Question

Thu Feb 28 08:15:08 UTC 2008

On Thu, 2008-02-28 at 07:36 +0200, Alexandra Zaharia wrote:
> On Thu, Feb 28, 2008 at 4:48 AM, SYNass IT Ubuntu / Linux
> <i-ubux at synass.net> wrote:
> >  If RAM is big enough ONE don't even need this /SWAP !!
> 
> You do need it :-) I have 3 GB of RAM on my computer and still keep
> the 2 GB swap partition I had back when having 1 GB of RAM. You can
> never know when you'll be using a lot of memory-requiring apps that
> will need swap space.

OK & Sorry: My fault to express it correctly:
Of course I am recommending a /SWAP-less installation !
Our systems have between 1 to 2GB RAM and I always set /SWAP with 2GB !!
;-)

> >  My idea was more just like following:
> >
> >  prim 1: ntfs / WIn installation, untouched / just shrink to 18-20GB
> >  prim 2/u: /BOOT or
> >  prim 2/w: ntfs / Win Data partition, data sharing with Ubuntu too or log
> >  1w:
> >  extended
> >  log 1/w: ntfs / same as prim 2w !?
> >  log 2: /SWAP
> >  log 3: /HOME (not mentioned in this discussion) Ubuntu data !!!
> >  log 4: /ROOT
> >
> >  I am not sure what would be better:
> >  1) Generally: Win data partition prim 2w or log 1w as primary or logical
> >  and if primary, after or before prim 2u: /BOOT !?
> 
> As I see it, it doesn't really matter except if you desperately need
> another primary partition.

Well, not desperately do I need another primary partition !
I have one more OS I want to install with this configuration and 
one more primary partition is needed because of the following 
special reason:

1st prim C: partition / ntfs contains Win XP PRO !
2nd prim C: partition / hpfs will contain my OS/2 Warp 4 installation !!
plus the environment discussed above to run my Ubuntu/s or other
*ux'es !?

With Ubuntu/s or uther *ux'es I mean additional research or test
installations !!!

> >  I always do include watching the device names too and try to group them
> >  together properly !
> >
> >  For the above it means:
> >  sda1 = OS / Win
> >  sda2/u = /BOOT Ubuntu, shareable with more Linux'es !?
> >  sda2/w = Data Win
> >  sda3 = extended
> >  sda5/w = alternatively Data Win
> >  sda5/u = /SWAP Ubuntu/ shareable with more Linux'es !?
> >  sda6 = /HOME Ubuntu/shareable with more Linux'es !?
> >  sda7 = /ROOT OS Ubuntu
> 
> If you want your device names to take up on a particular scheme such
> as the one you described above, you need to take extra care at the
> planning partitioning stage. But why bother doing so, when you can
> just specify a 'human' mount point for each partition that will be
> easy to remember? For instance, consider that in your above scheme
> somehow you mess up and fail to make sda5 your Windows data partition
> and that somehow this Windows data partition comes up as 'sda6': what
> would stop you to mount it at each boot under /media/windata instead
> of /media/sda6 ?

Well, OS/2 and Win do work with drive letters !
The problem is that both do not recognize each other: hpfs and ntfs !!
The usable common format is FAT32 !!!

I have to watch very carefully to avoid any driveletter shiftings with
these two OS'es !!

This is a reason why I try to group all respective partitions / device
names very carefully !

> >  sda/b+ = /ROOT for more Linux'es !? possibly on another HDD or USB
> >  media !?
> 
> You don't want to mix up things. "/root" is a directory under "/" that
> is the root user's home. Furthermore, a partition with a Linux flavor
> installed onto it (such as sda7 = mount point for / in your example
> above) can only be used by its Linux flavor - if you want to install a
> 2nd Linux distro, you would of course need another partition to mount
> as the 2nd flavor's "/" :-) Of course that inside "/ for Linux flavor
> 1" you can mount the other partition as /media/linux2 and viceversa.
> 
> > possibly on another HDD or USB media
> 
> Yes indeed. I currently have 2 HDDs and Ubuntu - the OS I use most
> often of the 4 installed - is installed onto the 2nd HDD, on hdb6. A
> Debian install is found on hda6, FreeBSD on sda1 and Windows XP on
> sda2. So yes, you can boot Ubuntu from a slave HDD and in my case,
> sdb6 - the partition onto which it's installed - is a logical one.

OK and again sorry for my misinterpretation: 
With /ROOT I meant the real ROOT = / and not the directory / folder
of /root within / !!!

Your explanation is very interesting for the ongoing planning of my
future configuration:

My thoughts were: 
With /BOOT and its /GRUB with menu.lst I may have a common source with
the entries 
to all my OS'es !?

Primarily always Ubuntu 8.40 the productive environment
Secondarily and upon choice any other OS like another Ubuntu as test
environment ...
... or OS/2 or whenever really needed Win XP PRO !

> Just a hint for the OP - if your Vista OS is *NOT* the 64b version
> one, you might want to try out Ext2FS - a tool which allows you to
> mount your ext2/3 partitions under Windows with read/write access.
> 
> You can find the app here: http://www.fs-driver.org ; a guide, maybe:
> http://linuxhelp.blogspot.com/2007/03/mount-ext2-or-ext3-partition-in-windows.html
> 
> I mention this because I successfully used it on 2 different machines
> (XP though...) without any troubles. It *should* work with Vista too -
> provided, again, you don't have the 64b version.

Vista, no, God beware !!! ;-)
Well, all our system configurations have been almost Win-FREE the last
13 years !!
Almost bought NO M$ SW, except with my first Win WfW 3.11 notebook in
1995 !

Tests with Win 95 ended with FAT errors within less than 3 days and 
I changed to OS/2 Warp Version 3, OS/2 Warp Connect Version 3 and
finally 
OS/2 Warp Version 4 I am still using without Blue Screen Bonus's. ;-)

Basically it hasn't needed any forced RE-installation/s for more than 10
years 
always running troublefree and smooth !

Yeah, Ubuntu may send OS/2 into pension here and 
as a Ubuntu / Linux newbie I am currently discovering and working for it
now ! 

> HTH, Alex

Yes & thanks a lot, Alex, your feedback helps me a lot ! :-)