Hard Disk Paritioning for a Linux Install
based on notes for
|
! Note !
A few more notes may be added,
if/when I re-visit this page again.
In any case, you can use WEB SEARCH links below
to find current information on disk paritioning
for Linux installs.
Links to sections of this page below:
INTROduction
MEPIS Guide Contents (QtParted description)
Partition Screenshots
Partition Links
Searches for More Partitioning Info
Bottom of Page
Linux installs have become very easy now (circa 2005) --- especially from "Live CDs", from which you can try out a Linux "distro" (distribution), and then install the distro to 'hard disk'. Example distros circa 2005: The installs are usually easy if you choose to give over the entire disk drive to Linux. However ... Some people "coming over" from MS-Windows like to perserve an installation of the MS-Windows operating system on their PC (desktop or laptop) --- to preserve some data or to allow for accessing some programs on MS-Windows that are still useful to them. Personally, I prefer to 'wipe' an MS-Windows operating system from a computer (desktop or laptop) --- overlay it with a Linux system --- and use an MS-Windows system on a separate computer. The installation of multiple operating systems on a single computer is often referred to as 'dual-booting' or "multi-booting". A main technicality in a Linux installation, in that case, is how to partition the hard drive --- to preserve the MS-Windows operating system and MS-user data, yet allow access to the new Linux system and allow for sufficient room in Linux file systems for the amount of new data you expect to accumulate.
NOTE:
Multiple disk drives Another case that is not covered in most install guides is the case of having TWO disk drives. Even if one does not have an MS-Windows OS to deal with, one needs to decide how to (and know how to) split the Linux file system across the two drives. A typical configuration across the two drives would be to put the 'root' and 'swap' directories on one drive --- and the 'home' directories on the other drive. Unfortunately, I have not found a good guide, with screen-shots, illustrating partitioning TWO drives. But I managed to muddle through such an installation with Mandriva 2007, on a PC that I assembled with two 80 GB drives --- putting the '/home' directory on the second drive. I found that the Mandriva 'DrakX' installer (including a GUI partitioning utility) was more user-friendly to 2-disk installations than the QtParted or Gparted GUI partition editors that are typically used in Mepis releases, circa 2005.
Intent of this page: Unfortunately, most guides for installing Linux (in Linux magazine articles and in introductory Linux books) skim over the steps and considerations in installing Linux for a "dual boot" configuration (Linux or MS-Windows). Even doing a web search for such information is likely to yield frustration, because it is difficult to "hit" on pages that have clear explanations, along with pictures of the options to choose at each step. This web page is meant as a place to accumulate information (including screen shots) for the disk partitioning process --- and to preserve such information as web sites re-organize and shut down. |
SimplyMEPIS User Guide Contents (with description of using QtParted) A popular windowing tool that is used to do disk partitioning for a Linux installation is "QtParted" --- where 'parted' is an abbreviation of 'partition editor'. There is a fairly good explanation of the QtParted process in the MEPIS install guide. The table of contents of that guide is listed below. Note that pages 64-66 (Appendix C), contain the description of the typical partitioning steps and considerations. A link to the MEPIS install guide is below this list of the table of contents. And some web links to other, more-or-less-good partitioning descriptions are presented below that link. You may find some other parts of the MEPIS guide interesting to peruse. For example, section 10 --- Using Multimedia Applications --- will give you an idea of SOME of the handy multi-media programs that come with MEPIS. (About 1,200 applications come in the typical MEPIS "distro".) Appendices A and B give a view of more of the applications and utilities that come with MEPIS.
SimplyMEPIS
|
FOR MORE HARD DISK PARTITIONING INFORMATION: To find more information on disk partitioning for Linux installs (especially Ubuntu installs), you can try WEB SEARCHES on keywords such as the following. You can also try Wikipedia pages like the following, and following links on those pages for even more information. |
Bottom of this To return to a previously visited web page location, click on the Back button of your web browser, a sufficient number of times. OR, use the History-list option of your web browser. OR ...
< Go to Top of Page, above. >
|