Notice that Linux usually uses not one but several partitions (=filesystems). Installing all in one partition is possible but in the long run not a very good idea, IMHO.
The partition layout i found most satisfying over time is like the following, but i have to admit i don't have any Windoze-partitions on any of my systems.
I usually put the "/home", "/" and "swap" in a LVM volume group leaving the remainder of the disk free, so that i can add space to any filesystem which might need it later.
"/" only contains system files and usually 10G is sufficient. Most of my installations take initially about 2GB, which will grow later as updates run in, but 10G should work for some time.
"/boot" only holds the kernel image and some GRUB-configuration files. 128M will be all you ever need. Habitually i put this partition at the beginning of my disks, because many years ago Linux was not able to boot from a disk cylinder >=1024. These times are long gone, but habits die hard. It needs to be on a separate partition because Linux cannot boot from an LVM partition.
"swap" equal the size of your RAM is a good starting point. If the usage pattern of your system is not completely far out of the normal average it will be OK. Once your system starts paging heavily on a regular basis you should consider upgrading your RAM anyway.
How much you need in "/home" depends on you. You will probably have to fine-tune this. If you use an LVM you can dynamically make the FS bigger. I have usually several Linux/Unix-distributions on my laptop, so i share the LVM partitions and make sure every distro uses the same UID for my user. This way i can share my HOME directory in different distributions.
When installing several distributions in a multi-boot system i give every distribution its own "/" filesystem, but they share the swap and the "/home". They all start from the same "/boot".
I want to dual-boot Windows 98 and Redhat 7. My scheme for doing this is to partition into:
A FAT32 partition for windows
A Linux partition for root
A swap partition
A boot partition
My question is: At what point do I setup windows on the FAT partition? Would I do it from the command line... (5 Replies)
I know this is a common question, but.... I am working on 2 seperate computers. Each machine has one hdd. I want to Install Redhat with Win2k on one machine, and Redhat with Xp on the other. I know there are some issues with the install sequence to get Grub to work with both, but I am a little... (4 Replies)
I am trying to implement a dual boot on my laptop ... using a small xp partition and fedora core 269.1-fc2 i686 linux kernel.. so far I have had to log off and reboot to enter the other partition... but this is getting frustrating.. windows is on /dev/hda1 and 1-5 is on the linux partition. I have... (8 Replies)
I am planning to install UNIX (SunOS) on my computer which has two hard disks C: and D:
C drive already have operating system which has windows installed on it and I use it on daily basis.
D drive is empty and has like 40GB space, I want to partition D: by half half and want install UNIX on... (1 Reply)
Hello!
I must find a way to use unix in my PC. I have a Dell Intel Pentium 4 CPU 3.2GHz, 1Gb RAM.It came with windows xp but in order to get some software running I have to be able to work on unix! Is it posible to set up a unix and Windows dual boot configuration? I was sure it was posible but... (2 Replies)
Hi,
I have installed Ubuntu 5.04 on my second Hard Drive. My first HD contains windows.
When i make my 2nd HD as boot device, i see GRUB Menu (i.e. stage 2).
On trying to boot Ubuntu, I get an Error 15: File missing problem. The FS shown was FAT.
On trying to boot Windows, I am presented... (5 Replies)
Faced with a "learn the new platform at your own expense or lose your job" ultimatum, I bought a Maxtor internal HD and added it to my older HP desktop which had been upgraded from Windows to Windows Professional. I installed Fedora on the new 500 GB HD and tried putting the Fedora boot partition... (5 Replies)
I have installed ubuntu desktop on my hard drive and I gave it all the hard drive.
Now I want to repatriate the hard disk and give half of it to anther ext4.
How do I do that?
Can I do it fron with in the ubuntu?
Second when I install the centos, how can I make to recognize the ubuntu and... (0 Replies)
Hi,
i came across this android x86 OS Link. there is a live cd and HD installation. i try the live cd and HD installation in the virtualbox and its working fine. im interested with this x86 platform. since i had a viewsonic viewpad 7 android 2.2.Does anyone try to dual boot this Android x86 OS... (0 Replies)
Hello all,
I am looking for a way to copy the existing Ubuntu server 12.04 to a USB (with all the packages and such) and make it boot from the USB.
I have seen other threads about copying the CD image to the USB, which is not exactly I am looking for.
Before I start diving into anything I... (4 Replies)