im installing fresh new install of linux....
using disk druid to partition..
however i dont know what size to make the partitions and the differences between linux native and linux swap and how many partitions i need..

thanks in advance

You don't say much I am guessing. Most distros take 2.5GB for a standard install. No swap if you have 256MB or more RAM. ext3 is preferred for Linux.

What are you installing?


You need swap twice the size of your physical ram

maybe a /boot partition of around 25 or 30 meg

then / partition big enough to hold everything else if you don't want other partitions in it

linux native is the linux partition

linux swap is a swap partition for virtual ram

The number of files systems and their sizes really depend on the function of the machine and what you are installing. I happen to be one of those people that believes in separate /, /usr, /var, /home, and /tmp especially if the system is a server or shared machine. I like to minimize the impacts of full file systems and file system corruption where ever possible.

You'll hear a lot of different advice about the size of swap- no swap if you have over 256MB, 1.5x memory, 2x memory, etc. Personally, I like to have swap at least equal to memory. Systems that are doing intensive computations, huge databases or graphics work may need more swap.

the absolute basic is:

a. / - a root partition which will contain all your files
(linux native -83)
b. swap - a area about twice the size of your physical ram
(linux swap -82)
you can add more according to need.
if your just using linux for a single home user, than you may
not need more, but if your a sys admin... get readin'

I strongly recommend making /var/www/ a seperate partition or something under it if you are to have a web server. especially if you will have upload


also /var/ftp if you have a ftp server