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a standard desktop system can make due with 15-20 MB of space easily, and even less. however, having spare space allows, for example, sharing a /boot partition between multiple distros, or having previous or alternate kernels, for example, an rt kernel for music mixing, and a standard kernel for every day work stuff.
if you considder that you can't buy a harddrive smaller than 40G today, allocating 100M to /boot is perfectly reasonable. of course, if you're setting up a desktop, running only one distro, and using ext2 or any filesystem that grub supports natively, don't even bother with /boot.
A separate boot partition is a good idea if your main partition is an LVM volume. If you reinstall in the future you could make the /boot partition smaller. 40-50MB would be fine and allow for 4 or more kernel/initrd's.
The main reason behind a separate '/boot' partition was to get under the '1024 cylinder limit' problem. This problem doesn't exist with modern Linux systems. The use of the '/boot' is for the system kernel(s), system information and possible 'initrd' uses.
If the 'OP' is using multiple boots and needs separate kernels and such then '100MB' in modern computer HDD is really small in comparison for a '/boot'. As stated this is a 'PC' and should be able to do as he/she wishes.
The main reason behind a separate '/boot' partition was to get under the '1024 cylinder limit' problem. This problem doesn't exist with modern Linux systems.
This problem doesn't exist with modern *BIOS* - it was never an operating system problem, per se. Linux or otherwise. Windows used to require the first partition on a disk - this helps explain why.
As for size of a boot partition - some installers make ridiculous assumptions. On two separate systems I have had to increase my boot to accommodate Ubuntu upgrades because the partition was reported as too small. One had 48 Meg free.
This problem doesn't exist with modern *BIOS* - it was never an operating system problem, per se. Linux or otherwise. Windows used to require the first partition on a disk - this helps explain why.
As for size of a boot partition - some installers make ridiculous assumptions. On two separate systems I have had to increase my boot to accommodate Ubuntu upgrades because the partition was reported as too small. One had 48 Meg free.
And the problem with my statement? The problem doesn't exist with modern Linux systems, I did not state operating systems. I never made a M$ statement.
The bottom line is that you really don't want to run out of space in there, assuming that you have the necessary files for, say, "two or three" kernel-versions: the current one and a couple of earlier ones that you can use as fallbacks.
Many distros supply several kernel-images "just in case" you need them; if you know you don't, you can remove them. For example, your distro has installed four possibilities:
"Huge" RAM-sizes or "not so huge"
Multiple CPUs/Cores ("SMP"), or "just one engine."
You don't need them all.
As usual, "wasteful equals convenient," and sometimes "convenient" wins. If you're concerned about having too much space here, I think I'd worry about other things first. If you do determine what's the "minimum" size-requirement, well, you might do so by means of regret!
Last edited by sundialsvcs; 03-28-2008 at 06:56 PM.
The /boot partition is separate from the boot loader so that the boot loader can load in the kernel and initrd. A 50-100MB partition out of a 60GB drive doesn't amount to much.
a /boot partition is required because grub doesn't support such things as raid1, 5. lvm, encrypted, and compressed file systems as root. nor does lilo. you have to have the kernel and the initrd in a location that grub can find them. once they're loaded, you can have root wherever you want.
if grub can read your / partition, IE ext2, ext3, etc.. you can do without a /boot
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