Re: Swap Partition/File
On Wed, Dec 26, 2001, Paul A. Thomas wrote:
> I've two questions tonight which seem simple but not... straight
> forward.
Hi Paul,
> I downloaded three ISO images and burned them to CD's.
>
> 1: I've booted from disk (CD) 1 and 2: both state they are recovery
> disk/boots...
> but then allow you to go into the installation applet. The only other (
> very limited )
> experience I have with Linux is with RH 7.x I don't recall RH
Welcome to Debian and Linux!
> indicating the system
> was booting to a recovery disk... Am I interpreting the start up
> correctly? Are
> both/all of these Cd's intended to allow access to a damaged system?
Debian's boot system is generally called 'boot-floppies' (for
historical reasons, I believe) even when not actually being used from
floppy disks. The first 'disk' for installation purposes is called
the 'rescue' disk, and the second is the 'root' disk, then there are
usually the driver disks.
So, this looks like you're doing fine so far.
> 2: Related to #1 above: How many CD's should there be for Debian's
> current
> release? I have three however in reading the man (manual?) page for
> cfdisk at
> debian.org they reference 4 CD's. My concern is working/playing with
> Debian
> Linux but not being able to apply what I find in help and MAN files
> properly as the
> references are off in the set I obtained. That set of 3 was downloaded
> from
> http://www.linuxiso.org/debian.html, for the Intel 386 architecture.
I'm not really clear what Debian release you're using. I'm not sure
if I should interpret the 'current' release to mean Debian stable (AKA
potato), or maybe you mean Debian testing (AKA woody). I'm guessing
you probably don't mean Debian unstable (AKA sid), and you probably
mean Potato.
Don't worry so much about not having everything on CD. It's easiest
just to use the first binary i386 CD to get most of the system up,
then update your '/etc/apt/sources.list' to include some http/ftp
internet download sites, do an 'apt-get update' as root, and then
slurp whatever additional packages you need off the net with 'apt-get
install <packagename>'.
> 3: I assume dbootstrap was started upon bootup with the CD noted above
> because
> the commands I am working with are not command prompt commands but echo
> what
> the MAN pages and installation manual show for CFDISK. I've ( many
> times )
> deleted and created new partitions on the 40 gig HD I have in this
> system. I believe
> my goal here is to create a 'kernel' partition of 5 megs, a 10 meg Swap
> partition, and
> whatever for general file use. I can create all of the partitions and
> can make one of
> them a 'swap' partition, however the .... GUI? ( Graphical interface of
> dbootstrap
> which uses keyboard command to negotiate through it ), after I write the
> changes to
> the drive, tells me I need to create a swap drive. If I try to activate
> the partition I
> just created and marked as a 'swap' partition the program states there
> are no new
> 'swap' partitions on the drive.
I assume by 'kernel' partition you mean a '/boot' partition? 10Meg
swap is probably woefully inadequate, unless that's a typo and you
mean 10Gig swap. You generally want 2-3x your physical ram for swap.
Make sure you've properly changed the swap filesystem type from type
linux to type linux-swap. You can do this from within cfdisk after
creating the partition. Also see Karsten's partition mini-HOWTO at:
http://pw1.netcom.com/~kmself/Linux/FAQs/partition.html
> It's late. I've spent the day giving massages and a pedicure to
> Microsoft networks..
> so I'm pretty sure the answer is in front of me.... However I'd prefer
> not to throw
> this system out the window ( the descriptions I read indicate I'll
> prefer Debian over
> other Distributions ). Could somebody provide a late night hint?
>
> Thanks!
>
> Paul
Hope that helps and take care,
Daniel
PS Please try to wrap your lines better if possible for readability. Thanks.
--
Daniel A. Freedman
Laboratory for Atomic and Solid State Physics
Department of Physics
Cornell University
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