Lesson 2

Date: 1/29/2014
Linux installation and upgrade
Linux for Engineering and IT Applications


Partitioning Disks for OS installation

  • Minimum required number of partitions on Linux is 2: / and swap
  • For Desktops it is recommended at least 3: /, swap, /home
  • For Multi-user workstation -- at least 6: /, /home, /usr, /var, /tmp, swap
Partitioning scheme Minimum space Created partitions
All files in one partition 600MB /, swap
Desktop machine 1.7GB /, /home, swap
Multi-user workstation 1.7GB + /, /home, /usr, /var, /tmp, swap

  • Linux generic partition types: swap, ext2, ext3, ext4
  • Additional supported types: Raiser FS, jfs, xfs
Suggested partition layout for 160 GB disk 
  First SATA drive (sda) - 160 GB  
        #1 primary     1 GB        ext3       /
        #2 primary     2 GB     swap       swap
        #5 logical    10 GB     ext3       /var
        #6 logical    20 GB     ext3       /usr
        #7 logical     2 GB     ext3       /tmp
        #8 logical    the rest  ext3       /home


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