I am a Linux newbie and I want to upgrade from Mandrake to Suse Pro 9.3. For newbies who are afraid of creating Linux partitions, should I select AUTOMATIC PARTITIONING??? I want to be able to still dual boot with Windows 2000.

So, is it wise for a newbie like me to select AUTOMATIC PARTITIONING instead of Create Custom Partitioning?

When YAST tells me the PROPOSED partitioning, is it wise for newbie who does not want to mess with the partitioning manually, will it be OK to select this instead of Custom???

Now remember, I have Mandrake on here currently.

I use custom all the time.

I find that automatic partitioning tends to follow the "old school" rules, dating from about 1980 when disk drive space was at a premium, in that it will create root usr home var boot with sizes that are usually inconvenient, if not now then later. This is for stable setups where not much will change or where you have a need to keep var files contained.
With custom partitioning I tend to create only root and home. It allows for churning between distributions while keeping home files intact.

Swap is required either way and thats a whole other kettle of fish.

hi, you can use the already existing partitions if you're affraid of that, but it may not be that good since you migrate from MDK to SuSE (on a general basis both may work well on the other's partition scheme).

but, for SuSE, if you have only Linux on your box, the partion scheme is simple (supposing that you have an IDE drive) :

install LILO or GRUB on MBR

/dev/hda1 100Mb EXT2 /boot - the boot partition and kernel files
/dev/hda2 10Gb (or more, I have 20Gb) Reiser FS / - the root partition where yours installation
/dev/hda4 EXTENDED
/dev/hda5 1024Mb swap
/dev/hda6 [rest of space] ReiserFS /home (or /personaldata or /whatyouwant) - for your data

hope it'll help you

Well, just to be on the safe side, I will use Custom. Then I would remove all of the Mandrake partitions and then re-create:

"/" /swap and /home


I know each ones sizes to make above, but what about the size of /boot??? How big that should be?

And, is it mandatory to have a /boot partition??? Because my current partition setup with Mandrake does not have a /boot partition..and it works fine in a dual-boot .

Please help.

in linux you need a boot prtition! if Linux is the only OS on the system, cool, you install the loader in MBR.

but, when is not the only one, you have also Windows, Zeta, FreeBSD and others, Linux needs a boot partitions.

now, almost all RPM based distros uses /boot as boot partition, but if you are not creating it as a partition then you'll boot your Linux from /.

the problem is that the boot partitions, in most cases, must not depasse the boundaries of the firsts 1024 cylinders of the disc drive.

making /boot as separate partition, when all the boot parameters and kernel files resides there, you can make it read only to avoid overwrites and kernel damages (this is from sys admin point of view)

the /boot size depends, for 2-3 kernel versions on the same time 50Mb is enough, but I use allways 100Mb to be sure and is the first partition of the disc, primary and bootable

the second partition is for windows, primary and bootable

the third is Linux's / (primary and bootable too)

the advantage of /boot and / (both primaries and bootables) is that when you want to install another distro that boots from / (like Slackware, debian, ubuntu ...) and not from /boot (like SuSE, Mandriva, Red Hat ...) you don't need to modify the partitions, you just reuse them

the second advantage is that being large enough, it permets you install some recovey tools too

format /boot as EXT2 (the boot partition is accessed only once, at boot time and never after, so is not involved in system chashes and data loss)

tre rest of the partitions must be formatted with ReiserFS

PS : if you plan to install another linux later better to create a 20Gb / and do not create /home (it'll be included in /) and best is to create a personal data partition, like /data, this will avoid you to format the /data partition and you'll have only to mount it and voilà your data disponible under the new distro

PS2 : the /boot is not proposed by default, you mention it in a custom config ... I was too running MDK 10.1 until I saw SuSE 9.2 and I switched without any regrets .... apt4rpm rulez!

Ok, will you please kindly post the partitions by order, size, and type???

I would appreciate it. Please. When I select Custom Partitioning, please post on what should I do? Which partitions do I have to create in order, by size, and type.

Because the easiest for me is to remove the current Mandrake partitions and re-create them from scratch.

So, please post a valid and basic partitioning sheme for me to add in my notes when I do the installation. Please post like an outline of a basic partitioning scheme please by order, size, and type. I would appreciate it.

Or, can I just go by the Automatic Partitioning or can I choose the Suggested Partitioning rather then having to create them on my own?? I mean thats what most newbies recommend is SuSe because it allows you to select an Automatic or Suggested Partitioning setup rather than having to create them manually.

And please note: I want still be able to dual-boot with Linux and Windows 2000....

Thanks

OK, no problem.

what's the size of your disc?

do you install only SuSE or want to install a multiboot system? (to have Windoze and why not other Linux distros)

mainly any Linux install need 2 partitions " / " and "swap" (now since swap may be a file you can install it only with one partition : " / ")

for my personal installations I use : "/boot" ," / ", "swap" and "/data"

on IDE technology you can have only 4 primary partitions (the bootable partitions are primay) and have the boot sector (the first sector of the partition) in the boundary of the first 1024 cylinders of your disc

I do partition my disc this way :

1 (primary) Linux ext2 /boot 100Mb * active
2 (primary) WinXP ntfs c:\ 10Gb
3 (primary) Linux ReiserFS / 20Gb
4 (primary) -extended-
5 (logical) Linux swap 1024Mb (I have 512Mb RAM)
6 (logical) Linux ReiserFS /data 60Gb
7 (logical) WinXP fat32 d:\ 30Gb

you'll have to ERASE/DELETE all your MDK partitions and recreate them

if you have an windoze installed you'll be interested doing that without loosing data, for that you may use Acronis Disk Director Suite 9 (commercial) or "parted' - a free too (serch for ultimate boot CD on the net)

Acronis has a suite for Linux too

PS : you can even trial boot your system and have 2 Linux distros, MDK and SuSE on the same computer, you'll share "swap" and "/data" and create a new " / ", saying that my /data will be of 50Gb and I want to install MDK on 10Gb like this :
1 (primary) Linux SuSE ext2 /boot 100Mb * active
2 (primary) WinXP ntfs c:\ 10Gb
3 (primary) Linux SuSE ReiserFS / 20Gb
4 (primary) -extended-
5 (logical) Linux "shared" swap 1024Mb (I have 512Mb RAM)
6 (logical) Linux MDK ext3 / 10Gb
6 (logical) Linux "shared" ReiserFS /data 50Gb
7 (logical) WinXP "shared" fat32 d:\ 30Gb
but when installing MDK you choose to install the boot loader on its / partition (number 6 in this exemple) and you'll add an entry in the SuSE's boot loader to start it

Yes, I want to be able to dual boot which Im currently doing with Mandrake. My Windows is currently installed with Mandrake, so no problem there.

Is it OK if I create the following like this?

1. "/" (2.0G)

2. /SWAP (2.0G) **I have 512mb of RAM **

3. /Home (4.0G)


Thats what I have currently in Mandrake right now ALONG with Windows 2000 and still runs fine. Please let me know.

where is yours windoze partition?

why 2Gb sor swap???? even 1Gb is disc space lost .. you don't run a data base server

/ is a little small, better fusion with /home and create only one / og 6Gb

I cannot remember now but I have two Partitions under Windows: One Primary which is 30.0G and one logical 45.0G or something for my personal data files.... Im not sure because Im not on my PC right now.

OK now I rememmber.

Its this:

"/" (2.0G)

/swap (400 or 500MB)

and //home is like 4.0G


So, how can I change the "/" partition to a bigger size once booted in Linux?? Please explain...

if you want, / of 2Gb is small, you'll run out of space quick (there is your /var and /tmp wich is used as temporary director for updates and stuff, so it'll grow quick)

4Gb for / is a safer choice

to see the list of your partitions better start windoze and in start>programs>admonistrative tools>computer manager choose disk manager and do a screen capture, let me see that

First how can I change the "/" to a bigger size in Linux? Because I need to change it to 4.0G right away!!!

I will do that home as far as writing my Disk info.

Device:hda1
DOS device letter:C
NTFS
36GB

/home
hda5
Journalised FS:ext3
3.9GB
Formatted
Mounted

/root
hda6
Journalised FS:ext3
2.0GB
Formatted
Mounted

/swap
hda7
Journalised FS:ext3
651MB
Formatted
Mounted

/
hda8
Journalised FS:ext3
5.8GB
Formatted
Mounted

swap
hda9
Linux swap
494MB
Formatted
Mounted

hda3
DOS drive letter: D
NTFS
3.4GB

So, here it is, how does it look? SEE ABOVE

But PLEASE explain on how to change the "/" to a bigger size.

Can you just tell me wich ones to create? I need very straight forward answers.

So, wjen installing Suse, I would only create the follwoing below:

"/" /swap and /home

The sizes would be then like this:

"/" (4.0GB)

/swap (500-600MB)

/home (2-4GB)

Thats the way Im use to it. If I have to create a /boot, then please tell me the size (if I have to create one).

Here is a better view:

Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/hda5 2.5G 2.0G 345M 86% /
/dev/hda7 3.9G 152M 3.7G 4% /home
/dev/hda1 37G 2.8G 34G 8% /mnt/win_c
/dev/hda3 3.5G 85M 3.4G 3% /mnt/win_d