repartitioning hard drive on Slackware 11- distributing free space, need an advice

ErV · 06-10-2007, 01:44 PM

Hello!
I've recently removed Window(r) system from my machine and now I want to redistribute free space between partitions in "more optimized" way. I'm just not quite sure what should I take in account before repartitioning, abd which filesystem should I use for which partitions, which folders should be placed on a separate partition, etc. But I'm quite sure that current partition scheme isn't good. So I need and advice, or a good link to read..

Current situation:
Slackware 11 System with 512mb ram and
single 40Gb hard drive with following partition scheme:

1)/dev/hdc1 - primary 7.2G ext3 (former windows' system partition), mounted as /mnt/win_c, almost empty (129Mb used by system)/
2)extended partition which contains:
2.1) /dev/hdc5 - 21G ext3 (former windows "data" partition0, mounted as /mnt/win_d, almost empty (129Mb used by system)
2.2) /dev/hdc6 - 512mb swap partition. Mostly isn't used, swap usage at most time is about 0..4mb.
3) /dev/hdc3 - 6,7GB ext3, mounted as / 5,8 Gb used.

The space distribution is so strange because there was windows XP on same machine.

With current partition scheme I'm running out of space in / when compiling something "heavy" (two parallel "wine" compilations will be enough) in ~ directory, and it looks like contents of / doesn't change often (except for /tmp and /home) - changes occur only when installing new software. It looks like having 1GB swap partition instead of 512mb would be good.
Also, some articles suggest splitting system into 6 or 7 partitions, each with different filesystem and different flags. (even for a /boot directory) is this necessary?

So, what's the best way to redistribute free space for my Slackware Linux system?

thanks.

GregLee · 06-10-2007, 04:03 PM

I don't think it matters, except esthetically. If you tend to run out of room in /tmp or /var/tmp, maybe you should mount those on a tempfs file system -- essentially a ram disk. If you used LVM, you could later change your mind about the partitioning, but I don't think that's worth the trouble.

ErV · 06-11-2007, 01:52 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GregLee

If you tend to run out of room in /tmp or /var/tmp

I'm not running out of room in /tmp or /var/tmp. Durinc compilation gcc creates a tons of *.o (and probably other) intermediate files, I'm mostly run out of space because there are too many of them.

Quote:

Originally Posted by GregLee

I don't think it matters, except esthetically. If you tend to run out of room in /tmp or /var/tmp, maybe you should mount those on a tempfs file system -- essentially a ram disk. If you used LVM, you could later change your mind about the partitioning, but I don't think that's worth the trouble.

Thanks for your reply. I guess in this case I won't do some radical changes to HDD structure, I'll just use existing partitions instead...

Geist3 · 06-11-2007, 10:16 AM

You've got 5.8GB of something on it. Is this valuable data? If it is not, and you want to wipe out the entire dissk and start from scratch, I've got a scheme for you.

onebuck · 06-11-2007, 02:38 PM

Hi,

Quote:

I've recently removed Window(r) system from my machine and now I want to redistribute free space between partitions in "more optimized" way. I'm just not quite sure what should I take in account before repartitioning, abd which filesystem should I use for which partitions, which folders should be placed on a separate partition, etc. But I'm quite sure that current partition scheme isn't good. So I need and advice, or a good link to read..

Disk partitioning is a personal taste issue! If you have a general desktop then you can get away with just '/' & 'swap'. If you want to understand partitioning in general then look at this link.

If you want to use a system as a server then that is where the partition scheme can be interesting. Below is an example of a server on my lan;

Code:

amos:~# fdisk -l

Disk /dev/hda: 15.0 GB, 15000330240 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 1823 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/hda1   *           1           7       56196   83  Linux
/dev/hda2               8          70      506047+  82  Linux swap
/dev/hda3              71         195     1004062+  83  Linux
/dev/hda4             196        1823    13076910    5  Extended
/dev/hda5             196         694     4008186   83  Linux
/dev/hda6             695         819     1004031   83  Linux
/dev/hda7             820         944     1004031   83  Linux
/dev/hda8             945        1194     2008093+  83  Linux
/dev/hda9            1195        1568     3004123+  83  Linux
/dev/hda10           1569        1823     2048256   83  Linux


amos:~# cfdisk /dev/hda

  cfdisk 2.12p

                              Disk Drive: /dev/hda
                        Size: 15000330240 bytes, 15.0 GB
              Heads: 255   Sectors per Track: 63   Cylinders: 1823

    Name        Flags      Part Type  FS Type          [Label]        Size (MB)
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    hda1        Boot        Primary   Linux ext3       [boot]             57.58
    hda2                    Primary   Linux swap                         518.20
    hda3                    Primary   Linux ext3       [/]              1028.16
    hda5                    Logical   Linux ext3       [usr]            4104.42
    hda6                    Logical   Linux ext3       [var]            1028.16
    hda7                    Logical   Linux ext3       [tmp]            1028.16
    hda8                    Logical   Linux ext3       [home]           2056.32
    hda9                    Logical   Linux ext3       [arc1]           3076.26
    hda10                   Logical   Linux ext3       [arc2]           2097.45



amos:~# cat /etc/fstab

/dev/hda2        swap             swap        defaults         0   0
/dev/hdb2        swap             swap        defaults         0   0
/dev/hda3        /                ext3        defaults         1   1
/dev/hda1        /boot            ext3        defaults         1   2
/dev/hda5        /usr             ext3        defaults         1   2
/dev/hda6        /var             ext3        defaults         1   2
/dev/hda7        /tmp             ext3        defaults         1   2
/dev/hda8        /home            ext3        defaults         1   2
/dev/hda9        /arc1            ext3        defaults         1   2
/dev/hda10       /arc2            ext3        defaults         1   2
/dev/cdrom       /mnt/cdrom       auto        noauto,owner,ro  0   0
/dev/fd0         /mnt/floppy      auto        noauto,owner     0   0
devpts           /dev/pts         devpts      gid=5,mode=620   0   0
proc             /proc            proc        defaults         0   0

Experiment and have some fun!

Check my sig for some good references.

The 'Slackware LQ Suggestions!' has a lot of material.

Some people are now including the 'Slackware LQ Suggestions!' link in their sig.

JohnKFT · 06-11-2007, 08:17 PM

I am no expert but I think the simplest short-term solution would be to mount /home on /dev/hdc5, which should leave plenty of space on /dev/hdc3 for the system files in / and involve no need to repartition anything. You can then take your time investigating what can be a complex issue.

Meantime /dev/hdc1 could be used for backup or installing a dual-boot secondary linux system for testing. Both systems can then access /home. This will require careful investigation into the correct lilo.conf setup. I ran this type of setup for a while before settling on Slackware and found it very useful. Whatever happens with the trial system it should not affect /home or the running system, which you can always fall back on. The booting setup is, however, critical, so do get advice from someone knowledgeable.

ErV · 06-13-2007, 05:19 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Geist3

You've got 5.8GB of something on it. Is this valuable data?

It's system files and some documents (about 1GB)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Geist3

If it is not, and you want to wipe out the entire dissk and start from scratch, I've got a scheme for you.

Thanks, but no.

Quote:

Originally Posted by onebuck

Disk partitioning is a personal taste issue! If you have a general desktop then you can get away with just '/' & 'swap'. If you want to understand partitioning in general then look at this link.

Quote:

Originally Posted by JohnKFT

am no expert but I think the simplest short-term solution would be to mount /home on /dev/hdc5, which should leave plenty of space on /dev/hdc3 for the system files in / and involve no need to repartition anything. You can then take your time investigating what can be a complex issue.

Well, I've decided to leave system on /dev/hdc3 (since it doesn't need too much space), and moved home directory to /dev/hdc5 (since it's the one that eats most space). Decided not to touch /dev/hdc1 for now. I'll leave it be just in case I'll need to install test operating system. until then, It'll probably mounted as "common" directory or something like that.

Problem solved, thanks for the help.