I triple booted my puter with xp/backtrack 3/fedora 8.

Here are my partitions

sda1 windows xp
sda2 /boot
sda3 / for fedora 8
sda4 extended
sda5 swap
sda6 backtrack 3

I'm using the grub bootloader. In my grub.conf, (hd0,2) which is the sda3 fedora 8 partition is where fedora 8's kernel and initrd are located. The same goes with backtrack 3. So basically sda3 is used for booting kernels and initrd.

My question is, what is the purpose of sda2 the /boot partition if it doesn't get used?

When would it get used?

If it has nothing in it, it has no use.
If it has something in it, and is not being used, same applies.

My question is: Where did it come from?

Did you create it? Perhaps when installing Fedora, you created a boot partition, but then neglected to tell the installer that you wanted it mounted and used.

I am in the habit of creating a separate boot partition and formatting it with a basic filesystem like ext2 or ext3. My root system is usually something more esoteric or exotic like xfs, which the bootloader may not like.

In any case, if it is indeed not being used and you do not need to reclaim the space, you can pretty much ignore it for now.

Regards,
Ken

Hehe, well I created it during the Fedora 8 install. I'm barely learning how to use linux(about 5 months now) and was just in a habit to make 3 parttions, /boot, swap, and root /.

It's only 100mb, guess I'll just keep it there just in case.

If its not being used when checking df -h , then you can just delete it.

Fedora wants to default to an LVM filesystem (logical volume management) that grub can't understand, so the Fedora default is to create a /boot that is formatted as ext3 and it puts the kernel, etc. there where grub can read it. The boot process then loads the LVM, and you're on your way.

It's actually handy to have /boot separate - if nothing else I stick my "master" grub there and chainload to other grubs on each linux / partition/ It makes menu.lst uodating easier (since most updaters want to update their menu.lst when a new kernel is installed)

That is it. It is a bad idea to place your boot files on an LVM. And the same applies if you decide to use XFS or JFS as a filesystem for your / partition.