repartitioning hard drive on Slackware 11- distributing free space, need an advice
SlackwareThis Forum is for the discussion of Slackware Linux.
Notices
Welcome to LinuxQuestions.org, a friendly and active Linux Community.
You are currently viewing LQ as a guest. By joining our community you will have the ability to post topics, receive our newsletter, use the advanced search, subscribe to threads and access many other special features. Registration is quick, simple and absolutely free. Join our community today!
Note that registered members see fewer ads, and ContentLink is completely disabled once you log in.
If you have any problems with the registration process or your account login, please contact us. If you need to reset your password, click here.
Having a problem logging in? Please visit this page to clear all LQ-related cookies.
Get a virtual cloud desktop with the Linux distro that you want in less than five minutes with Shells! With over 10 pre-installed distros to choose from, the worry-free installation life is here! Whether you are a digital nomad or just looking for flexibility, Shells can put your Linux machine on the device that you want to use.
Exclusive for LQ members, get up to 45% off per month. Click here for more info.
repartitioning hard drive on Slackware 11- distributing free space, need an advice
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?
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.
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...
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.
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
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.
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.
LinuxQuestions.org is looking for people interested in writing
Editorials, Articles, Reviews, and more. If you'd like to contribute
content, let us know.