partitioning for Dreamlinux install?
 

I need some help on partitioning. I need a boot, swap and / partitions. i have no knowledge as to how i should partition my hd to prepare it for my installation. i did a simple install but want a more permanent set up. I don't know what order to place my partitions or what size. I don't know if I should create a boot ,then swap ,then /, and if that's the right order, what size for each?

The size, type and number of partitions depends on your requirements. A good FAQ on partitioning is:

http://linuxmafia.com/~karsten/Linux...partition.html

I normally take the Distributions default settings, and simple modify the /home directory to be mounted to a separate disk. That way it keeps you're personal data separate and allows a path to upgrade/re-install.

so a / partition and a /home partition along with a swap. should i create the swap at beginning of free space or end of free space? i read the guide, thanks. i'm running dreamlinux distro. also, for my /home, do i make it primary or logical? thanks again.

Ideally the swap partition should be on a separate drive from your root partition "/"; however, most of us don't have spare disks and have no choice but to put the swap partition on the same drive.

I think the position of swap partition doesn't really matter. If you think about it logically, when the swap partition is required, the read head has to move from one partition to another. Therefore, it makes no difference to weather the read head has to move from the start to end or from the end to the start - the latency is the same.

In answer to primary or logical:

The main difference between a primary and a logical partition is that a primary partition can be set as bootable (active) while a Extended (logical) cannot. A disk can only have maximum 4 Primary so I would recommend only using a primary partition for partitions you intend to use for booting. The number of permitted logical partition within and extended partition is unlimited (or some number really large). So for you home partition I would recommend logical.

thanks. a couple more things, for the boot partition, what size should i make it? some one told me that 100Mb was big enough. i think that i tried it with 128 Mb but it didn't work. for the best performance, would i create a boot, home , and swap? i would be flagging the
/ as boot. thanks again.

A swap partition (at least 32MB) — swap partitions are used to support virtual memory. In other words, data is written to a swap partition when there is not enough RAM to store the data your system is processing. The size of your swap partition should be equal to twice your computer's RAM, or 32MB, whichever amount is larger.

For example, if you have 1GB of RAM or less, your swap partition should be at least equal to the amount of RAM on your system, up to two times the RAM. For more than 1GB of RAM, 2GB of swap is recommended. Creating a large swap space partition will be especially helpful if you plan to upgrade your RAM at a later time.

A /boot partition (100MB) — the partition mounted on /boot contains the operating system kernel (which allows your system to boot), along with files used during the bootstrap process. Due to the limitations of most PC BIOSes, creating a small partition to hold these files is a good idea. For most users, a 100MB boot partition is sufficient.

Do not create your /boot partition as an LVM partition type. The boot loaders included with some Linux distros cannot read LVM partitions and you will not be able to boot your system.

While partitioning your hard drive, keep in mind that the BIOS in some older systems cannot access more than the first 1024 cylinders on a hard drive. If this is the case, leave enough room for the /boot Linux partition on the first 1024 cylinders of your hard drive to boot Linux. The other Linux partitions can be after cylinder 1024.

If your hard drive is more than 1024 cylinders, you may need to create a /boot partition if you want the / (root) partition to use all of the remaining space on your hard drive.

A root partition (1.7-5.0GB) — this is where "/" (the root directory) will be located. In this setup, all files (except those stored in /boot) are on the root partition. A 1.7GB root partition will permit the equivalent of a personal desktop installation (with very little free space), while a 5.0GB root partition will let you install every package. I normally size my / partition to at least 7GB.

Finally, I note you are intending to mark your "/" partition as bootable. As statated in the paragraph above the boot partition is the drive which boots your system; hence, the "/" partition needs not be bootable.

To summerize I would recommend the following:

/boot 100M
/ 7GB+
/home You decide: I'd expect this to be GB for all you personal files and on a seperate disk if possible.
swap Memory * 2

tried your partitions guide but i got error 15 on boot up. i upped the mb's on the boot part. and got error 17. the only way i got my os to install was to create root, flag it boot, then create a swap part. it booted right up after that. does the system run more effectively when you split up the hard drive into multiple partitions?

Fixed it, thanks -Kevin