Partitioning..how to..is Guide info available please.

Hello,
I installed openSuse 13.1…no problems with partitions …smooth install.
Decided to try 13.1.1 EDU Li-F-E Mate…a lot of partitioning issues, as I had to use expert mode…which I am not at all.
Then decided to try 13.1 EDU life…same as above …
Tried to update system 253 packages…no go …with the first openSUSE install…all works including updates.

Its not the software…or openSUSE its me , playing around with partitioning, when don’t know whats going on.

Have installed about 80 Distro’s …without many issues…even Debian7 which, for me, not Debian hopeless to use…me the issue not Linux.
My desktop is AMD, quadcore 8gb memory…built it 4 months ago, so its not my computer.

After that ramble(some Australians do that…we call it waffle)
How does one, try to understand Partitioning?
I read a lot of info, still not getting it.
Only ever use 1 distro on a Harddrive , never dual boot, have 10 drives in computer.
Thanks for any assisttance.:slight_smile:

Learning can be tough, lots of reading, and sometimes mistakes are made. Anyway, maybe these openSUSE-orientated guides will be helpful:

https://en.opensuse.org/SDB:Basics_of_partitions,_filesystems,_mount_points

One does need to be aware of GPT-paritioning with newer hardware these days:

http://doc.opensuse.org/release-notes/x86_64/openSUSE/13.1/#sec.123.uefi-part

More specific questions to answer would help. Rather then write a guide on the basics of partitioning it would make more sense to link you to an existing one. Or recommend you use an internet search to find one.

I can only give you a basic recommendation that you keep as much as possible into one partition. Don’t follow any guides that recommend splitting /var or /usr. If you don’t know why you need such a setup, chances are you don’t. Once you get a bit more experienced, you can move /home or have a separate partition for your data.

https://en.opensuse.org/SDB:Partitioning
https://en.opensuse.org/SDB:Basics_of_partitions,_filesystems,_mount_points

Don’t get snowed under petitioning is simple.you are just dividing up the drive space for different uses. The divisions must be continuous and generally it is best that each section you define is next to the previous section with out any space. And we simply call these sections partitions.

Now what you want to do with these partitions may get complicated. Then also we need to deal with special stuff you need to boot the computer operating system. And that can get pretty complicated. But partitions are simple just continuous section of the drive that we reserve for what ever purpose we want to put them.

BTW there is no right/only way to set up partitions it all depends on how you want to use your computer and what it is used for. What can get tricky is if you intend to use several operating systems on the same drive.

So what don’t you understand??

Thanks for advice, will try to read up later today.

To answer what I need to know, If I use one drive for 1 distro, why do I have to partition? OK to remove existing O/S
Been using Ubuntu based Distro’s, so it easy to follow the prompts and delete existing partition for new Distro.
Started using other Distro’s , which I had to manually remove, that went ok.
OpenSUSE , is the hardest one so far to, try and work out, for me that is.

The OpenSUSE i am using now , installed like clockwork…13.1.

No issues with any part of this distro, even with installing more software.

Cheers:)

Hi to all, just an update…reformatted one of the other drives with openSUSE 13.1 , loaded , partitioning was virtually automatic, updated the 253 packages, no issue whatsoever .

Could be my copy of the other 13.1.1, use Brasero to copy.

Will download, burn , reinstall to see if makes difference, dismal day here, 20 Celsius, cloudy, good inside day.

Cheers:)

On 2014-08-17 04:46, biff wrote:
>
> Thanks for advice, will try to read up later today.
>
> To answer what I need to know, If I use one drive for 1 distro, why do I
> have to partition?

Because you have to :slight_smile:

A precise answer is complex, so better read a guide, or just accept the
fact that you need several partitions.

> OK to remove existing O/S

Then just tell the openSUSE installer to use the entire disk. It will
automatically choose appropriate partitions for you.

You will get 3:

root (/)
home (/home)
swap

That’s all, three partitions.

Or, you can tell us your ram memory size, your disk size, whether it is
a laptop or a desktop machine (or a server), and whether you intend to
use hibernation or not. Also tell if you intend to use LVM, raid, or
btrfs or xfs.

If it is a server, we need to know what you intend to “serve”.

Then we can tell you what we think would be the appropriate
partitioning, in our opinion - and there are thousands of opinions.


Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 13.1 x86_64 “Bottle” at Telcontar)