Partition formula??

[merryoakparker]

Advice, please. I'm in the process or re-installing LMDE and have selected the mate version since I've been lead to understand that it will run faster on my hardware then Cinnamon.
I'm trying to find a SIMPLE suggested partition formula for my HDD.
2Gig RAM, 320 Gig HDD, and a Pentium dual core chip.

Is there a formula for partitioning the HDD or should I just let the installer do it after I've made the whole hard drive one "boot" partition.?
I need to know:
1) suggested format
2) Recommended size of Swap, boot, and home partitions.

Most of my research reveals very complex posts, but nothing simple. I seem to be able to find everything but but some plain simple recommendations.
Thank all of you for any assistance and suggestions.
BTW, I thought I'd posted this before, but cannot find it.
merryoakparker

Thanks.

[DrHu]

Unless you want to manage the partition; the simplest method is to provide partition space to the installer and let it use that whole partition or drive
--one can always have a second drive just for Linux

• But you still have to be concerned about the bootloader being used, and for some other OS types, e.g. win7 or win8: there may be more general issues
  EFI boot and using the windows bootloader instead of grub, or making Grub 2x work with a windows boot

If you don't want to change the other OS partition, don't install grub to the MBR (Master Boot Record), instead install it to the partition where you have installed Linux onto..
--in that case, you still have to make a bootloader work, but that other OS will still boot, since it no changes have been made (to its bootloader)

And you may decide to use another bootmanager application, such as easyBCD
http://www.softpedia.com/get/System/OS-Enhancements/EasyBCD.shtml

[Zill]

merryoakparker: While it is possible to allocate a partition to /boot, this is not normally done except on servers and so I assume that you are referring to the root partition (which will contain the /boot directory) rather than a specific boot partition.

It is not clear from your post if you want a dual-boot system, with both Linux and Windows, or a pure Linux system. As I only use pure Linux systems here I can only advise on this but with a similar PC spec to yours I would partition as follows:

Size Format Mountpoint Description
20GB ext4 / Root partition
2GB swap swap Swap partition
Rest of drive ext4 /home Home partition

This is for a desktop PC. If you use a laptop and require hibernation etc then you may need a larger Swap partition.

[merryoakparker]

Thank you both for your replies. I do have a dual boot system, but have a 160 Gig HDD for Windows XP and am installing LMDE Mate to my second HDD which is reservfed for LMDE which will be my primary OS. While awaiting the results of a reply, I went ahead and installed LMDE mate into the boot on the 320 Gig HDD. It is still updating.
My objective is to have a pristine install of LMDE Mate so aside from updates and accidents, I don't have to mess with it again as happens too often with Windows XP in spite of the antivirus, antimalware, defragging, and sacandisking which still doesn't prevent problems. My previous install of LMDE Cinnamon worked great, but when it was updated with 7, it slowed way down. According to my research, my configuration should run Mate faster. At this point, I will probably go back and set it up as Zill suggested.

Thanks,
merryoakparker

[ajgreeny]

I agree with all that zill said, but as you now say it is a dual boot with two separate hard disks, it makes it easier to suggest a partitioning setup.

At install when you get to the partitioning stage choose the drive you want to use asnd make the partitions zill suggests, ie.
Size Format Mountpoint Description
20GB ext4 / Root partition
2GB swap swap Swap partition
Rest of drive ext4 /home Home partition

Make sure that grub is installed onto the mbr of the same disk, not to a partition.

Doing this you can have WinXP keep its own bootloader on ots iwn disk (you may have to restore this if it is already gone), and have grub on the Mint LMDE disk.

[tlcmd]

Thank you all for the advice. I did re-install LMDE Mate using the 20 G Boot, 2 G Swap, and the rest of the 320 G HDD for home. I'm trying to get this set up as perfect as possible for JRivers Media Center 19 is due out this month in a Linux format. I believe it to be the best of the Media players, especially their jukebox format. I've tried many of those available for Linux, but they do not meet my needs. I have 2 other unrelated problems which I shall ask as separate topics.
Thank you again. All y'all on this forum have been exceptionally great to give me good advice, and haven't derided me for being a 73 year old f*rt who is just not that computer literate.

[Zill]

Thank you all for the advice. I did re-install LMDE Mate using the 20 G Boot, 2 G Swap, and the rest of the 320 G HDD for home...

I really hope you did not create a 20G boot partition as you have not mentioned the root partition at all! As I tried to point out in my post above, a boot partition is not required on a normal installation as the /boot directory is actually part of the root / tree. As such, it is normal to create just a root partition (/), a swap partition and a home (/home) partition. No separate boot partition is needed.

I am also puzzled by your user name (tlcmd) as the original poster for this thread is merryoakparker and yet you both seem to have similar hardware and have used similar (boot!) terminology. Are you using two usernames?

[tlcmd]

I did not create a 20G boot partition. SO I have Swap, /, and home partitions. And no, I'm not using 2 log-in's. My son is pretty much following what I'm doing with LMDE and so he generally lets me make the mistakes first. Then tries to learn from them and asks his questions as merryoakparker. I'm more into music and media players than he, so we do have different issues. I'm 73 and he is 52, so we are learning Linux simultaneously, but he lives miles from me. And I'm a Jr, he's a 3rd.
tlcmd (aka Dick)

[Zill]

tlcmd: Thanks for the clarification - I must admit I was quite confused until you explained about the family connection.

I hope you both enjoy LMDE and progressing along the Linux learning curve.