Considerations before you install

Quick to answer questions about finding your way around Linux Mint as a new user.
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Chris M

Re: Considerations before you install

Post by Chris M »

tdockery97 wrote:The swap is not influenced by the kernel. Swap on one hand is a holdover from the days when computers had a small amount of random access memory. On the other hand, if you wish to hibernate your computer instead of turning it off, swap is necessary to hold the work you were doing in your last session. If you have lots of RAM and don't plan on using suspend/hibernate then it's up to you whether to keep or remove the swap partition.
I have had LMDE installed on my laptop since it went live. At the time, it had 2 gigs of memory. LMDE is on a small Linux partition (32 gigs total), and my swap partition is 3 gigs.

A few months ago, I installed 4 gigs of RAM. I did not re-partition - still have 3 gigs dedicated to the swap.

The beginning of this thread indicates to double your memory for the swap, but not go over 4 gigs. If I were to hibernate, I would kill running applications. Given my 32 gigs dedicated to Linux, am I perfectly fine to maintain 3 gigs for the swap? It sounds like it's a waste of space these days to dedicate a lot of room to the swap (especially if you are pressed for space). It even sounds like I could do less (say, 2 gigs without issue).

Also, I have 4 gigs of memory, but on-board/integrated (Intel) graphics. Would you install the 32-bit (pae kernel) or the 64 bit?

Thanks


Edit: tdockery97, never mind. I re-read it. 2 gigs would be plenty (and more than what's needed for 32-bit). Lots of RAM requires a small swap.
3) Swap partitions don't need to be any larger than 2X your system ram. And, the sum of system ram and swap shouldn't exceed 4 Gig. If it does, reduce the swap partition size to get back to 4 Gig. or less. If you have 4 Gig. of ram on a 32 bit system like Mint, make a very small swap partition anyway, as the kernel expects to have a swap partition available. Not having a swap partition slows the kernel down in certain situations. For this purpose, there is no need for the swap partition to be over 256 KB at most.
Surreal

Re: Considerations before you install

Post by Surreal »

Hello everyone!

After getting tired of Windows 7 and doing alot of distro-hopping to just try out which one works
best for me i have decided to install LM11 64bit.

I use my laptop mostly for browsing, listening to music, watching movies, abit of php programming, nothing exciting really :P

I've read almost all 26 pages in this topic and but i'd still like a second opinion on my partition scheme;

My harddrive is 320 GB.

primary sda1 -> /boot -> 256 MB -> ext2 or reiserfs
primary sda2 -> / -> 12 GB -> ext3
primary sda3 -> swap -> ?

sda4 EXTENDED PARTITION

logical sda5 -> /Home -> 10 GB -> ext3
logical sda6 -> DATA partition -> 75 GB -> ext3 For music
logical sda7 -> DATA partition -> Remaining GB's -> ext3 For Storing personal files, pictures, downloads

As you may have noticed i left the swap size empty, my system has 4 GB of RAM memory and like
i said i'll be using Linux Mint 64bit, what size should my swap be? As i never set my laptop to suspend or sleep mode.

The Data partitions will be mounted in my /Home directory to /Music and /Storage

What do you guys think of this partition scheme? Will it be an efficient and optimal setup?

Also when in the future new Mint releases become available, will i be able to update the system easily?


Regards,

Surreal
Chris M

Re: Considerations before you install

Post by Chris M »

Surreal wrote:Hello everyone!

After getting tired of Windows 7 and doing alot of distro-hopping to just try out which one works
best for me i have decided to install LM11 64bit.

I use my laptop mostly for browsing, listening to music, watching movies, abit of php programming, nothing exciting really :P

I've read almost all 26 pages in this topic and but i'd still like a second opinion on my partition scheme;

My harddrive is 320 GB.

primary sda1 -> /boot -> 256 MB -> ext2 or reiserfs
primary sda2 -> / -> 12 GB -> ext3
primary sda3 -> swap -> ?

sda4 EXTENDED PARTITION

logical sda5 -> /Home -> 10 GB -> ext3
logical sda6 -> DATA partition -> 75 GB -> ext3 For music
logical sda7 -> DATA partition -> Remaining GB's -> ext3 For Storing personal files, pictures, downloads

As you may have noticed i left the swap size empty, my system has 4 GB of RAM memory and like
i said i'll be using Linux Mint 64bit, what size should my swap be? As i never set my laptop to suspend or sleep mode.

The Data partitions will be mounted in my /Home directory to /Music and /Storage

What do you guys think of this partition scheme? Will it be an efficient and optimal setup?

Also when in the future new Mint releases become available, will i be able to update the system easily?


Regards,

Surreal
swap:

I think the bottom line is that if you plan on hibernating, your swap file should match your RAM size. If hibernating - 4 gigs.

You're using a laptop, though, and I don't know if you're using integrated/on board/shared memory graphics or not. That may play (slightly) into the equation.

But if you're using 64-bit, there's no 32-bit cap on memory, so you could make your swap partition fairly large, just in case. With hibernation, you'd go 4 gigs.

But if you're not going to hibernate, given the ample memory, you could go for a small swap size - especially given what you're do with your machine. Given tdockery97's post above, and a few others, you could do 1 gig and never run into a problem.

The one thing I gleaned from this is that a large swap really won't degrade performance. In fact, you'll probably never use it (unless you hibernate - in that case, it doesn't matter; 4 gigs).

You have enough space to do anything you want on your laptop (assuming no dual boot/small linux partition). If not hibernating, you could easily go 1 or 2 gigs swap and be on your merry way. But since you'll probable never go into swap, you could go even lower (1/2 gig).

There is no "right" or "wrong" answer (if considering 4 gigs or less). For you, a large swap partition is for necessity's sake if hibernating, or for extreme safety's sake if not hibernating.
wm_domino

Re: Considerations before[SOLVED-proper config]

Post by wm_domino »

thanks for the explanation fred, it's admittedly a tad over my head but it helped clarify some things for me...

i have a couple of old machines i try to put a linux version on every other year or so and finally found mint (yay), this time i'm working with mint11 lxde. i'm about to embark on making this version work one way or another and i hope the forum is ready for me!! lol

i've got a zillion issues i've been trying to figure out (will search/post in other threads) but must've skipped over or just did not recognize a post indicating the best way to install for systems with small single hard drives, processors <1GHz & between 256-512RAM ... these are basically win98 machines i'd like to make useful again.

my test machine is a 1GHz processor, 1GB RAM, 1 80GB h/d ... out of the box this one slow boot/response time compared to mint 7 xfce i tried a bit ago, but i can't even figure out how to stop 2ea welcome screens/update managers from starting at each boot! only 1 volume ext4 (ver 1.0)

ran a tip for slower machines involving the terminal window and changing a setting from the default 60 to 10, but do not remember what it was, made a bit of difference..will dig it up if need be, but thought it was irrelevant considering i believe a fresh install is now in order again.

thanks in advance!

*EDIT*
since i was doing a fresh install decided to get the new dvd a go and was slapped by gparted right off the bat. i set my swap file first to just over a GB (with everything i've read and not understood and the arguements back and forth i figured this was a good starting point) with my #1 partition being root @ 15GB #2 = home @30GB and #3 with the balance being ntfs to see if that is part of my networking issues...

is this a reasonable start? i'd like to know about the size of swap for mint11 and approx 512 of ram.

could not get ldme to install, created the partitions using gparted as stated and it seemed to have tried to install on the ntfs partition, deleted it, ran install again, then it seemed to have installed partially because it would not boot, my best guess is /root was misplaced on the install..gave up and went back to the lxde to work out my networking issues...guess i'll be looking for a more clear explanation for working with gparted than the one i used.

here's the proper procedure for getting past gparted with lmde xfce: http://www.linuxbsdos.com/2010/12/28/ma ... n-edition/

**EDIT
the link works, but the /boot partition is not required and it's recommended the /root partition be first, as for the size of your swap file, too many fingers in the pie, you're on your own.
roylond

Re: Considerations before you install

Post by roylond »

I haven't had a chance to read all the post covering this subject. I have been using Linux mint 11 for two days and so far have enjoyed it much better than Windows which I would like to dump. My question is I did a automatic install with me just putting in my name etc. so should I reinstall and use the three partitions, swap / /home. Is it possible to repartition without reinstalling My drive is a new Seagate 500 Gb on a new machine I have built. Also I have installed the 32 bit version on a 64 bit machine because of drivers not being available. Sorry if I gone on too long but this is all new to me.
un4td

Re: Considerations before you install

Post by un4td »

Well on a clean default install thru the wizard, I ended up with a large partition with home and everything else, and a 4gb swap file, in that order, on the disk.

Would performance be THAT much better if I put the swap file first? Or only for memory-intensive applications?

Thanks.
Duderino

Re: Considerations before you install

Post by Duderino »

Fred wrote: swap ----Formatted as swap -----per above rules
/ ----------Formatted as ext3 ------10 – 12 Gig.

Data Partition1 ----Formatted as ext3 -----sized for data
Data Partition2 ----Formatted as ext3 -----sized for data
Data Partition3 ----Formatted as ext3 -----sized for data
Fred - I'm a little confused. Fresh installation of Mint 11, my partition is

Swap - 2GB
/ ------ Ext 4 12 GB
/home Ext 4 50GB

The rest is logical partition for future use, about 440 GB, ext 4.

What would be the mount point for your Data Partition1/2/3? Could I get my home folder to default to the data partitions? I would like one partition each for documents, music, and pics/video.


thanks
mrjoeyman

Re: Considerations before you install

Post by mrjoeyman »

Yo duderino! I have supplied a link that will clear things up for you that I discovered on this forum. I was in the same frame of mind that you are at that point and gleaned some further great info from it. Check it out! :P

http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=46&t=67609
Last edited by mrjoeyman on Tue Oct 25, 2011 11:02 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Duderino

Re: Considerations before you install

Post by Duderino »

mrjoeyman wrote:Yo duderino! I have supplied a link that will clear things up for you that I discovered on this forum. I was in the same frame of mind that you were at that point and gleaned some further great info from it. Check it out! :P

http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=46&t=67609
Thanks man. That's exactly what I'm looking for.

I especially like the idea of separating /data from /home. On the machine in question I had upgraded from Ubuntu 9.04 to 9.10 then 10.04. Replacing that with Mint 11 caused all sorts of problems. So I backed up my data and started with a fresh install of Mint.

Best of all I deleted the dual boot with Vista. I'm now free of that insidious OS. Mint community rocks.
mrjoeyman

Re: Considerations before you install

Post by mrjoeyman »

Yes at first glance it seems that when upgrading the os, it would be a good thing to just dump your home folder contents right back onto the new system, but alas...trouble may lurk in dark places :evil:

With the data partition, all is okey dokey :mrgreen:

Good luck!
leae89

Re: Considerations before you install

Post by leae89 »

First of all, I'm spanish speaker, so my english couldn't be as good as yours. My apologize in advance.

This question perhaps has been answered much time before, but I need to know: Does Linux Mint install alongside Windows as Ubuntu does?
I mean, Ubuntu is installed as another Windows program, and it's listed at startup, and my notebook promps me which OS to boot (Windows 7 or Ubuntu) after turning it on.

I need this answer before installing Mint 11.
Thanks.
mrjoeyman

Re: Considerations before you install

Post by mrjoeyman »

Yes.
sunewbie

Re: Considerations before you install

Post by sunewbie »

leae89 wrote:First of all, I'm spanish speaker, so my english couldn't be as good as yours. My apologize in advance.

This question perhaps has been answered much time before, but I need to know: Does Linux Mint install alongside Windows as Ubuntu does?
I mean, Ubuntu is installed as another Windows program, and it's listed at startup, and my notebook promps me which OS to boot (Windows 7 or Ubuntu) after turning it on.

I need this answer before installing Mint 11.
Thanks.
Hello,

I am an end user and have installed Ubuntu along with windows XP, as a dual boot option. Mint (main edition - please mention if you are using other edition) is derived from Ubuntu and has almost same installer as that of Ubuntu. So Installation is very similar to that of Ubuntu.

It will dual boot with Grub as a boot loader. Grub will automatically detect any other OS including windows and will list them in the boot loader screen. Alternatively you can also triple boot or quadboot so that you can have 2 / 3 linux and one windows. You need to surf it in order to have a triple boot i.e. to keep both ubuntu and mint. If you just want to install mint, just go for dual boot option during installation and things should go smooth.

I STRONGLY advise you to read Mint manual BEFORE installing.

Alternatively you can install any linux distro as a guest OS by installing it inside Virtualbox (safe way) if you are new to Linux.

Having is proper install has advantage than installing inside windows e.g. it can help in data recovery. :D

If you need any help, just post (a new topic) in forums. Do not ping or reply to very old thread which are dead for more than 12 months.

Enjoy Mint !!!
AlmightyDoerOfStuff

Re: Considerations before you install

Post by AlmightyDoerOfStuff »

(I only read a few pages of this thread at the beginning and end. I know that's not kosher in some communities, but I have no questions to ask at present so I imagine it's okay.)

I don't know if this has been said before but I'll say it again.

Do NOT go with the default installation options if you're dualbooting Windows and Linux on the same hard drive, with the boot loaders on separate hard drives! It only leads to pain... :|

You'd think I would have learned the first or second time I tried it, when I had WinXP installed on sdb (the master SATA drive) with its boot sector on sda (the slave PATA storage drive). That's the way Windows liked it, and I don't mess with Windows too much because I know it can be temperamental. Then, when I tried to install Ubuntu on the same hard drive, it ALSO wrote its boot sector to sda, overwriting Windows's. Now neither of them would boot. I don't really know why, but they wouldn't. So I reinstalled Windows (after having already set it up the way I liked :x ) and installed Ubuntu on the same partition, but with Grub2 on sdb, and now they booted. Fine. Lesson learned? No, of course not. Then I updated from Meerkat to Narwhal, and did the same thing, So I installed fresh over again. >_< Everything was fine until Ocelot came along with Unity, which I hate, being the only GUI, with GNOME 3 which I also don't like being a separate download (or so I heard). So I switched to Katya. And guess what happened when I did? :evil: <-(directed at myself) At least this last time I managed to fix it without losing my settings and applications again. I reinstalled Mint immediately, and then later when I found out Windows wasn't working, I just used the Recovery Console to fix everything.

I don't especially like Windows, but I need it for certain things that don't work on Linux or Wine, such as my HP printer (which is supposed to work perfectly according to the driver's developers' website but doesn't), my Sansa Fuze+ portable media player, and some websites like the Pokemon Dream World site for Pokemon Black and White versions.

So I'm hoping that, by posting about my repetitive journeys through the installation media of my OSes, I'll remember next time I have to update or switch again. :P

As for separate /home/ partitions, I didn't see this thread when I was installing, but I don't keep my data in my /home/ folder anyway. I keep it on an NTFS partition on my laptop, or on my NTFS storage disk on my desktop, so it can be accessed from either OS. But now I know I can make it bigger. I made my Linux partitions pretty big, not realizing how little space programs take up on ext4 partitions. I just checked mine here on my laptop. 31GB of partition space, less than 5.5GB of files. I can probably shrink it by 16 GB and add the space to my 20GB storage partition. Or, I can add another Linux installation. I won't worry about that now, but I might do that once GNOME 3 becomes standard, so I can tweak GNOME 3 and see if I can make it likable, while still having my GNOME 2 installation intact should I decide I don't like it and want to try other options, like KDE or something. More likely I'll do that on my desktop computer though, since I have more room there.

Now to go make my official introductory post. 8)
sunewbie

Re: Considerations before you install

Post by sunewbie »

Thank for sharing nice info
leae89

Re: Considerations before you install

Post by leae89 »

Forgot to say I'm downloading the LXDE version.
marbangens

My Appreciation

Post by marbangens »

good information
rickNS
Level 9
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Joined: Tue Jan 25, 2011 11:59 pm

Re: Considerations before you install

Post by rickNS »

mplumridge22 wrote:Hi

Following on from Fred, I don't know if my experiences are of any help to anyone but like most people i like to try the latest distros.

I have tried virtually every 3.5.9 KDE and 4.03 distro going and none of them will boot on my laptop.
Sony Vaio, dual core t5300, 2 gb ram and 120hd so not an old system by any means.

None of the forums (Kubuntu, Mandriva) have been able to resolve.
Having tried Most other distros, as most of us have, Mint is by far the smoothest and easiest install and operation i have encountered

My advice is, don't read too much into live CD's of the latest distros and how they run on your machine, they all worked on my laptop but none would boot when installed.

If you find a distro like mint that runs perfectly on your pc....STICK WITH IT!


Martyn
Martyn, I couldn't agree more. I tried ubuntu 10. (something) a couple years ago. I wasn't so impressed. Next I tried Mint (9) I probably won't upgrade either (any time soon). I love mint, With only one small exception, and that will soon be overcome as soon as I get more comfortable with GIMP. I will soon have no need for windows what-so-ever, or paying the "Bill" for a disk that I can not own ? confused ? Frankly, that is the biggest reason I ever tried Linux in the first place. Thank XXX I did.

Make no mistake I (Richard Sweet) am going to make a contribution (cash) to Linux in the very near future. I hope Bill Gates dies a horrible, and painfull death. (add more curse words here) You know it is only a matter of time till more people get "turned on" to this Mint stuff, one year, ten years...who knows ? but eventually they will for just the same reasons as I did. Then, and only then will you be able to get the disk you "paid" for from microsoft, and Microsoft will DIE. I wouldn't want to be holding too many stocks at that point....watch out, it will happen, and I'm willing to bet on that !

GOOD WORK ! MINT TEAM, KEEP IT UP ! (THANK YOU)

(about me)--- I'm a Linux newbie, by necessity, see, I'm tired of not "owning" the disk I paid for. Perhaps his greedyness is a good thing. Hopefully it will be the death of him. My Linux (Mint) experience has been very positive, My printer works, wireless works, who doesn't like firefox ?, I got Synergy to work with a little effort. To the Linux team, I'll say again, an on board HELP FILE would be a great assett. BTW that's not to say that the forums aren't great, but for some basic type stuff it would be a lot faster to "look up" stuff than to ask questions on a forum, and wait for answers. Now that's just common sence, and my ONLY critisim.
Mint 20.0, and 21.0 MATE on Thinkpads, 3 X T420, T450, T470, and X200
sunewbie

Re: Considerations before you install

Post by sunewbie »

rickNS wrote: To the Linux team, I'll say again, an on board HELP FILE would be a great assett. BTW that's not to say that the forums aren't great, but for some basic type stuff it would be a lot faster to "look up" stuff than to ask questions on a forum, and wait for answers. Now that's just common sence, and my ONLY critisim.
Please visit the community, sign-up and visit idea literature references, or a library and vote for it. Fell free to comment your suggestions :)

The idea is already considered by mods
hefff

Re: Considerations before you install

Post by hefff »

Hello guys, im new ......

Sry i MOVED it IN GENERAL Newbie TOPICS
Last edited by hefff on Fri Dec 30, 2011 2:37 pm, edited 3 times in total.
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