Re: Partitioning Scheme for New 120GB Hard Drive -- Comments?
Hello
M.Kirchhoff (<moai@0ubliette.org>) wrote:
> I've been using GNU/Linux now for 18 months, and Debian for about 12.
> Currently, my workstation hard drive is partitioned simply:
>
> /dev/hda1 => /
> /dev/hda2 => swap
>
> I just purchased a new 120GB IDE drive, however, and would like to
> partition it more effectively, now that I'm more comfortable with
> Debian and GNU/Linux in general.
>
> Here's my proposed scheme, based on Karsten's guide--out-of-date, but
> useful nonetheless:
> http://kmself.home.netcom.com/Linux/FAQs/partition.html
>
> 20GB => WinXP (unless by some stroke of fortuity Half-Life2 is ported
> to Linux) 150MB => /
> 100MB => /boot
> 1GB => /tmp
> 1GB => swap
> 1GB => /var
> 20GB => /usr
> 5GB => /usr/local
> ~70GB => /home
Here is my partition scheme:
20 GB Windows
512 MB swap
32 MB /boot
96 MB /
1 GB /var
1 GB /tmp
2 GB /usr
3.5 GB /opt
1 GB /usr/local
2 GB /home
The rest is used for data partitions, FreeBSD and occasinally for
installing other Linux distributions.
Some comments:
On var: keep in mind that apt caches downloaded packages there. If you
download packages over a net connection, make sure the place is
sufficient for the cache. Depending on your needs, 1 GB may not be
enough (or you will have to clean up /var/cache/apt/archives regularly)
On /tmp: some programs like store files there temporarily although they
will go somewhere else in the end. I think Mozilla stores downloads
in /tmp until the downloads are finished. This is also the place where
most CD writing GUI programs will put image files by default (although
you can change that).
On /usr: if you keep /usr/local on a different partition, 20 GB seems to
be more than you need. Remember that this is the place where apt
installs packages - if you install something manually, it will probably
go to /usr/local or /opt. The packages from Woody fit on seven CDs
(excluding non-free), and they take about 4 GB of space on my hard disk
in packaged form. Even if you would install all of the software, you
wouldn't need 20 GB.
> Notes about my usage:
> 1. I'm not a programmer. The most hacking I do is basic bash
> scripting.
> 2. I do play games, mostly on the Windows side. However,
> newer games are more often being ported to Linux (Everquest, Unreal,
> etc.), so I'd like room to grow for those typically large
> installations.
If these games are not available as Debian packages, they will probably
ask you where to be installed (like Q3A or UT do). I think they default
to /usr/local (with most of the files going to /usr/local/games). You
can of course also install them to /opt, or somewhere else, but make
sure there is enough space available. You probably do not want to
install them to /usr so you can keep software installed through package
management and manually installed software apart.
> 3. I'm not running any servers on this box (mail,
> apache, etc.). Those are all hosted elsewhere.
In that case you probably do not need any additional partitions for the
directories in /var (although, if you are paranoid, you can put
/var/log on a different partition).
best regards
Andreas Janssen
--
Andreas Janssen
andreas.janssen@bigfoot.com
PGP-Key-ID: 0xDC801674
Registered Linux User #267976
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