Could somebody please suggest how I should partition for a new 11.3 installation on a 300 GB drive?
In the past I kept my user data on one partition, the /home directory on another and the / directory on a third. I did this for ease of backup. But I read somewhere that having the /boot directory on its own partition has benefits.
Thanks.
I like using 4 partitions.
300 MB /boot on Ext2
500 MB SWAP
40 GB / on Ext4
rest on /home Ext3
Why?
Ext2 has no journaling so it is faster… anyways, keeping boot things separate eases backpu if you like to compile kernels and experiments. Even so, keeping boot separate is just good idea.
I found that my laptop rarely uses more then 100 MB (usually like 40 MB) of swap space, however I noticed few times a spike to 300, so I keep it 500 MB… there is lots of space so why not
40-50 GB for / is enough to store system and many programs. Ext4 happens to be faster then Ext3
all the rest for /home on Ext3. Why ext3? well, its safe its tested, proven to be rock solid with no errors
Well, that is how I see things, its not necessarely best for your case.
all the rest for /home on Ext3. Why ext3? well, its safe its tested, proven to be rock solid with no errors
ext3 can be a real PITA. When you reboot a server and it decides to do a file system check lasting one hour …
ext4 has done millions of hours combined worldwide and I have not seen a wave of complaints. Let’s use it to our advantage.
@ionmich: I usually have 4 primary partitions: /boot, /, swap, /home. The distribution of space between / and /home depends very much of what you do with your computer. Remember that large databases are kept under /var. I normally share the space evenly between the two, but that’s entirely your decision.
Then I put in a second HDD for local backup, at least the same size as /dev/sda or even bigger. Just one partition with ext4 for the drive. And then - of course - you should have some non-local backup as well.
So opinions are just like, well you know what and everyone has one. That being said, I would like to thrown in my two cents worth. I will suggest two, one if you work with Windows machines and/or use Samba and one without Windows.
On Both Systems I Load the Master Boot Record (MBR) with Generic Boot Code, no Grub Installed.
For Windows/Samba This is what I use:
1. SWAP - 2GB
2. / root Partition, 40 GB - Primary Partition - EXT4 - Set Active for Booting and loaded with Grub Boot Code.
3. /home, 60 GB - Primary Partition - EXT4
4. /Windows - 198 GB - Primary Partition - NTFS (Must be created Last using a Windows Computer, so leave the space blank when you install openSUSE)
For Linux Only:
1. SWAP - 2GB
2. / root Partition, 40 GB - Primary Partition - EXT4 - Set Active for Booting and loaded with Grub Boot Code.
3. /home, 60 GB - Primary Partition - EXT4
4. /Backup - 198 GB - Primary Partition - EXT4
I am a firm believer in using a separate /home partition & I feel you should maintain one more where you keep backups of all data, just in case you find you must reload openSUSE.
Thank You,
Good recommendations. I am still studying them. But one thought came to mind. My biggest time consumer when installing or re-installing is having to re-install third party executables like Skype, Opera, media players, and utilities not generally included in a basic install. Since these are “usually” installed under /usr/bin would that not be something to have in a separate partition? Then I could copy /usr/bin from the backup drive and install the basic executables to overwrite the ones previously installed.
It all depends on how you plan to use the computer. Database serve, web server, home computer, other.
Then I could copy /usr/bin from the backup drive and install the basic executables to overwrite the ones previously installed.
You could but there is more then just the binary to most programs. Most depend on libraries and these dependencies may not work with a new OS. Really is is just easier to reinstall the programs then to figure out why something is not working because of a broken dependency. Also I find it good to clear out all the old stuff I may have tried and never used. I just install the programs again as I require them. It is very fast and easy to use Yast to install as needed.
I don’t bother with a separate /boot. I normally have logical-volumes or partitions for /, /usr/local, and a backup drive. If you have plenty of space, a spare OS partition for experimentation/upgrades/fallback can be useful.
You can also use bind-mount to use one partition for multiple purposes. I try to put all local stuff, including non-rpm installed software in /usr/local, and I put /home in /usr/local, but then use a bind mount to place /home in the expected location (I found some software distinguishes symbolic-links, hence my preference for bind-mount):
/dev/Vg080608/LvBig01 /usr/local ext4 defaults,noatime,nodiratime,user_xattr 1 2
/usr/local/home /home ext4 bind 0 0
With hind sight, I would probably now put /usr/local in /home/local and bind mount it back to it’s proper place (but I’ve been doing things this way for more than 10 years).
Hard to tell really.
I have researched it for a while and everyone has a different opinion.
Mine has 4 partitions as well.
/boot gets 10GB ext2
/home about 200GB ext3
/movies 500GB ext3
/pictures 160GB ext3
To have an external boot might be good to separate it from the rest and perhaps (using ext2) to speed up boot since no journal is needed.
Home should be really have its own partition, since these are YOUR data’s you don’t want to loose. Really to minimize the risk of failure.
I have seen also some suggestions that hint to have also /var as a separate partition. But for normal needs i think this should be suffice.
The minimum everyone can agree on is most likely to have a separate /home partition.
After reading all your suggestions, here’s what I partitioned on a 300 GB drive.
1 Swap 2GB
2 /boot 1GB ext2
3 / 20GB ext4
4 extended partition
5 /home 8GB ext4
6 not mounted 10 GB for testing distros
7 /home/user/data 257GB ext4
Thanks to all of you.
As usualy I do not come with any answer (which would by any means only be one different from at least 10 that will populate your thread)), but with some questions because imho one can not give a good answer to this without even understanding what you have and want to have.
What do you mean by “user data on one partition, the /home directory on another”. As in most system the users own data (for all the users you have) are normaly in /home, I wonder what that other partition is (and where you mounted it)?
ASs you state it you have no swap partition at all. Is that true?
Well one sort of an answer: a seperate /boot is hardly needed execpt when you know why you need it. Else, when you look through the buch of threads abou this same question (why do we ask and ansswer the same question again and again on thgis searchable forum?):
. a swap of size between 2 x RAM for systems with small RAM till same size as RAM for bigger RAm sizes nsd when hibernating to disk is wanted.
. a / partition of 20 GB fits for most.
. the rest for /home for all the movies, pictures, music or even serious data of your users.
And both the last in ext4.
I live in two countries, and every six months I have to transfer all my working data (photos, letters, spreadsheets, address database) back and forth. Since the two computers are quite different, I only want to transfer “working” data, not configuration files. So I keep it organized under one directory (/home/user/DATA) that is simple to burn on a DVD.
I like to test other distributions (Ubuntu, Mint, Fedora, PCLinuxOS, etc.). By keeping all my “working” data on on one partition, I can mount that partition in another distribution, work with it, and know that when I go back to Suse it will be up to date.
ASs you state it you have no swap partition at all. Is that true?
If you look at my post again, you will see that the first partition of 2GB is mounted as swap.
Well one sort of an answer: a seperate /boot is hardly needed execpt when you know why you need it. Else, when you look through the buch of threads abou this same question (why do we ask and ansswer the same question again and again on thgis searchable forum?):
For really essential data (like boot files) I like to use “dd” to backup. By keeping /boot on a separate SMALL partition, I can restore and boot quickly when things go wrong.
Some would say I am overly cautious. I bought my first personal computer in 1983. In 27 years I have never lost any data. I like the English proverb, “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” (Benjamin Franklin) I am sure that there is an equivalent in Vlaams.
As long as you have arguments for your setup, that is fine to me. But why do you ask advice from us without telling why you have what you. Without the arguments nobody will understand why you do as you do and only see a setup that they never would use because they have other arguments, way of working, etc. This is the very reason why all the questions about: what is a good (or even the best) partitioning one should make, end up in an endless row of different advices. Often even those answers do not have any arguments that explain why they are as they are. As I see it, you allready have thought this sort of things over and came to conclusions. I wonder why you ask for more advice.
And about the small /boot partition and saving it with dd. That is a valid argument. But imho one can save all in /boot almost as fast with a simple tar command (and with compression of course). And from the result of this backup file one can not only restore the whole contents of* /boot *in a brink of time, but even restore individual files when needed. Also dd requires exeact the same size of partition, which can hamper repartitioning where the tar file hasn’t this restriction.
You have a good point. I will try to be more specific in the future.
As I see it, you allready have thought this sort of things over and came to conclusions. I wonder why you ask for more advice.
Because solutions change with time and software innovations. We have a number of very intelligent and knowledgeable contributors to this forum and I can learn from them.
But imho one can save all in /boot almost as fast with a simple tar command (and with compression of course).
Yes I agree. Speed is not a factor for me. I am more familiar with “dd”. I find its option structure to be simpler. On the other hand as you mention it is more restrictive as to having identical partitioning.
A lot of people here do make backups by copying whole partitions with dd. That is nice, but only for one disaster, a broken disk. You then can restore by making EXACT the same partitions (size, not the sequence on the disk) as before and dd back. Very effective. But it is only a good thing for that one type of disaster.
But often backups are made for varying reasons like:
. restore of the file structure to another place (be it a diffent partition e.g. when you convert from ext3 to ext4, or maybe even direct into it’s “mother” partition on the late mount point to get rid of the partition);
. a user finds he deleted by accident an important file and asks you, the system manager, for a restore as it was before last monday (I hope you understand you can be the user as well as the system manager, but that is an unimportant part of the idea);
. archiving is needed (can be for legal reasons, I do not know where you use your system for);
. data base backups;
. more …
All these things are better solved with tools that store/recover indivudual files (or parts of the directory tree) then the blunt dd.
For most home users tools like tar and rsync are the goodies here. And for those not wanting to go for some scripting there are enough Open Source solutions out there (like rsnapshot and more “heavy” ones).
A good practice to pretend your disk from overcrowd with mess is to have /tmp on a seperate 1 GB partition.
Again a good advice, but it depends on your system usage and habits. When the system is rebooted every day and you have set it to clean /tmp on boot, you rather can have /tmp running out of space.
l1zard wrote:
> A good practice to pretend your disk from overcrowd with mess is to have
> /tmp on a seperate 1 GB partition.
which is great until you try to download a 2GB file with an
application which ‘parks’ or just transits /tmp during the download
process…
in which case you see those posts in these fora reading like: i have
1TB of empty hard drive and get an “disk full” error??? wtf?
–
DenverD
CAVEAT: http://is.gd/bpoMD [posted via NNTP w/openSUSE 10.3]
When it comes to chocolate, resistance is futile.
DenverD: I Didnt have those Problems so far, if it doesnt fit in /tmp i choose a additional temperoary directory like ~/tmp as most prgrams lets you choose where to put temporary data. But you are right, this may be a problem for beginners though.
l1zard wrote:
> But you are right, this may be a problem for beginners though.
my experience here is that most folks are beginners…
and, even “the experts” don’t know everything (no matter how hard they
pretend otherwise) and if a network expert is asking about how to set
up their new ATI, . . .
–
DenverD
CAVEAT: http://is.gd/bpoMD [posted via NNTP w/openSUSE 10.3]
When it comes to chocolate, resistance is futile.