Min Size part / required to install Edgy. Shared swap & home w/ other bundles

digital8doug · 11-09-2006, 02:20 PM

Thinking of trying the Edgy Eft. What is minimum partition size I should use for / with a Full Install? I am sharing swap & home w/ other GNU/Linux bundles (so far only Suse 10. 1 (Remstrd) which has ~ 66% of 8.0 GB part). LT has limited HD space, curious how much Kub6.10 takes after updates, still want ~ 3 more distros if space avail!

esteeven · 11-09-2006, 05:03 PM

I voted "a" because that's the one at the beginning of the alphabet. I am curious to know why anyone would choose "d" in this poll.

For / , I used 4gb on my laptop and I am happy.

mimithebrain · 11-09-2006, 06:51 PM

Root:
2 Gig is really minimal, 3 gig is nice to have space for updates. 5 gig is comfortable. 10 gig is good for permanent install.

Swap:
swap can be shared across distros, as long as you don't dump hibernation stuff on there.
Swap is X2 the size of your RAM, but don't make it bigger than 1~2 gig, it's overkill!

Home:
Can be merged with root, is optional, better to use it for permanent installs.
Can be shared across distros as long as the UIDs match from one to another.

ctkroeker · 11-10-2006, 08:03 PM

My default ubuntu install is a 9GB / partition. It's currently 64% used, so I guess 7GB would be alright.

twilli227 · 11-10-2006, 10:11 PM

Quote:

which has ~ 66% of 8.0 GB part

From what you use for Suse, I would agree with mimithebrain

Quote:

10 gig is good for permanent install.

And I was feeling lucky and voted for "d"

mimithebrain · 11-11-2006, 12:27 AM

What follows is an email I sent to digital8doug, d8d, after he emailed me to my personal address.

Quote:

3 gig is good for what you are trying to do.
I suggested 10 gig for a permanent install because I always found out
that 5 gig wasn't enough with all the experimental software I
installed. As well, the root partition hosts /tmp, which is where
temporary files go. When you make a copy of a CD or DVD, the image
file will go in /tmp, or your root partition, CDs take 700 mb, and
DVDs 4.4 Gb at most. If you plan to use your distro to the fullest,
and decide to be productive, you may want to use 10 gig. It's not
necessary, but I recommend it.

"dump hibernation stuff on there.?? OK if 4GB as I have?"

If you choose to hibernate while using one distro, you CANNOT open the
computer and choose another distro, and still use the same swap, I
just don't know what would happen, but it wouldn't be pretty.

"My Swap is X2 RAM, mtb=but don't make it bigger than 1~2 gig, it's
overkill! d8d=Default of some distros I use seem to ignore a 1GB swap
if I designate, still want 4GB??"

Swap is usually X2 RAM, but if you have 4 gig, or even 2 gig, you will
rarely use swap. If you have 4 gig of RAM for example, X2 RAM would
mean 8 gig swap partition. It's a big waste of 8 gig. My theory is you
will never need more than 1 gig of swap. To give you an idea, after
booting up, I use 120 mb or RAM, and use a total of 650 mb at the most
of memory with a 512 mb of RAM and 1 gig of swap. It's useless to make
a swap more than 1 gig, think of the distro you can install in that 3
gig of swap you will never use.

"Home: Can be merged with root, is optional, better to use it for
permanent installs.
Am sharing (16GB) across distros I think, getting ready to install
EdgyEft, FC5, Mandriva2007"

That's a good idea... but I have a better idea. If you are into
testing distros, I suggest that in the test distros, you don't map
your "home partition to /home, but to a directory in /mnt instead.
Only map "home" to /home on your main production distro... Otherwise,
I'm thinking some configurations files in "home" might clash between
distros.

"?? as long as the UIDs match from one to another.??
Think I have seen UID option during partitioning for new install, but
have not used yet!"

The initial user "mimithebrain" on Ubuntu might not be the same UID as
the same "mimithebrain" on Gentoo. It depends on what the installer
decides the initial user's UID is going to be. I might be able to
access my files just fine in Ubuntu, but if I install SuSE too for
example, the UID might not match, and the permission will go to the
user who matches the UID on the filesystem.

Hope that answers your questions.
Feel free to email back.

IBall · 11-11-2006, 01:15 AM

For the home partition, I always create a (ext3) partition for /data. Then create a symbolic link to /home/userName/data. This prevents clashes between config files in /home, which can get nasty.

Make sure that your UIDs for your user on each distro are the same. Then change the permissions on /data to 700. This stops any other users on that machine seeing your stuff.

If anyone is interested, see here for some notes I have written about multi-booting linux.

--Ian

mimithebrain · 11-11-2006, 11:41 AM

Nice website IBall.

digital8doug · 11-18-2006, 08:10 PM

How do I determine the amount of swap actually in use at any time?
Any Linux monitoring methods similar to Windows Task Manager `Performance' PF Usage & History [+CPU Usage]?
[Not sure if continue here, Move, or should I start as new thread?]

Quote:

Originally Posted by mimithebrain

Nice website IBall.

YES, I Bookmarked all links for reference.

IBall · 11-18-2006, 08:47 PM

For memory usage, try:

Code:

cat /proc/meminfo

Also, top will give you memory usage.

Try "gkrellm" for a usage monitor. It is not installed by default, but you can install it using aptitude.

--Ian