On Wed, 2002-07-17 at 06:19, Sameer Shinde wrote:

Hi All,

How many partitions should we have to install Linux on 

any system? & what should be their size if we have 4GB of disk space & installation packages take around 2.5GB to install.

for a 4 GB partition, home system

/ -- 600 MB --> includes /var /usr -- 2000 MB --> includes /usr/local /tmp -- 200 MB swap -- 128 MB /home -- 1000+ GB --> mp3s :-)

Your /usr should be bigger than your package install size, else RH installer will crib, I guess this is what your problem might be and not corrupt partition table. Check this.

Swap, I know, double the ram.(127MB in most cases)

On the RHL 7.1 CD , in the installation strategies how-to,

I read that we can install linux with min. 3 partitions. They are, /boot, /swap & /(root). But this way I found the system is slow

right, but doesn't make your system slow due to this, might be some other reasons. It is just safer to have data separation with different partitions.

Don't ask me to read how-tos. I want to discusses this 

point with you as I found variation in the suggestion in various ppls. Some says your / partition should be the largest on

/ should normally be around 500-800 MB, this is good enough. For a bare bones system, 200-300 MB is good enough.

This all is assuming you do not want to put heavy stuff in /opt, else make another partition for /opt.

the other hand some says /usr partition should be large, as the installed S/W get installed on this partition

/usr should be the largest as this is where most of your software will end up including docs and other heavy stuff like images, sound files and various libs. This is the reason your /usr should be able to contain your package install size with enough space left for future installation of other packages.

One of my friend told me that your /boot partition

should be the largest partition. I know he is wrong, as some of our friends told me that around 10 to 20 MB are enough for /boot.

/boot only contains your kernel, map files and boot loader configs etc.

Minimum /boot is size of single kernel + other files = 5-6 MB reasonable /boot where you can play around with different kernels = 20-25 MB (this is more that enough).

During the installation, once linux dispelled a message

that, your /(root) partition should not be less than 250MB.

This is probably minimum size for redhat's install.

But then what about other partitions, like /home, /var, /dev /tmp & other. What they are used for?

/home --> your home directories --> better have it on separate partition.

/var --> logs, mail and news spools, rpm databases, www home etc. etc. separate partition of its own 300-500 MB more that enough for home install. Bigger depending on your other needs.

/dev --> let this be in / partition

/tmp --> temporary file space, __not__ swap, these are real files, sockets, temporary files from word processors, object files for middle stages in a compile cycle etc. Swap has memory mapped data written to disk for storage.

One more....... & in which order they should be mounted? which is the 1st & which one is last?

After init, "/" first, then normally /var, /usr, /home etc.

HTH,

Rajesh