Partitioning Advice

[jedi]

When installing VSIDO (or any distro for that matter) todays hard-drives have an immense amount of space.  I have been installing and using Linux since the days when an 800Mb hdd was huge!
Today I received a new laptop with the following configuration for disks.  The primary is a 120Gb Samsung SSD drive, and the secondary drive is a 1Tb (5400 rpm) SATA hdd.
My plea for advice regards sizes of different partitions.  The 120Gb SSD will be solely used for VSIDO, and for testing new iso's as they become available.  On this drive I foresee a scheme like the following;
1st partition - /  (root for main OS) of 25Gb.
2nd partition - / (root for test install 1) of 25Gb.
3rd partition - /  (root for test install 2) of 25Gb.
4th partition - /  (root for test install 3) of 25Gb.
That would basically take care of the SSD drive.
On the 1Tb hdd, I would put /home.  However, I've also heard it's a good idea to have partitions for /tmp, /usr, and /var.  For those 3 partitions which I'd place on the 1Tb drive, how big for each, and is it really beneficial to have them partitioned that way.  I would then use the remainder of the drive for /home.
With 32Gb of Ram, is there a need for a /swap partition?  With a Tb of space it wont be missed, (the space) but is it truly necessary?
These questions are mainly because I want to get as much life out of the SSD as possible.  I'll also be utilizing the GPT partitioning scheme to take advantage of UEFI.  Thanks everyone for the advice...

[dizzie]

I won't tell you HOW, i will only show you MY WAY


1: /dev/sdx1 /boot 100 MB ext2
2: /dev/sdx2 SWAP 256 MB swap-1
3: /dev/sdx3 rootfs 8 Gb ext4
4: /dev/sdx4 /home ... Gb ext4

You don't NEED /boot as a seperate fs, but thats how i roll
You don't NEED ext4 either for rootfs and home, again thats how i roll


On everything from 16Gb and up to 1yotabyte harddrive, this is how i do it, and never failed me, nor have i ever ran into a "filesystem full" with a 8Gb rootfs 

[apprentice]

just throwing this in for you jedi
its on the swmbo's box but...

/boot and / are ext2
rest are mix (xfs,jfs,ext4)
it also uses lvm which is prolly no good to you

Code Select Expand

NAME                     MAJ:MIN RM   SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINT
sda                        8:0    0  74.5G  0 disk
├─sda1                     8:1    0   487M  0 part /boot
├─sda2                     8:2    0     1K  0 part extended
├─sda3                     8:3    0     1G  0 part /swap
├─sda5                     8:5    0    10G  0 part /  - stud
├─sda6                     8:6    0     5G  0 part /home/swmbo
├─sda7                     8:7    0    10G  0 part /  - livarp
└─sda8                     8:8    0    48G  0 part /home/boss

sdb                        8:16   0 465.8G  0 disk
├─sdb1                     8:17   0     1G  0 part /swap
└─sdb2                     8:18   0 464.8G  0 part /lvm
  ├─yh0-movies (dm-0)    253:0    0 139.7G  0 lvm  /home/swmbo/movies
  ├─yh0-tele (dm-1)      253:1    0  55.9G  0 lvm  /home/swmbo/tele
  ├─yh0-videos (dm-2)    253:2    0  46.6G  0 lvm  /home/swmbo/videos
  ├─yh0-images (dm-3)    253:3    0  37.3G  0 lvm  /home/swmbo/images
  ├─yh0-music (dm-4)     253:4    0    28G  0 lvm  /home/swmbo/music
  └─yh0-documents (dm-5) 253:5    0    28G  0 lvm  /home/swmbo/documents

[hinto]

@dizzie I have a scheme like you, except /boot.  What's the advantage of a /boot partition?
Just curious.
-Hinto

[apprentice]

^i know for me it was due to lvm
which i suspect you know already
but thats no longer the case

and in case something gets pooched

[dizzie]

@dizzie I have a scheme like you, except /boot.  What's the advantage of a /boot partition?
Just curious.
-Hinto

So many answers, not enough time, but i'll try


using die-hard ext2 on /boot has many advantages, like speed and redundancy, i have tried leaving /boot inside the rootfs which runs mostly in my case as ext4, and ext4 isnt all flawless, and since my kernel is the most precious data on my linux system, i keep it simple and nicely tucked away inside a ext2 filesystem. Better be safe than sorry right?

[hinto]

I'll add that to the tidbits to remember... Thanks.
-Hinto

[VastOne]

Just a tidbit about /boot from me...

I had nothing but PITA issues with it to the point of wanting to destroy a TV or something...

I axed it and never looked back

[lwfitz]

Mines just a simple

/root - ext4
/home - ext4
swap

[VastOne]

Why not just show you...

sda



sdb



sdc

[VastOne]

^ That gets a lot of testing done!!!! With both ISO testing and fsarchiver testing

[ozitraveller]

I would be interested in some advice on Partition Table Types:
aix
amiga
bsd
dvh
gpt
mac
msdos (default?)
pc98
sun
loop

I have a 120Gb ssd and 2TB HDD. I was thinking msdos for ssd, and gpt for hdd. I am planning on using virtualbox and 1 vm will be for windows, unavoidable unfortunately.

Ozi

[jedi]

hey Ozi...
I used msdos as the default with the ext4 partition/format scheme.  If I had my druthers, I'd rather use GPT, but I couldn't get it to play well with my UEFI BIOS.  Course I didn't try real hard either!  The new lappy gets here, I'll be trying harder on the GPT route!  I'll update this thread when that happens...