[ubuntu-uk] Partitioning Questions

[Kris Marsh]

On 4/30/07, Stephen Garton <sheepeatingtaz at gmail.com> wrote:
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> Morning All,
>
> I'm after some recommended reading, If I might enquire. First background:
>
> Current Set-up (Laptop): 80Gb HD split into 2Gb Swap, 12Gb /, and the
> remaining 60Gb (all of what is available) as /home.
>
> The questions I am looking for answers for are:
> 1. Do I need 2Gb of Swap? (I Have 1GB RAM)
> 2. How much space do I _need_ for /? I prefer to keep /home separate.
> I've just started using VMWare, which by default puts it's machines in
> /var/lib/vmware. I was surprised to find I had 4.1Gb Free on this
> partition, so I've obviously over-cooked my guess at how much space was
> needed
> 3. Can I resize Any of these partitions? I've loaded up gparted, but
> (understandably) all my partitions are mounted so I can't resize them
> as-is...
>
> Although I do want the answers, I'd prefer to be guided gently towards
> some accurate documentation. I have briefly searched the Ubuntu Wiki
> this morning, but didn't find anything useful, but this could well be my
> choice of search terms.
> - --
> Steve Garton
> www.sheepeatingtaz.co.uk
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> --
> ubuntu-uk at lists.ubuntu.com
> https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk
> https://wiki.kubuntu.org/UKTeam/
>

Hi Steve,

1. The recommended amount of swap used to be 2*main memory. I
generally don't bother with this, as I think 2GB of swap is a waste
for 1GB main memory. However, if you want to use hibernate and such,
then you will need to at least match your main memory with your swap
size (i.e. 1GB for you). Depending on whether you run some really
memory intensive programs, you may like to stick with 1GB.

2. You'll get problems if you try and install Ubuntu on a root
partition of size less than around 2.5GB. You specified 12Gb, which
should be fine for a good while, but you can always resize your
partitions...

3. As you've noticed, you can't resize a currently mounted partition.
What you need is some sort of live CD for gparted. Check the gparted
website ;-)


As for accurate documentation, I wouldn't be able to find any proof of
the swap-memory ratio (point #1), although I'm sure there is some
somewhere. I doubt there will be a lot of information on root
partition size (point #2), apart from minimum sizes. The gparted
website will give you some authorative information to back up point
#3.


HTH,
Kris


P.S. It *is* possible to install Ubuntu on less than 2.5GB. However, I
had to use the text mode install, as it fails due to lack of space.

I had to do an apt-get clean && apt-get autoclean, and remove a bunch
of files in /var/cache/apt/archives etc. every now and then to keep
the install alive.

You can probably use the server install disk to install a minimal
subset of packages and get that minimum / partition size down a bit
more.