I was reading one of the HowTos on partitioning and had a few questions. Below is the example that they provided:
+-------------+---------------+------------------+
|Partition |Mount point |Size |
+-------------+---------------+------------------+
|/dev/hda1 |/boot |(15 megs) |
+-------------+---------------+------------------+
|/dev/hda2 |windows 98 |(2 gigs) |
+-------------+---------------+------------------+
|/dev/hda3 |extended |(N/A) |
+-------------+---------------+------------------+
|/dev/hda5 |swap space |(64 megs) |
+-------------+---------------+------------------+
|/dev/hda6 |/tmp |(50 megs) |
+-------------+---------------+------------------+
|/dev/hda7 |/ |(150 megs) |
+-------------+---------------+------------------+
|/dev/hda8 |/usr |(1.5 gigs) |
+-------------+---------------+------------------+
|/dev/hda9 |/home |(rest of drive) |
+-------------+---------------+------------------+

Is the one with Mount point "/" (/dev/hda7" considered root?
Why is there no /hda4? (Perhaps some explanation of how extended partitions would help me out).
If I wasn't going to put Windows on any of the partions, how would I set up my partitions?

Thanks in Advance.

2what do you mean "considered"? it's jsut been given the mountpoint of / (i.e. root) for the sake of it. it's a good size etc....

there is no hda4 as hda4 is the extended partition itself, containing hte logical partitions hda5 to whatever....

how you set up your partitions is up to you. you don't *need* more than one (and some swap) but it's just a good idea to do so. but i presume that this howto will epxlain about the reasoning for it

Actually in his case its /dev/hda3 that is the extended partition.

You can create up to 4 primary partitions. Say for instance:

10 GB drive.

Create a primary of 1 GB, it would be /dev/hda1
Create a logical partition after the primary, its going to use /dev/hda2 as the extended and the actual first logical partition would be /dev/hda5 and so on for any others created as logicals.

Or lets say I create two primary partitions of 1 GB each. They would be /dev/hda1 and /dev/hda2. Then I create a logical partition of the rest of the drive. Then /dev/hda3 would be the extended partition where the first logical partition /dev/hda5 would reside. /dev/hda4 would be unused as you didn't create a third primary to use /dev/hda4 as the extended.

Hope that kind of helps you understand where the number scheme comes from or possibly confuse you anymore.

*cough* pedantic hick *cough*

Don't give me a reason to come over there and slap you..

And my pants don't smell bad.. I checked for marks this morning before I left for work.