend to do with your install.

For Slackware in total, though, I will say that I usually give /usr/bin a 16 GB SSD drive, with everything else housed on a much larger drive.

Does that make sense?

I gave
15 GB to / (theres's currently 5,3 GB free)
24 GB to /home
1,5 GB to swap

And I have some ntfs partition for mutual use with Windows installation.

I didn't do a full install, but from the needed "main areas" I installed almost everything.

Sounds sensible to me. I think you'll get by on that for some time, unless you start downloading 40 gb of Steam games.

Welcome aboard!

Thank you! Makes more sense now. I am most likely going to install tonight after work and a glass of wine.

Im a bit nervous about it. I went to http://www.slackware.com/getslack/torrents.php and downloaded Slackware 14.1 x86 Install ISO disc 1 (A/AP/E/F/L/N/Y, bootable installer, kernels, testing/, USB and PXE installers, Slackbook, source code)
but I notice there are other disc on the page. I am confused. Do I have to download each one? And if so do I put it all on one USB?

I have an 86_64 computer so in other words it appears 64 bit.

Thanks for the help

Scroll down a little bit on the page and use "Slackware 14.1 x86_64 DVD ISO (Includes everything except for source code -- see the Slackware 14.1 source code DVD ISO above for source code)."

Also, if you are installing for the first time, I'd recommend going through the install process on a virtual machine first, which will get you more familiar with it and avoid any surprises. When you are ready to install, you can either partition the hard drive during the install process, or you can do it beforehand using gparted or a similar tool in a live session (for example, there is a gparted live CD/DVD/USB that you can use: http://gparted.org/livecd.php).

If you like Slackware, consider buying/subscribing/donating to support the developers.

It would be better to grab the dvd iso (which doesn't have to be written to a dvd, but provides everything in one source). You can use various programs to write the iso to a usb drive (depending on your current host OS). While there's some discussion on which version is better, nowadays, I typically recommend getting the version that matches your processor. So, if you have a 64bit computer, I'd get Slackware64 (which is only available as a "dvd" iso.

What are you currently running on the system you'll make the USB drive? Are you planning on only installing Slackware on the notebook, or will it be dual booting with another OS (typically Windows)?

For someone not very experienced with Linux, I'd personally only suggest two, maybe three partitions for Slackware. Once you're further aware of how you'll use your system, you can look into alternative partitioning schemes.

At the minimum, you need a root partition. This will be what holds all your files and folders (unless you have additional partitions mounted). Since you only have 3GB of RAM, I'd probably recommend at least a 2GB swap partition, plus an additional 3GB if you intend to hibernate the system (since hibernating will move all contents from your RAM to your swap). Some people will recommend having a separate partition for /home (and I do that), but for utter simplicity, you really only need the root and swap partitions.

Depending on how much you plan on doing with the laptop (installing a lot of software, doing dev work, etc), you may want a larger root partition. I have mine at 200GB of a 512GB SSD, and I've used 67GB of it (although, about half of that is in my /tmp, due to compiling software from slackbuilds.org). On my /home partition, I have used 83GB, with 50GB of that being for steam games.

Everyone's usage is different and nobody can tell you the perfect partitioning scheme. It is best to try a basic setup (like my two or three partitions listed above) and then once you are more familiar with how you use your system, you can look at using a more advanced paritioning scheme, if it fits your needs.

Thanks for the responses. I use Unetbootin. I am currently using Bodhi Linux which I love. I downloaded "Slackware 14.1 x86_64 DVD ISO (Includes everything except for source code -- see the Slackware 14.1 source code DVD ISO above for source code) last night, but it ended up not booting up from USB. when I went to USB from the boot manager it said default and it just looped back to default screen. As if Slackware wasnt on there. However when I downloaded Slackware 14.1 x86 Install ISO disc 1 (A/AP/E/F/L/N/Y, bootable installer, kernels, testing/, USB and PXE installers, Slackbook, source code) it wrote to the USB properly and I was able to boot up (I abandoned the install, because at that point I was just checking to see if the ISO image would work).

I will mainly be using the computer for surfing the web, downloading music, watching videos, and also mainly to just familiarize myself with Linux/Unix. I am taking a job in two months that is mainly Unix based, so I want to get my hands dirty with a more challenging OS

If you already have Linux running, it might be easier to just use dd to copy the contents to a usb drive.

But first, I'd make sure your download is not corrupted. You can run md5sum against the ISO and then verify it matches the md5 file on the mirror.

Once you've verified it is not corrupted, you can run the following, ensuring you pick the correct location for the Slackware iso and the correct device for your thumbdrive (it won't ask you to confirm your selection, so make sure it is correct as it will wipe whatever device you specify).

Thanks Bassmadrigal. I will try this tonight. I am afraid this is all over my head, but what better training would it be then to undergo this experiment.

Good luck! And we're more than happy to provide any assistance you may need :)

Thank you I sure will need it :D

If using dd and writing to a USB stick, wouldn't he have to use isohybrid as well?

No, the ISOs have already been processed by isohybrid starting with 14.1. All previous versions would need it.

Slackware iso images are already isohybrid ready for use with a usb stick. It will not do any harm to run isohybrid again. I have even experimented with running isohybrid 10 times in a row and then installing from usb.
I just use one large partition for Slackware. I have two partitions of 375 gb but only Slackware is installed on sda1. I use sda2 for installing other OS to try them out.
I just don't understand why I would want to partition for the sake of partitioning my Slackware install into smaller hunks