(SOLVED) Too old to understand partitions!

[Bry]

I just don't get it! Partitions I mean. I might be the oldest on here at 74 and although I had an IQ of 140+ when younger, I am a bit of a feeble dimwit when it comes to partitioning Mint Debian; I simply do not understand!

Twice I have put Mint Debian 64-bit on and twice I have taken it off. I had no idea what I was doing in setting the partitions. It was guess work, so I don't know if what I did had some effect on the installed result.

I am so used to Mint Julia (64-bit) being online in 37 seconds with no white text on a black screen on start up... just Vaio to Linux Mint in seconds - marvelous! The way I installed Mint Debian causes a menu to appear first, asking me to choose which of a list of start-ups I want to use: either the normal mode or recovery then memory tests. Then there's loads of start-up rolling text. I want it to work like Mint Julia, not show this stuff.

So the point of all this blurb I typed above is to ask some kind person to describe what figures I must change the partitions to: which one for root (/), which one for swap and how many gb's or whatever.

There are a couple of other points but they may well be settled in time as good ol' (young!) Clem and company update their wonderful work. It's not them that are at fault, it's this silly old duffer - I want to be with it, please help!

[Pierre]

I'd figure that @ 74, you must know how to 'cut a cake'.
partitions, are *not* that dissimular.

If you have a hdd, that you can use in it's Entireity, then use the "whole disk" option,
- usually the 1st @ the top of the partitioning list, of options.

Otherwise, go for the next option " use side-by-side", which is primarily designed to co-exist with M$,
but, it could be another 'nix O/S, instead.
if that was Julia, & it's the only O/S on the hdd, use this option.

BTW:- you won't get that pretty startUP that Julia has,
as debian is not the same as Ubuntu, which is what Julia is based, upon.
so, yes, that ugly menu is the final result.
but - that can be edited/pruned down, so that it is not so awfully long ( to read).

& as for " the partitions to: which one for root (/), which one for swap and how many gb's or whatever.",
- just use the default(s) - at least initially, untill you get a better 'grip' on the whole thing.
& then, on another install, try the idea of a seperate / & seperate /home.
- which is the manual, or, advanced option, @ the bottom of the partitioning list.

[jroa]

I am so used to Mint Julia (64-bit) being online in 37 seconds with no white text on a black screen on start up... just Vaio to Linux Mint in seconds - marvelous! The way I installed Mint Debian causes a menu to appear first, asking me to choose which of a list of start-ups I want to use: either the normal mode or recovery then memory tests. Then there's loads of start-up rolling text. I want it to work like Mint Julia, not show this stuff.

Do you have other operating systems on your computer, other than Mint Julia? If you only have one operating system, then you should not see the Grub boot list.

If you can post your Grub configuration file, one of us should be able to tell you what to change in order to make Grub bypass the boot list. This will make it boot directly into Mint. Copy and paste the following into a terminal, then copy and paste the text that appears back to here.

Code: Select all

sudo gedit /etc/default/grub

You can also read the following information about Grub 2.

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Grub2

[Bry]

Thank you Pierre & jroa,

Pierre: installing Mint Julia was no problem as the installing system is so simple - I use the full disk, and Julia is my only o/s.

jroa: I typed in the command into Terminal, then it asks for my password. It doesn't recognise my installed password, or any variation thereof. So I cannot find that info.

However: I had kept notes when trying other rolling distros ((which are not as good as Mint Debian, in my opinion) that I have just checked back on, and one recommends this:
to quote: Choose= CUSTOM DISK PARTITIONING
(/) partition at least 15gb
Swap = 2gb
end quote. I could try that of course.

Thanks a lot, gentlemen.

[jroa]

If your computer is running fine, then you probably do not need to mess with the partitions. If you are just trying to change how the computer boots, then leave the partitions alone or you will give yourself some headaches.

Are you using Mint Debian or Mint Julian? I don't have experience with Debian and I was assuming that you could use sudoer like the regular Mint. Did you set up a root password when you installed your operating system? If so, then the commands would be a little different, assuming that you have Grub 2.

Code: Select all

su
[i]root password[/i]
gedit /etc/default/grub

[Bry]

I do not remember setting up a specific root password, although I suspect I had done so with my normal password. I did try typing in, "root" for the password as well, but no go.

Mint Julia runs perfectly well. I guess that i feel like most who go to Mint Debian in that i would rather use the Mint thoroughbred, than the mongrel (sorry, Ubuntu!)

Oh, just remembered one thing that put me off Mint Debian anyway... Skype would not respond to clicking the menu. Perhaps I should wait a while to see how Mint Debian develops.

[jroa]

So, let me get this straight. You can not access sudo because your normal user password does not work (or is not on the sudoer list). And, you can not use su because you do not have a root password. Then, in effect, no one can administrate your computer.

You can change the root password using the live CD, then add your user name to the sudoer list and then get rid of the root password, if that is what you want to do. Other wise, you will not be able to do anything that requires root privileges. If you want to do this, which I would, let me know and I can walk you through the steps. I will need to boot my live CD first to remember how to do it, though.

[Bry]

Thanks, jroa. I was able to use Mint Debian just fine. The thing was that I had no idea if I had partitioned correctly in my ignorance. This was several days ago & I re-installed Mint Julia, which as I have said, runs perfectly and does all that I want. (I keep all my photos & docs on a flash drive).

I will keep using Julia until I have educated myself with this root stuff - and to understand partitions. I'll see about getting an older laptop that I can play around with - I think there's a spare one with one of my grandchildren.

Thanks for you offer of help, it's good of you, but I think I need to learn more.

[jroa]

Alright, I am glad that you are satisfied with Julia. But, if you need to have root privileges, just let me know. I can PM you my phone number.

[Bry]

Well Guys...not only have I got Deb up & running, but I also have Skype & Google Earth running as well. I soon got a rough grasp of partitions, so all is well. All I want to do now is bypass that start-up text.

[rivenathos]

You are NEVER too old to understand anything. Step back and take a look at what you have already learned just in the past few days. Learning all this new stuff keeps you young.

Some people are bothered by that scrolling text at boot. However, all that text can quickly alert you to anything strange going on with your system. All the Linux Gurus I know prefer it that way. You will probably get used to it, and might actually enjoy watching it. One of the tech guys I know said the verbose boot was great, but he only got to see it about once a year when he rebooted his machine for a kernel upgrade or something. Ha, ha, ha...

[jroa]

When you say you want to bypass the startup text, do you mean the text menu at the beginning, before the system actually starts? This is the Grub menu and I think you will have to have sudo access in order to skip over this.

[Bry]

When you say you want to bypass the startup text, do you mean the text menu at the beginning, before the system actually starts? This is the Grub menu and I think you will have to have sudo access in order to skip over this.

Although this is a laptop, I normally leave it on all day, and while the computer is starting up I am usually doing something else; like making breakfast. So it doesn't really matter - I'm just being too fussy Therefore, I'll leave it as it is now it's working so well.