Re: [PLUG] Linux n00b question

[John Karr <brainbuz@brainbuz.org>]

I recommend a couple of partitions.

Swap - you don't really need a swap partition if you have enough ram, 
	but with all the disk space there is no reason not to give it 
	double ram.
OS - you can get away with about 6gb for a the / for a typical ubuntu 
	installation, but on a 1 tb disk I would give it 32 (this way 
	you don't have to worry about tmp files and logs consuming your 
	disk, and if you notice the disk shrinking you have plenty of 
	time to investigate), and you can also install a lot of software. 
Alternate OS - Debian/Ubuntu upgrades usually work. When you are ready 
	to upgrade, clone your current working OS to the alternate OS 
	partition (you then have to edit fstab to switch the / and /alt 
	volumes), run the upgrade against the alt copy. If it fails just 
	boot back into your old working partition and then do a clean 
	install of the new OS into the non-working one. The Alternate OS 
	partition is also useful if you want to try different 
	distributions on the box. Same size as OS.
Windows (Optional) - You may want to give your Windows virtual install a 
	dedicated disk area vs using a disk image, if you care about 
	joystick support you're probably going to play games which may 
	perform much better outside of virtualization. The main advantage 
	is that if you decide to run Windows in multiboot you won't need to 
	repartition your drive. Allocate between 100 and 250 MB for Windows.
Home - put everything left over here. This keeps your data safe during 
	upgrades and installs.
Boot	If you might be installing non-Ubuntu derived districutions
	Some of them still want a separate boot partition. You can make a
	Very small 100 MB partition at the beginning of the disk in case.

In this configuration I would order my disks:

0	boot
1.	OS
2.	Swap
3.	AltOS
4.	Windows
5.	Home

I make the first partition I create Primary and then an extended partition
For the the rest of them.


From: plug-bounces@lists.phillylinux.org [mailto:plug-bounces@lists.phillylinux.org] On Behalf Of Steve Slaughter
Sent: Wednesday, January 05, 2011 8:56 AM
To: plug@lists.phillylinux.org
Subject: [PLUG] Linux n00b question

Hey, folks.

I'm building a new PC and plan to install Ubuntu 10.10 ONLY on this machine.  I do not want Windows on any partitions.  OK, I might run Windows 7 in Virtual Box for games, but I don't plan on wasting a lot of time with that until I find a joystick replacement for keyboard/mouse control.

To save money, I only bought a 1 TB HDD.  

What, in your opinion, is the best way to partition this drive?

Should I just select the parameters Ubuntu will set during the installation process, or do some extra-special manual partitioning?

Yes, I'm a n00b :-)

Thanks for your help!
Steve
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