Various Topics on Linux

.... ..r..

Scarletdown <gsutton9503@MYTAILFEATHERScharter.net> writes:

]J.O. Aho wrote:

]> A small suggestion would be that you make
]>
]> /boot 100MB

Why have a boot partition? Again, it is liable to fill up when you
install your fourth kernel.
I usually have
/partition 1GB
/usr partition 5 GB
/swap 1GB
/local partion (containing /local/home /and a pointer from /usr/local)
the rest of the disk.

This leaves lots of room for installing new software, and making sure
that /var/log does not overrun /
It also allows / and /usr to be erased in reinstalling a new version of
the system.

If you do not plan to install lots of new software, make /usr 3GB
instead.

I would advise the same for a 40Gb hard drive (where did you nind a 10GB
drive. I did not think they existed anymore. -- And I recall when a
100MB drive held the whole operating system and all the files I could
use for a SunOS system only 15 years ago.

]> <swap> 2*ram (if over 512MB, then maybe 1.5*ram)

]I always make the swap partition equal to the maximum RAM that the
]motherboard can take. So my workstation here has a 3GB swap partition
](since I may one day actually have 3GB of RAM), and my other system,
]once I upgrade her from Windows to Linux, will have a 256MB swap partition.

..cha.. ..imi..

Bill Unruh <unruh@string.physics.ubc.ca> wrote:
> Scarletdown <gsutton9503@MYTAILFEATHERScharter.net> writes:

> ]J.O. Aho wrote:

> ]> A small suggestion would be that you make
> ]>
> ]> /boot 100MB

> Why have a boot partition? Again, it is liable to fill up when you
> install your fourth kernel.

Ack, unless there are multiple distro installed, /boot isn't
really needed anymore.

> I usually have
> /partition 1GB
> /usr partition 5 GB
> /swap 1GB
> /local partion (containing /local/home /and a pointer from /usr/local)
> the rest of the disk.

Usually I have in addition /var, /tmp and /home on separate
partitions. Swap size depends on the RAM and the purpose of the
box, anyway if the systems starts swapping constantly it's
already (late) time to get more RAM.

> This leaves lots of room for installing new software, and making sure
> that /var/log does not overrun /
> It also allows / and /usr to be erased in reinstalling a new version of
> the system.

> If you do not plan to install lots of new software, make /usr 3GB
> instead.

You can use lvm on /usr if unsure, albeit I'd avoid that if
possible on the system partitions.

> I would advise the same for a 40Gb hard drive (where did you nind a 10GB
> drive. I did not think they existed anymore. -- And I recall when a
> 100MB drive held the whole operating system and all the files I could
> use for a SunOS system only 15 years ago.

You can size down a Linux system like that if you like, but then
you won't have a very comfortable box and working might get a
pain in the *** quite fast, like on that old sun. With a few
hundred MB you get a good comfortable Linux server.

--
Michael Heiming

Remove +SIGNS and www. if you expect an answer, sorry for
inconvenience, but I get tons of SPAM

.... ..o

Michael Heiming wrote:

>>>but why use a separate boot partition at all?
>>It's convenient if you run several different distros. And you can often
>>leave it unmounted usually, for security. ANd if you insist on mounting
>>it, you can leave it readonly, for safety.
> You can't rerun lilo if /boot is read-only. Due to problems
> creating more the a few partitions per disk using RH kickstart,

Don't use lilo, move into the future and use grub.


> stopped creating /boot as you don't really need it anymore the
> 1024 cylinder limit has been gone ages ago. But then there is

You still can be using a filesystem that isn't supported by bootloaders, this
makes it quite usefull to have a separated /boot from /.


//Aho

.... ..eu..

Bill Unruh <unruh@string.physics.ubc.ca> wrote:
> Scarletdown <gsutton9503@MYTAILFEATHERScharter.net> writes:
> ]J.O. Aho wrote:

> ]> A small suggestion would be that you make
> ]>
> ]> /boot 100MB

> Why have a boot partition? Again, it is liable to fill up when you
> install your fourth kernel.

Uh - not unless you have 25MB kernels. I think you have miscounted.

Peter

.... ..o

Scarletdown wrote:
> J.O. Aho wrote:
>
>> A small suggestion would be that you make
>>
>> /boot 100MB
>> <swap> 2*ram (if over 512MB, then maybe 1.5*ram)
>
>
> I always make the swap partition equal to the maximum RAM that the
> motherboard can take. So my workstation here has a 3GB swap partition
> (since I may one day actually have 3GB of RAM), and my other system,
> once I upgrade her from Windows to Linux, will have a 256MB swap partition.

swap should always be slightly larger than ram. But I can say that with the
size of RAM that home users nowdays has in their machines makes that swap is
seldom used at all and most of the RAM is used for cache.

Of course all those recommendation of swap sizes that can bee read in all
HOWTOs are really for small sized RAMs and if people has looked at
recommednations for different *nix falvours it do give a range between 1.5 to
2.5 times the RAM. As I have pelnty of harddrive space I usually go for the
2.5 times, but I do not plan much for the future, as you can always shrink LVM
and then use that space for swap and you can spread swap over many harddrives
and then let it be used kind in the same manner as RAID 0, which speeds up the
speed of swap (quite usefull if you have slow ATA33 harddrives, but I doubt
anyone has anything less than ATA66 and most I guess have ATA100 nowdays).


//Aho

..cha.. ..imi..

J.O. Aho <user@example.net> wrote:
> Michael Heiming wrote:

> >>>but why use a separate boot partition at all?
> >>It's convenient if you run several different distros. And you can often
> >>leave it unmounted usually, for security. ANd if you insist on mounting
> >>it, you can leave it readonly, for safety.
> > You can't rerun lilo if /boot is read-only. Due to problems
> > creating more the a few partitions per disk using RH kickstart,

> Don't use lilo, move into the future and use grub.

Where is the "-R" option lilo has?

> > stopped creating /boot as you don't really need it anymore the
> > 1024 cylinder limit has been gone ages ago. But then there is

> You still can be using a filesystem that isn't supported by bootloaders, this
> makes it quite usefull to have a separated /boot from /.

AFAIK the bootloader knows nothing about filesystems, just the
exact physical position of the kernel & (initrd) on the disk.

--
Michael Heiming

Remove +SIGNS and www. if you expect an answer, sorry for
inconvenience, but I get tons of SPAM

..cha.. ..imi..

Michael Heiming <michael+USENET@www.heiming.de> wrote:
> Bill Unruh <unruh@string.physics.ubc.ca> wrote:
> > Scarletdown <gsutton9503@MYTAILFEATHERScharter.net> writes:

> > ]J.O. Aho wrote:

> > ]> A small suggestion would be that you make
> > ]>
> > ]> /boot 100MB

> > Why have a boot partition? Again, it is liable to fill up when you
> > install your fourth kernel.

> Ack, unless there are multiple distro installed, /boot isn't
> really needed anymore.

Of course not on a 100MB /boot as Peter kindly pointed out.

--
Michael Heiming

Remove +SIGNS and www. if you expect an answer, sorry for
inconvenience, but I get tons of SPAM

..br.. ..üv..

On Sun, 04 Jan 2004 23:12:11 +0100, J.O. Aho wrote:

> Don't use lilo, move into the future and use grub.

I don't use the things Grub can do that Lilo can't, but I do use Lilo's -R
option which Grub doesn't have. Why should I switch?

Sybren
--
(o_ Q: God, root, what is difference?
//\ A: God can change the byte order on the CPU, root can't.
V_/_

.... ..eu..

J.O. Aho <user@example.net> wrote:
> Michael Heiming wrote:

> >>>but why use a separate boot partition at all?
> >>It's convenient if you run several different distros. And you can often
> >>leave it unmounted usually, for security. ANd if you insist on mounting
> >>it, you can leave it readonly, for safety.
> > You can't rerun lilo if /boot is read-only. Due to problems
> > creating more the a few partitions per disk using RH kickstart,

> Don't use lilo, move into the future and use grub.

Grub is no good for doing remote boots, or booting off raid ... in
fact, it's no special use at all that I can find.

> You still can be using a filesystem that isn't supported by bootloaders, this
> makes it quite usefull to have a separated /boot from /.

Hmm .. why would a bootloader need to support a file system? Isn't that
the kernels job?



Peter

..mst..

Sybren Stüvel <sybrenUSE@YOURthirdtower.imagination.com> wrote in
newsan.2004.01.04.11.04.28.17837@YOURthirdtower. imagination.com:

> Otherwise a file upload could fill up the partition and
> prevent further entries to be written to the logfile.

Interesting, never thought of that. Very good tip.

--
~Ohmster