Linux Partition in A Nutshell Please
 

Hi, I am trying to install Slackware 9.1 to my machine, the first thing I need to do is to create the linux partitions. Before, when I installed my Red Hat 9.0, I let Red Hat installer automatically partition my hard drive. Now, I want to know what is the best breakdown for the partitions.

The slackware website has a brief explantation on this. It says that at least I need to have a partition for each of /, /home, and /usr. (It also explains why).

I have a 13 GByte HD, my plan for the partition is:
7 GByte for the /usr (this is the biggest partition since it's for the software)
4 GByte for the /home (is this where users ideally save their work or data?)
The rest is for the root (is this where all the distribution and kernel code goes?)

I know that probably there's no right or wrong on the partition size, but I'm sure that partitioning the hard drive into the "best" configuration will ease the use later on.

Can anybody give me some input on my partition above?
Do I need to create the swap partition? If yes, what is it for?
I heard that Slackware is probably the best distribution for newbies who really want to get into Linux, is this true?

Thanks in advance for all the replies.

Looks okay to me. But you could use a swap - it's not absolutely necessary if you've got a lot of RAM, but what the heck. It's a place on the disk where the kernel pages stuff out of memory when it runs out. Depending on your needs, you may only need a couple hundred megs of RAM to have plenty of room - I've got 512 and never come close to seriously using my swap. And, if you're not acting as a webserver or doing anything complex, you don't need a complex partition table. You can get away with a plain / and swap if you want.

Slack is neither good or bad for new users - it depends on the user. It's a good distro and ideal for those who like some control and some (relative) simplicity and for things to generally make sense and function properly with some work. If you want to learn, it's good. If you want something totally yours, do LFS or download source files yourself and compile the whole system. If you want everything done, but not necessarily done your way, try your Mandrake's or SuSe's. If you will *not* read a man page, do not use Slack. If you will, do. :)

I have this set up on my RH Box
/ (root) 50gig
/home 60gig
swap 2gig

the great thing about having a diffrent partition for home is that when u format or reinstall you still have your data!!! I will work with just a root and swap partition aswell.

50GB is a huge root...;)

On a 60GB drive, I have 10GB / (2GB used)
49 and a bit GB for /home
and 500MB swap (768MB RAM)

Slackware 9.1 right?
Use fdisk.

I thought I explained it well here, if there is anything wrong, and someone notices it, please change it to correctly work.

You just create one primary partition, say 250mb, then find the options and tag it as boot. (I believe this is #83?)

You create another primary partition, say 15gb, this will be your /home/ partition. (You have to tag this as #83?)
(This is essential for non-BSD Porting distros, as it means you don't have to delete your /home/ directory when you upgrade kernel, unless there's a way to upgrade, that I am unfamiliar with?)

Create another primary partition, say 25gb, this will be your / partition (You tag this as #83 also?)

You can also add in any other partitions you want like a /media/ partition where you store everything like mp3s, oggs and whatever other media files you use. Make it whatever size you want.

Then finally create another partition (I'm not sure, maybe make this one secondary?) at size 512mb (You tag this as #82?) This is your swap partition. (You don't need 2gb swap, that's a waste of 2gbs.. I mean, I only have 128mb RAM, and I have never really used the swap..

The swap partition is when your computer has used all it's RAM, it trades RAM for swap drive space? I'm not really sure about this..

Then after that write the partition table, then when setting it up, choose ext 3 and 1024 block checks.