Partitioning GUI

[borgward]

I began partitioning mint 14 using the gui.

So far I have done:

/dev/sda
/dev/sda1 ext3 / 14998MB
/dev/sda5 ext4 /home 735154MB

I can not figure out how to make any more partitions. The only buttons active are change, revert, and delete. The add button is not active.

What about swap?
How to partition from the command line?

Any thoughts about how I have the drive carved up?

[nomko]

First of all, partitioning is a thing you really need basic knowlegde of partitioning and how it works. Otherwise you can screw up your drive.

Ok, now your questions/problems:
What is the total size of your disc? Is it 750152 MB?

/dev/sda
/dev/sda1 ext3 / 14998MB
/dev/sda5 ext4 /home 735154MB

Why sda1 ext3? ext4 is much better than ext3.
Amount of space for the root partition is more than enough.

I can not figure out how to make any more partitions. The only buttons active are change, revert, and delete. The add button is not active.

If your total disc size is +/- 750152 MB and you used the whole disc for the 2 partitions sda1 and sda5, then there's no space left. You can only add partitions when there's still room for it.

What about swap?

You really don't need swap if you have over more than 4 gig of main memory. But if you really want swap, 1 gig is more than enough. So what you can do is resize sda5 and create a swap partition at the empty space.

How to partition from the command line?

If you ask me, dangerous! Best is to use a GUI partition manager so you have a visual check on what you're doing. It is possible to use a command line partition manager but there's more room for making errors. Especially if you don't know what you're doing.

Any thoughts about how I have the drive carved up?

This is a personal choice. I never create a separate partition for /home. Why? Because a lot of programs place their configuration files in the /home folder as a hidden file/folder. When you upgrade to a newer version and leave the /home partition as it is, you might end up with an installation which might be unstable due to the fact that you use old configuration files in a newer installation. Or you might end up with application errors due to conflicts between old configuration files and the latest/newest configuration file. So to avoid any problems i always erase my whole disc after i backed up everything ofcourse.

[borgward]

a lot of programs place their configuration files in the /home folder as a hidden file/folder

How can I recognize these configuration files once they are unhidden? I am thinking get rid of them before upgrading, or place them some where else. Where would be a good place to put them?

[Flemur]

How can I recognize these configuration files once they are unhidden? I am thinking get rid of them before upgrading, or place them some where else. Where would be a good place to put them?

"Hidden" = "filename starts with a '.' " To show them "$ ls -a" from terminal or change the setting in your file browser (usually rt-click on the list -> menu).

1 - They're all over the place, some directly under your home directory (~), some in their own directories (under ~), and some under ~/.config. It's a mess, nearly as bad as Windows.

2 - I just leave them alone for updates/upgrade/differentlinuxversions unless/until they cause problems, which is rare (gimp and pulse...?) As far as I've seen, most of them aren't needed anyway, tho .mozilla and .wine have useful information (I link .wine to a partition which is accessed by more than one linux).

3 - Terminal:
$ cd (to your home directory: this is NOT /home, but /home/yourusername, which is also called "~" ).
$ cd .. (to the one above your home)
$ sudo cp -r yourusername username_save

They'll be saved in /home/username_save/filenames...