Questions about Partitions

[tlcmd]

More knowledge about Linux Distros is soaking into my brain each day which raises more questions.

Given 100 Gigs of free space on a pc in which to put a Linux distro my research suggests it would be reasonable to make a swap partition of about 1.5 - 2 Gigs, a Root partition of 10 - 15 gigs and a Home partition using the rest of the space. Am I correct?

Will the Linux distro know where to put what into? or do I need to make sda, sda 1, 2, 3, etc in a specif order and size? Simply, how much help does the distro need to chose the proper partitions for each function? I would like a "Home" partitionto where settings, files, etc are saved when an upgrade appears.

One of the problems with the gurus is in their not realizing the meager basic knowledge we noobie actually have about Linux since we've been running Windows or Mac and are now learning a different approach to operating systems.

Thanks,
Dick

[devils casper]

Just boot up from LiveCD of Linux distro you are planning to install and open Disk Utility package. Its available in most of Linux distros.
Create partitions manually before installation.

/ (root), ext3 or ext4, 10-15 GB
SWAP, 1-2GB
ext3 or ext4 partition for /home. Assign as much space as you like. You can install more than one Linux distro in single Hard disk and share single SWAP Partition in all.

Start installation and select Manual Partitioning in Partition Section. Assign / mount point to 10-15GB partition and /home mount point to other partition.
Installer will detect swap partition itself. Continue installation.

Do let us know how it goes. Good Luck !

[tlcmd]

Thanks, did my partitions (Windows XP, Swap, /, and /home), and it went great. Question however,
What's the difference between ext 3 and ext 4 ??
And when I upgrade to Isadora in May, how do I not screw up my /home partition???

Appreciate the info???

[oz]

One of the problems with the gurus is in their not realizing the meager basic knowledge we noobie actually have about Linux since we've been running Windows or Mac and are now learning a different approach to operating systems.

Actually, I think the gurus do realize it because each and every one of them were total newbies at one time themselves. It's just that they get overly busy or in a hurry at times, and they forget, or they become overly impatient.

What's the difference between ext 3 and ext 4 ??

You can read up on the differences between ext3 and ext4 here:

ext3 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

ext4 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[tlcmd]

Thanks for the info.
Next question: Since it appears that ext 4 is an improvement on ext3, can I convert now or must I do a "re-install' to do that??

[tlcmd]

"Actually, I think the gurus do realize it because each and every one of them were total newbies at one time themselves. It's just that they get overly busy or in a hurry at times, and they forget, or they become overly impatient."

I can certainly appreciate the difficulty. As a retired physician, I do know that I certainly have been guilty of all of the above as well as overestimating the knowledge of those to whom I'm explaining things. I finally learned that if I explained stuff on the level of 5th graders, my audience usual understood me and very few were insulted that I was speaking down to them. It's the old "KISS" principle. Prior to that i was frequently misquoted as saying things I would never say, drunk or sober!