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

For the command dd if=/tmp/slackware64-14.1-install-dvd.iso of=/dev/sdX bs=1M I know that when I put my USB in it is /dev/sbd1 or something like that. So would i change the sdX in that command to /dev/sbd1? Probably a dumb question, but I just want to make sure I have an understanding before I work on it tonight

There are a lot of reasons, but it really depends on your usage. You may want /tmp and/or /var on separate partitions, so if you happen to fill either of those, it doesn't harm anything else (a faulty program could create a ton of temp files or massive logs ultimately filling the partition they reside on). Also, you may want to have your htdocs root on a different partition if you're hosting webpages to ensure they remain separate from the OS. /boot needs to be a separate partition if you use lvm/luks. Depending on how you store your music/videos/pictures, you may want them on a separate partition (or even separate drive). If you install a lot of software in /usr/local, you could have that be a separate partition from /usr so you can easily separate your custom programs from your stock programs. Some like to have /home be a separate partition so they can easily hose the installation but still retain all their stuff.

There's a ton of ways to utilize Linux's flexible partitioning. Some, including me, tend to go for a fairly basic setup (I just have swap, /root, and /home, with additional media drives holding my TV Shows and Movies that are served over NFS to my htpc), but there are others who like to have very strict controls over how big certain folders can get and to prevent any one of them from breaking the system if it gets filled.

That's why I saw it is always better for users to start with basic partitions, then once they're more familiar with how they use their system, they can then decide if it is worth it to try an alternative partitioning scheme.

You won't specify the partition on the drive (the number at the end of the device), since the dd command replaces the whole filesystem. So in your case, it would be:

Awesome thank you Bassmadrigal. Today is D-day I will see how big of a war it will be installing it.

So based on what im working with, do you think I could get away with 5gb for swap and whatever I have left over for root?

I still have trouble understanding the numbers.

harddrive: 320GB 5,400rpm
Memory: 3GB, 1,333MHz DDR3

You indicate you have 3GB of RAM so 2-4GB for swap should be more than enough for a general user.

Create the root filesystem partition first (not necessary but) since swap is useless if you don't have the filesystem. On current Linux operating systems with full installs, 15-25GB for the root filesystem, 2-4GB for swap and use the rest to store personal data. You can easily create these partitions after the install.

Got it. Thanks! So since I have 320gb hard drive is that where the 15-25gb is coming from?

Just a general assumption. Slackware full install is a little over 9 GB according to the installer so 15-25 GB would leave you some wiggle space for installing other programs and such.

Personally my 320 GB HDD is set up like this:

/ 30 GB
swap 8 GB
/data 200 GB
/mirror 60 GB

YMMV

I keep /home on my / partition and use /data for all my files (music, documents, etc) that way when I reinstall or something happens I can have a full clean install and not lose anything.

Thanks Skaendo. This may be another ignorant question but in order to make data partition do I name it when creating the partition in cfdisk? I did not see data as an option when choosing type.

Personally, I would go larger than 15-25GB for your root partition since it'll give you more wiggle room in case you decide to start installing a lot of software. I use 22GB just in my /usr directory. I would probably go with a minimum of 50GB if you're willing to occasionally clear out your /tmp folder (as that is where all packages from SBo are built and saved) or 100GB if you're lazy (I certainly am). I currently have 37GB in my /tmp (I'm a digital packrat) and have a total of 67GB of my 100GB used on my root partition.

In all actuality, you really only need swap and root partitions. If you intend to hibernate the laptop, add the size of your RAM to whatever swap you plan on using. In your case, 2GB of swap + 3GB for hibernation seems like a decent starting amount. Then you could just leave everything else for you root partition, although, many (including me) like to have /home on a separate partition. /home is basically where all your files will be saved, and having it as a separate partition could be beneficial in some recovery/installation scenarios.

Because you have a 320GB drive and it is likely you won't use nearly all of it, personally, I would probably do:

5GB - swap
100GB - / (root partition)
remaining (~215GB) - /home

Partitions are handled a little differently in Linux than Windows. In cfdisk, you would just specify the filesystem type (linux or linux swap, depending on what partition you're creating), then, once formatted, any additional partitions (outside of the root and swap) would be linked to certain folders within the root filesystem.

So, if you have a partition you intend to use for /home, when the installer asks you to add additional partitions, you would just write the mountpoint (what folder you want it at) in the installer.

I'm using 6 GB for the filesystem and 2 GB for the swap partition (running in VirtualBox because I can't afford another computer), but I'm not installing the GUI in this installation. To install everything, you need at least 8 GB hard drives space, as it says in the installer.

Very helpful! Thank you both. Now I get the mounting of /home. I have been re-watching install videos. I never have partitioned before so last time i tried i failed. Last question here hopefully. When I am assigning the space can I use GB or do I have to use KB? seems like in all the videos they have it in KB. Do i convert them or just put for example 50GB for root and be done with it

If you are doing it from the installer, then you can tell it to make your partition size in GB like this:

It's been a while since I've partitioned, but most partitioning tools will allow you to specify your size followed with an M, G, T (for megabyte, gigabyte, and terabyte, respectively).

Awesome. I feel more confident about the install now. I am sure I will have questions after completing the install and reading the manuals.

If you're using fdisk to partition the drive, you have to specify the beginning and ending sector of each partition. I determined these using a calculator (a TI-84+ mind you; a pocket calculator most likely won't be sufficient).

You can also use cfdisk, which is a full-screen alternative to fdisk. I've never specified a partition size in cfdisk though, so I don't know how it's done.

Yikes the beginning and ending sectors. I dont know anything about that. I am going to re-watch the install tutorial on Youtube now.

This is done automatically in fdisk. You don't need to worry about it. Just specifying the size in G or whatever you will be able to just use the default sectors that fdisk indicates.

Basically what you want to do is take the starting/ending gigabyte, multiply by 2^30 to get the byte number, then divide by the sector size (usually 512, but it will say in fdisk if you type "p") to get the sector number.

With fdisk, you don't need to know about the sectors. By default, it will start with the first available sector, then you just specify the size you want... In other words, just use the defaults for the start, the actual size you want for the "Last sector" except for the last partition, just use the default last sector (as that'll use the full remaining amount of space on the drive. Here is a quick run through on one of my 1TB drives (with fdisk, so cfdisk will not look the same, but I'd assume the process would still be similar).

So do you mean you type, say, "10G" to specify a 10 GB partition? I did not know that. Still fairly new to fdisk.

Gotcha so I should choose fdisk instead of cfdisk?

Sorry posted before refreshing the page

Thats what I needed Bass!! Thanks for breaking it down for me.

Basically, yes. The expression would be "+10G" for 10 GB.

Dealers choice I suppose. I am using a BIOS/MBR setup so fdisk works perfectly for me and it is relatively easy.

was too slow

If you're new to fdisk then please refrain from giving misleading advice to other users. Partitioning is not something done for fun and people who follow misleading, ill-informed advice run the risk of losing their data.

Just as a reminder, fdisk will prompt you on what it wants... just make sure you read everything it prints so you don't do the wrong thing.

Basically, it will allow you to specify a specific sector you want to end at (just specify the actual sector you want it to end at), to create a partition how ever many sectors large you want it to be (put a plus sign in front of the number and it will make the partition that many sectors large), or you can use actual byte references to how big you want the partition (the plus sign followed by the size in K, M, or G (looks like I might've been incorrect in it letting you use T for terabytes, but fdisk doesn't support volumes over 2TBs anyway, so not supporting T isn't a huge deal)).

Probably muddied the waters with that one ;)

Yes, and another problem with the `calculator approach` with modern advance format drives is if you get it wrong, performance will suck too.

http://www.storagereview.com/the_impact_of_misalignment

These days, I trust fdisk -- it's way smarter than I am.

-- kjh

I am trying to write Slackware to USB via terminal. I tried

sudo dd if=/home/lucifer/Desktop/slackware64-14.1-iso of=/dev/sdb oflag=direct bs=1048576
I get this error:
dd: failed to open ‘/home/lucifer/Desktop/slackware64-14.1-iso’: No such file or directory

I tried dd if=/home/lucifer/Desktop/slackware64-14.1-iso of=/dev/sdb bs=1M

and

if=/home/lucifer/Desktop/slackware64-14.1-iso of=/dev/sdb


lucifer@lucifer-Satellite-C655:~/Desktop/lxle-14.04.4-64bit$ sudo dd if=/home/lucifer/Desktop/slackware64-14.1-iso of=/dev/sdb oflag=direct bs=1048576
dd: error reading ‘/home/lucifer/Desktop/slackware64-14.1-iso’: Is a directory
0+0 records in
0+0 records out
0 bytes (0 B) copied, 0.00279267 s, 0.0 kB/s



Still no luck. Here is the output from sudo fdisk -l

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1p1 * 0 3088639 1544320 0 Empty
/dev/sdb1p2 3076268 3080811 2272 c W95 FAT32 (LBA)

This message states that the ISO file isn't where you specified. You'd need to find where it is stored on your computer and then type in that reference.

(Depending on how you downloaded it, it might be under Downloads instead of Desktop... /home/lucifer/Downloads/slackware64-14.1-iso)

I checked Downloads. Nothing in that file.

Here is screenshot of the iso image

Hi,
NOT /home/lucifer/Desktop/slackware64-14.1-iso

IS /home/lucifer/Desktop/slackware64-14.1.iso

See the difference?

Your pic shows that the full path to the ISO is:
/home/lucifer/Desktop/slackware64-14.1.iso/slackware64-14.1-iso

In other words the name of the ISO file is the same as the name of the directory it lies in (which is unusual but not wrong).

So, plug-in yout USB stick, then just type the following commands, in that order
Comments about each command:

1. The "cd" command ("cd stand for "change directory") makes the current (or working) directory be that where lies the ISO file.
2. The "pwd" command (for "print working directory") just confirms that.
3. The "ls -1" command lists the files in the current directory, one per line, allowing you to check the presence of the ISO and of its associated md5 file.
4. The "md5sum -c" commands checks that the checksum stored in the file whose name ends in .md5 is identical to the one computed by this command. The answer should just be "OK", otherwise the file is corrupted and you should download then check it again.
5. the "lsblk" command (for "list block devices") should confirm that the USB stick is recognized as /dev/sdb (no matter how many partitions it includes). Check the model. The fields displayed (arguments of the -o option) are in that order the model (or brand, or kind) of the device, the name of the device or partition, the size of the device or partition, the file system type (blank for the device, indicated for its partitions), the mount point of those among the partitions that are mounted (should be blank for all partitions of the USB stick).
6. 5 The "dd" command (the meaning of the acronym is debated but think of it as "data destroyer " so be careful: it can overwrite the exiting data on your hard disk as well as on an USB stick, hence the "lsblk" command typed first) copies the file indicated after "if=" to the device or output file indicated after "of=". Double check what you write after "of="!
7. The "sync" (for "synchronize") command synchronize cached writes to persistent storage, in other word flushes the data (make sure they are actually written to the media).

EDIT: fixed the directory name, misread from the pic, and added the "ls -1" command.

I believe it is this way when you use the torrent rather than just downloading the ISO from a mirror.