hard drive partition

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Atazoth

hard drive partition

Post by Atazoth »

having a hard time understanding how to partition mt 1TB hard drive i think i did it right
/home 650GB
/root 25GB
/boot 300MB
swap area
kinda new at all this, its up an running ami leaving out anything o this partition if so can i get a lil help please


thanks
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JerryF
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Re: hard drive partition

Post by JerryF »

I wouldn't bother creating a separate /boot partition.

Just my opinion. :wink:
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Flemur
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Re: hard drive partition

Post by Flemur »

Atazoth wrote: Mon Oct 15, 2018 3:59 pmhaving a hard time understanding how to partition mt 1TB hard drive i think i did it right
/home 650GB
/root 25GB
/boot 300MB
swap area
That looks wrong, but "root", unfortunately, is an ambiguous term, in that /root is the home directory for "root" (administrator) and usually doesn't contain much, but the so-called "root" of the linux OS filesystem is "/", which you didn't mention. (This dual meaning of "root" is even dumber than Windows calling three different things an "explorer".) Also it's usually a bad idea to have a separate /boot partition unless there's some good reason, which is not typical.

In a terminal, what do

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df
lsblk
return?
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AZgl1800
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Re: hard drive partition

Post by AZgl1800 »

JerryF wrote: Mon Oct 15, 2018 5:18 pm I wouldn't bother creating a separate /boot partition.

Just my opinion. :wink:
I agree also.

just an example of what I did with a 500gB SSD
all you really need is
/
/home
swap

I have half of my SSD set aside as a backup for the first half, linked as seen below.


Gparted.png

EDIT: my swap is minuscule because I have 12gB RAM, don't need SWAP
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srq2625

Re: hard drive partition

Post by srq2625 »

Some things to know up-front:
  • If your computer is a laptop and you want to hibernate it, then swap is desired and should be at least as large as your memory.
  • If you have a lot of memory on your computer and you don't wish to hibernate, the swap is optional (IMNSHO). But, if you use programs that require a lot of memory and there is risk that you might exhaust your memory, then a swap will be necessary.
  • If you are using GPT for your disk, the /boot partition is necessary. If you are using MSDOS partitioning, then the /boot is optional; I don't use one in this case.
With that being said, and since I don't hibernate my computers, I would partition it this way:
  • /boot - 500MB (but only if installing on UEFI/GPT disk
  • /swap - 4GB or 8GB, depending on the computer I'm installing on
  • / - 30GB (or more), I like to have a bit of wiggle room
  • /home - the balance
Some people like to have a seperate data partition, in which case the scheme might look something like:
  • /boot - 500MB (but only if installing on UEFI/GPT disk
  • /swap - 4GB or 8GB, depending on the computer I'm installing on
  • / - 40GB (or more), I like to have a bit of wiggle room and will hold all the /home user folders
  • /mnt/data - the balance
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catweazel
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Re: hard drive partition

Post by catweazel »

srq2625 wrote: Tue Oct 16, 2018 6:28 am
  • /boot - 500MB (but only if installing on UEFI/GPT disk
If a separate boot is used then it should be 500MB irrespective of the partition types, I think. We often see people here with broken systems due to a lack of space from not clearing out old kernels. 500MB gives a good buffer from that problem.
"There is, ultimately, only one truth -- cogito, ergo sum -- everything else is an assumption." - Me, my swansong.
gm10

Re: hard drive partition

Post by gm10 »

srq2625 wrote: Tue Oct 16, 2018 6:28 am [*]If you are using GPT for your disk, the /boot partition is necessary. If you are using MSDOS partitioning, then the /boot is optional; I don't use one in this case.
[...]
[*]/boot - 500MB (but only if installing on UEFI/GPT disk
[...]
[*]/boot - 500MB (but only if installing on UEFI/GPT disk
You are confusing something there. UEFI/GPT needs a FAT formatted ESP partition, not a separate /boot partition. And BIOS/MBR doesn't need a /boot partition, either. Only BIOS/GPT needs a tiny bios_grub partition because of lack of space in the MBR (you just need a few KB but most people do 1MB).

On modern systems use UEFI/GPT.

I strongly recommend against using a separate /boot partition unless you are planning on using full disk encryption.

Unless you want to hibernate no need for a /swap partition, either. If required, set up a swap file instead, that's much more flexible.
srq2625

Re: hard drive partition

Post by srq2625 »

gm10 wrote: Tue Oct 16, 2018 6:35 am UEFI/GPT needs a FAT formatted ESP partition, not a separate /boot partition.
I'm not being confrontational; I guess I don't know as much as I thought I did so I'm asking for additional information.

I knew that a FAT formatted partition was required in this situation and I had always assumed (not reading anything to the contrary - and I looked) that this was the /boot partition.

So, the question that comes to my mind is, "If a FAT partition is required and it shouldn't be /boot and can't be '/', what should it be and where should it be mounted?"
gm10 wrote: Tue Oct 16, 2018 6:35 am Unless you want to hibernate no need for a /swap partition, either. If required, set up a swap file instead, that's much more flexible.
I think I like that idea.
gm10

Re: hard drive partition

Post by gm10 »

srq2625 wrote: Tue Oct 16, 2018 6:51 am
gm10 wrote: Tue Oct 16, 2018 6:35 am UEFI/GPT needs a FAT formatted ESP partition, not a separate /boot partition.
I'm not being confrontational; I guess I don't know as much as I thought I did so I'm asking for additional information.

I knew that a FAT formatted partition was required in this situation and I had always assumed (not reading anything to the contrary - and I looked) that this was the /boot partition.

So, the question that comes to my mind is, "If a FAT partition is required and it shouldn't be /boot and can't be '/', what should it be and where should it be mounted?"
The EFI System Partition (ESP) gets mounted at /boot/efi when used with GRUB2.

Just for completeness sake: I did not say that /boot should not be FAT. GRUB2 would support a FAT-formatted /boot partition. The default is ext4 though, and as we said above, ideally you'll not make it a separate partition at all to prevent issues if you let it fill up. Also to be very complete: if you're not using GRUB, you can mount ESP wherever you want or nowhere at all. Linux kernels can be booted directly via UEFI without the need for GRUB. But that's not how Mint is set up by default.
srq2625

Re: hard drive partition

Post by srq2625 »

gm10 wrote: Tue Oct 16, 2018 7:10 amThe EFI System Partition (ESP) gets mounted at /boot/efi when used with GRUB2.

Just for completeness sake: I did not say that /boot should not be FAT. GRUB2 would support a FAT-formatted /boot partition. The default is ext4 though, and as we said above, ideally you'll not make it a separate partition at all to prevent issues if you let it fill up. Also to be very complete: if you're not using GRUB, you can mount ESP wherever you want or nowhere at all. Linux kernels can be booted directly via UEFI without the need for GRUB. But that's not how Mint is set up by default.
Thanks, I think I understand. Time to experiment and drive the lesson home.
gm10

Re: hard drive partition

Post by gm10 »

srq2625 wrote: Tue Oct 16, 2018 7:24 am
gm10 wrote: Tue Oct 16, 2018 7:10 amThe EFI System Partition (ESP) gets mounted at /boot/efi when used with GRUB2.

Just for completeness sake: I did not say that /boot should not be FAT. GRUB2 would support a FAT-formatted /boot partition. The default is ext4 though, and as we said above, ideally you'll not make it a separate partition at all to prevent issues if you let it fill up. Also to be very complete: if you're not using GRUB, you can mount ESP wherever you want or nowhere at all. Linux kernels can be booted directly via UEFI without the need for GRUB. But that's not how Mint is set up by default.
Thanks, I think I understand. Time to experiment and drive the lesson home.
Not sure there's need to experiment, but in case you do let me clarify that last bit I said: If you want to boot the kernel directly via UEFI it needs to be from the ESP partition since that's the only one UEFI looks at, so typically you'll then mount ESP at /boot because that's where the binary kernel packages will install to.

Also warning to OP: This side-discussion is slightly off-topic and definitely not something I recommend for you to do, just stick with the defaults (ESP at /boot/efi) or you'll run into trouble with the installer.
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Pierre
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Re: hard drive partition

Post by Pierre »

srq2625 wrote: Tue Oct 16, 2018 6:28 am
With that being said, and since I don't hibernate my computers, I would partition it this way:
  • /boot - 500MB (but only if installing on UEFI/GPT disk)
  • /swap - 4GB or 8GB, depending on the computer I'm installing on
  • / - 30GB (or more), I like to have a bit of wiggle room
  • /home - the balance
that's something around what I've generally done, as well
8)
as my setup usually is:
  • /boot - 500MB (but only if installing on UEFI/GPT disk)
  • /swap - 1-2GB, as there is no intention of using Hibernation at all.
  • / - 15 - 25GB (or more), used to be less than that, but it's bigger these days.
  • /home - the balance of that HDD
for a Single Linux System, as that /home is split up, again, for any multi_boot system.
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