Different Partition Types

[esbrennan21]

I noticed when installing FC2 that there are 3 different file types for partitions: ext3, ext2, and swap. I was just wondering whether I needed all three partitions for Linux to work, which partition should I actually install everything, and also how much space to give each partition if I have a 120GB hard drive dedicated to Linux (no Windows partition). Thanks.

[Dolda2000]

You can completely ignore ext2, I dunno why they even support that in the installer anymore. =)
It's just an older version of ext3, without journalling.

So to get started then... to describe what swap is... well, read this post by yours truly:
http://linuxforums.org/forum/viewtop...=104523#104523
I wrote that to another poster just 20 minutes ago.

So basically, you'll want maybe a gig or two of swap, and then you can fill up the rest with one large ext3 partition. The ext3 partition is for storing files.

That's the basic setup. When you get really used to Linux, you may want a more complex disk layout, but that one well get you by 99% of all uses.

[variant]

So basically, you'll want maybe a gig or two of swap, and then you can fill up the rest with one large ext3 partition. The ext3 partition is for storing files.

Dolda2000.. you really think that amount of swap is really needed? I only have 500MB (and 512mb Ram) and it never _ever_ gets used fully. I do a lot of large image editing and many other things at the same time too.

[Dolda2000]

Well, I was mainly thinking that with a dedicated hard drive of 120 GBs, it sure doesn't hurt. I mean, sure, most users don't ever need that much swap, but with that much space available, why not be on the safe side?

I recently replaced my 20 GB hard drive, since it was going to crash, and I got a 80 GB S-ATA drive instead (there weren't any smaller S-ATA drives...). I didn't even know what to do with all that space, so I put on a swap partition of 2 GB. I still only have my 20 GB Gentoo root filesystem apart from that swap partition, so I don't even use half my hard drive...
Then on the other hand, I have to admit that I have a NFS server standing in the other room with 480 GB of storage. Still, my point remains though: if you have so much space available, why not invest in more swap than you'll ever need? =)
You just might thank yourself one day.