Partitions

[BOF]

Randy Donohoe wrote:

>I'm going to set up a notebook with a 6GB HD this weekend. Windows 2000 
>Server is getting 3GB and Red Hat 7.2 is getting 3GB. The Red Hat side 
>will be divided into /, home, swap, var, and temp. Swap will get 250MB. 
>How should I divide the remaining 2.5GB between /, home, var, and temp?
>
This is a question that can be answered entirely differently by everyone 
who does, because it is entirely a matter of opinion and experience and 
personal preference: you may, in the immediate future, regret having 
posted it <g>.  Having warned you, here is my scheme for a 3.2 disk with 
128 MB RAM.

Make sure you install Windows first. Windows likes to reside in the 
first partition, and will overwrite the boot sector. It's easier to get 
RH to see it than the other way around.

One option, which you have apparently rejected, is install simply using 
a swap and a / partition. This eliminates problems if you choose the 
wrong size for a partition, but is not as good as partitioning. As you 
may know, partitioning imposes a size limit on what can go into the 
partition, so that if you have a runaway program, it will fill, say 
/temp or /var and then fail. Without partitions, it will fill up the 
entire hard disk. Also, partitioning is more secure, since it allows 
permissions (like NOSUID or RO) to be assigned to the partitions in the 
/etc/fstab.Your choice of what you want to use as a scheme is a good 
choice, but I thought I would mention the swap and / as an alternative 
in case you had not considered it.

I prefer to chose the "custom" setup during installation, as it allows 
more latitude in paritioning and chosing what is installed. Prior to 
7.2, this was the only way that you could customize the disk 
partitioning, but with 7.2, if you choose the laptop option, it should 
allow you to manually partition the hard drive. Also note that the 
workstation and laptop options will not install any xinetd services 
(like telnet, ftp, finger or talk. You can still use these get out of 
the system, but the daemons will not run, and no one will be allowed in. 
This is for security).

RH 7.2 uses swap space more aggressively than previous versions, and so 
recommends that you allocate twice your physical memory for the swap 
space, depending upon the amount of memory. I tend to follow this.

You don't need to use one, but I recommend a /boot partition. The RH 
Installation Guide recommends 50 MB for this, but I have used as little 
as 7 and been OK. 10 - 15  MB will be fine. Note that I use LILO, and so 
the kernel (vmlinuz file) resides here, and so you will have to allow 
for this if you want to boot multiple kernels. My kernel tends to about 
800 MB. If you choose too little, the installer will complain, and I 
believe that 7.2 will suggest about 20.

I like to use a multiple of my memory (128 MB RAM) for /var and /temp. 
There is no reason for this, but I just do. 64 MB for /var should be OK; 
128 - 192 for  /tmp. I use /tmp as the location from which to install 
software packages, uncompressing them and running the installation. I 
have been bitten once or twice with too little /tmp space, so I tend to 
fo a little larger and use 192. If you don't plan on doing a lot of the 
"make install" type of installations, and stick with .rpm-ing, then you 
might get by with as little as 64 MB. Also you can link to /var/tmp to 
/tmp and save some space there.

Of the remaining space, I think you will need at least 1.5 GB for /, and 
2 would be better. Again, it depends upon how much additional 
third-party software (like Star Office or games) you plan on installing 
above what RH installs. I like to err on the large side, as the last 
thing I was is a full / partition. I personally also like to use a 
/usr/local partition for installing my third-party software (like Open 
Office, Port Sentry, Tripwire and WordPerfect) to avoid having to 
reinstall these programs if I update my system or reinstall it. This is 
a matter of preference, and with a hard disk this small, there isn't 
much room so I may not do this and just use a / partition.

What is left over after you allocate everything else is what you 
available for /home.

Thus with my 3.2 GB drive, and 128 MB RAM, this is what I ended up with

    swap        256 MB
    /boot        10 MB
    /var         64 MB
    /tmp        192 MB
    /          2000 MB
    /home       500 MB or so --- whatever is left over

The 500 MB for home is OK but doesn't allow a lot of room if you like to 
download images or music files. You'll have to be very judicious in your 
pruning, and move what you want to keep, but don't use, to floppy, zip, 
or CD.

The scheme I have suggested above is OK , if you are installing RH to 
learn it.  If you are installing RH to use it as your primary OS and 
need to keep Windows, you might want to buy a bigger HD. A good 20 MB 
IBM is now about $120.

If you chose the wrong partition sizing scheme, the worst thing that can 
happen is that you run out of space during installation and have to 
reinstall.  The second worst thing is that you finish the installation 
and find that you have allocated too little space for the / partition. 
So, once you have gotten through the installation process, and can log 
on as root, then run "df -h" to see how much of each partition you have 
used. If it looks like you allocated too little space based on the 
percentage used, you can immediately reinstall to adjust the size. 
Reinstalling costs about an hour in time, most of it waiting for the 
installation to write the programs to the disk. It is better to 
reinstall immediately than later, after you've set everything up. (The 
latter is free advice, based upon experience <g>).

Hope this helps.

BOF