[ILUG] Partition Sizes

[Adrian Flynn]

Thanks for the input

The machine will be a test / development platform with a view to migrating
partially / totally from Windows to Linux and testing various applications
such as have recently been discussed on the list (spreadsheets / word
processors etc).

My Windows requirements fit fine on a 20GB disk on my previous machine so I
was considering leaving perhaps 25GB for Windows (to allow for 'inflation')
and the remaining 15GB for Linux.

Is the 1024 cylinder boot limit gone from LILO?
Does the Linux Boot Partition have to be 'early' on the disk?
Must the Windows partition be the first on the disk, or is it sufficient
that it is the primary boot partition?

I usually allow the installation program from the Linux distribution to
decide the split of the Linux partitions - I've had no problems yet ;-)

Rgds

Adrian

-----Original Message-----
From: ilug-admin at linux.ie [mailto:ilug-admin at linux.ie]On Behalf Of Gavin
McCullagh
Sent: 29 November 2001 11:10
To: ilug at linux.ie
Subject: Re: [ILUG] Partition Sizes


On Thu, 29 Nov 2001, Adrian Flynn wrote:

Hi,

> 40Gb hard disk,
> single Windows2000 partition.
> install Linux (SuSE Linux 7.2)
> dual bootable.

okay.

>
> NT(2k) Boot loader
> LILO (v21.6) on the Linux partition.

sounds reasonable.  google "bootpart" might be useful (you prob know this).

> What would you advise on partition sizes and locations?

What is the use of the machine?

	* Personal Workstation?

	* Mission Critical?

	* Web server -> just personal or a big one

	* Mail Server -> ditto

	* user login -> how many users?

I guess given the fact that it's dual booting it must be a personal
machine and not mission critical or a server of import.  In which case,
allocate a certain amount to linux and win2k first.  Then break up win2k
whatever way you want and break up linux into say

20MB /boot
500MB -> /
at least 2048MB -> /usr
at least 1024MB -> /var
the rest -> /home
maybe a separate /usr/local

It very much depends.  If you're going to run a database program, web
server, mail server or several others you might need a big /var partition.
Probably not though.  If you're going to do a (rather inadvisable) "yeah
install everything" then /usr is going to be filled up and need more like
8GB.  My debian system at home installed into <600MB total including almost
all of the programs I needed (mplayer, xmms, X, gnome, compilers, etc).

A shared fat32 partition is often useful too if win2k is on NTFS.
Something which will be available read-write from both sides.

This is very much IMHO and may well be considered totally wrong by others.

Gavin


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