Re: tlug: How to install Linux (Part 1) ...

[Jim Tittsler <jwt-tlug@example.com>]

On Thu, Oct 29, 1998 at 08:10:07PM +0000, Darren Cook wrote:
> >In the documentation they recommend the following partitions:
> >
> >- A swap partition
> >- A root partition
> >- A /usr partition
> >- A /home partition
> >
> >and additionally maybe:
> >-  A /usr/local partition
> >-  A /usr/src partition
> 
> Why do people recommend all these partitions? I've found when I partition
> up a disk I normally regret it beause I run out of space on one of them.

We recently had a few messages on this topic on the list.  Among the
advantages are the ease of doing upgrades/installs (since /usr/local, and
/home would be untouched), ease of backups (if it keeps each partition
below your single volume backup size), and control over things that might
grow based on (network) usage (like /tmp or /var).  A more complete answer
can probably be found using the list archive search facility Jim S. has
going on http://tlug.linux.or.jp/ML/index.html 

The disadvantage as you point out is that until you've done it a few
(dozen :-) times and figured out your usage pattern, you're bound to
chop it up wrong.

> Oh, that reminds me. Is it possible to convert my msdos partition to FAT32?
> It keeps mangling long filenames.

VFAT (which handles long filenames) and FAT32 (which decreases cluster size)
are two different things.  Instead of mounting the partition as type
'msdos', try mounting it as type 'vfat' and you will have access to long
filenames.

> I avoided this by using a boot floppy rather than lilo. So without the
> floppy the machine boots to NT, and with the floppy it boots to Linux.

Yet another alternative is to use the NT boot loader (the one that allows
dual booting into Win95 or WinNT) to also boot Linux.  There is a HOWTO
that explains how to do it, and it works quite smoothly.

-- 
Jim Tittsler, Tokyo   ICQ: 5981586


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