Complete n00b.

[Nechen]

Ok so only by the grace of god did I successfully install Fedora Core 6 on my AMD64 machine, not really sure how but I operated under the "click now ask questions later" premise and that seemed to work out.

I'm extremely experienced with Windows so decided to expand my knowledge into Linux and so far I only know how to open up Mozilla lol.

I have two(2) 16GB 10,000RPM SCSI's and my idea was to use one for the O/S and the other for Storage (common practice for me in Windows.)

On my Windows XP system I have a 120GB SATA with a 10GB partition for the O/S and the only 110GB for Storage and whatnot, seems to work great.

How exactly does the Partitioning work in Linux? Is it even referred to as partitioning? I can't really find any guides on the very basics of how Linux works as an O/S.

If anyone can point me in the right direction or give me some tips I'd appreciate it.

---Thanks!

[bigtomrodney]

Well your Windows partitioning point of view is a good one to start from as in Unix like system the /home directory is generally on a seperate partition for many reasons. I also like to create /tmp on a seperate partition so that if it fills up the system won't be strained or forced to stop. Basically you would be doing great if you split one disk into two partitions for / (root) and /tmp and then used the other disk as /home.

Is there an option to RAID those disks? It seems to me too good an oppertunity to not either mirror the disks or go for flat out performance striping. Think how fast you'd boot if you had 2 10,000rpm disks feeding your system

[Nechen]

Ok cool, see what I dont understand though is all the /dev /root /tmp ETC... referred in Linux, I have absolutely no idea how to navigate to files I need or even how to install them lol.

[combat_medical]

http://www.linuxforums.org/forum/cof...tml#post460259

I'll go ahead and link you to this thread, it explained A LOT about the linux file system and how the directory tree works.

[devils casper]

Ok cool, see what I dont understand though is all the /dev /root /tmp ETC... referred in Linux.

check here.

I have absolutely no idea how to navigate to files I need or even how to install them lol.

check this tutorial, How to Install Softwares in Linux.

[bigtomrodney]

Therre are some good links there. A bit of history for you - In the old days of DOS you could only have filenames that were '8.3'. That is eight character filenames with three letter extensions. Like filename.exe for example. Add this to a maximum folder depth of 8 and you run short of files very quickly. So you need partitions, or virtual drives. Hence the C: , D: , E: etc.

Unix doesn't have that, because everything can be mounted as part of the main filesystem.

Much like Windows now has Distributed Filesystem Unix has traditionally allowed you to mount a device in the filesystem. So you want to add an external drive, you can mount in in /mnt/ for example.

The gyst of it is, there are no drive letters. Everything sits under the root of the system - "/" and to be honest you don't need to know anything outside of /home and maybe /mnt and /media once you are up and running. All of your personal dealings should be in your /home directory. Don't go dropping crap all over the system like you may have in Windows!