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renkinjutsu
November 26th, 2009, 05:45 PM
Just wondering what the general consensus is.. I'm a (/, /home) kinda guy, but i did a /boot / /home install for Karmic.

What do you guys think? Pros and cons?

Discuss.

LowSky
November 26th, 2009, 05:46 PM
I just do /home and /

never saw the point of /boot

bruno9779
November 26th, 2009, 05:48 PM
I do /home and / as well.

gletob
November 26th, 2009, 05:48 PM
Well...



glenn@glenn-laptop:~$ sudo fdisk -l

Disk /dev/sda: 320.1 GB, 320072933376 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 38913 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xce06f85c

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 1 12465 100125081 7 HPFS/NTFS #Windows 7 Ultimate
/dev/sda2 12466 12530 522112+ 83 Linux #Ext2 /boot
/dev/sda3 12531 35389 183614917+ 5 Extended
/dev/sda4 35571 38913 26852647+ 83 Linux #Ext4 Arch Linux
/dev/sda5 12531 17100 36708493+ 83 Linux #Ext4 /
/dev/sda6 17101 34997 143757621 83 Linux #Ext4 /home
/dev/sda7 34998 35389 3148708+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris

renkinjutsu
November 26th, 2009, 05:49 PM
i made a /boot partition when i installed karmic.. it doesn't really do much.. In fact, it actually decreased boot-time, since fsck checks 3 partitions for bad blocks.

Marlonsm
November 26th, 2009, 05:50 PM
I have the default one, only /.
But I think that the next time I do a clean install it will be / and /home, so when I upgrade I can keep my /home even with a clean install.

ZankerH
November 26th, 2009, 06:04 PM
/boot, /home, /tmp/, /usr on separate partitions for all server boxes. Separate and minimal (a few GB) /, /home and /boot partitions on workstations, with separate huge partitions for data storage.

gashcr
November 26th, 2009, 06:05 PM
I have the default one, only /.
But I think that the next time I do a clean install it will be / and /home, so when I upgrade I can keep my /home even with a clean install.

That's the reason I do / and /home. This way I can be worry free with clean installs :D

drs305
November 26th, 2009, 06:11 PM
/
/data

Before a clean install, I create a separate /home. Install, then remove it. Takes about 3 minutes.

MaxIBoy
November 26th, 2009, 06:18 PM
On this laptop, I have (in this order)
/
/home
/opt
The theory behind /opt is that I could dual-boot and share openoffice accross multiple OSs, saving space, but so far that hasn't been needed. If I had cause to redo my partition table, I would likely drop it.

On my desktop (currently packed away,) I have
/ (32 bit Ubuntu)
/home
/ (64 bit Ubuntu, planning to install Arch or Sidux here.)

gn2
November 26th, 2009, 06:18 PM
Apparently while installing Ubuntu it's possible to preserve an existing /home directory even if it's not on a separate partition these days.

Haven't tried it myself though because I prefer the tried and tested separate /home partition.

Psumi
November 26th, 2009, 06:55 PM
one file system for the whole thing. Do not want it any more complicated.

Pogeymanz
November 26th, 2009, 06:55 PM
I have /boot, /, /var, /home.

/var holds my custom compiled packages and package cache in case an upgraded package is somehow regretted. It could easily fill up if I don't pay attention and I would hate if that filled up my / partition.

Xbehave
November 26th, 2009, 06:57 PM
/boot - so i can change distros/dual boot/mess everything up
/home - see (1) and it's always good to keep data seperate (+noexec)
/

I also have a seperate
/opt - sharing custom installed programs e.g firefox betas
/tmp - mounted to ram (noexec)

I once went further and have /usr (mounted ro) and /var (mounted noexec) but I dunno if it was worth it.

Pogeymanz
November 26th, 2009, 06:57 PM
/opt
The theory behind /opt is that I could dual-boot and share openoffice accross multiple OSs, saving space, but so far that hasn't been needed. If I had cause to redo my partition table, I would likely drop it.

That's very interesting. So, you would mount this /opt partition for every Linux distro you have installed? Does that actually work or do you have to install Openoffice every time?

RATM_Owns
November 26th, 2009, 06:58 PM
/ for everything.

Xbehave
November 26th, 2009, 07:00 PM
I have /boot, /, /var, /home.

/var holds my custom compiled packages and package cache in case an upgraded package is somehow regretted. It could easily fill up if I don't pay attention and I would hate if that filled up my / partition.
Why not use /usr/local/ and /opt, like the rest of the world? That way /var only contains variable data

Xbehave
November 26th, 2009, 07:04 PM
That's very interesting. So, you would mount this /opt partition for every Linux distro you have installed? Does that actually work or do you have to install Openoffice every time?
I do that /opt is great for anything that is not maintained by your package manager. It works fine, I ran the same firefox 3.5 from opt in ubuntu, debian and fedora until fedora caught up. I also keep
asciiportal-linux64 and cisco-vpnclient (has kernel modules so not very portable) in there

ibuclaw
November 26th, 2009, 07:07 PM
Unencrypted installation: /, /home and swap
Encrypted installation: /boot, { /, /home and swap }

nrs
November 26th, 2009, 07:23 PM
/, /home.

/ is expendable to me. it doesn't matter, if I lose something during an upgrade, or by switching to another distribution, I can just install it again using the package manager. I can't do that with my personal files. So they live on their own partition free from the thought of / breakage.

Edit
/, /home, and /boot when using an lvm with /.

Pogeymanz
November 26th, 2009, 07:25 PM
Why not use /usr/local/ and /opt, like the rest of the world? That way /var only contains variable data

Well, I like to use JFS as my main filesystem, but reiserfs is supposed to be better with small data and compiling and such. So I compile my data in the same place where the variable data is, so I can use reiserfs on one big partition.

toupeiro
November 26th, 2009, 07:29 PM
I tend to always make a /tmp partition on all of my systems.

When most applications barf, they barf in the /tmp directory. If an application starts to do this without my knowledge, I would rather it fill up the /tmp partition than my / partition.

For that matter, I also make a /boot at minimum. Sometimes I will make others as is necessary.

baizon
November 26th, 2009, 07:32 PM
i do /home and / as well.

+1 :)

lovinglinux
November 26th, 2009, 07:44 PM
I have / and /home, although my home partition is very small and only holds configuration files. All my personal documents and folders are stored on two other partitions that I mount under home and create symlinks to them inside home.

I also would like to understand the benefit of /boot

Xbehave
November 26th, 2009, 07:48 PM
Well, I like to use JFS as my main filesystem, but reiserfs is supposed to be better with small data and compiling and such. So I compile my data in the same place where the variable data is, so I can use reiserfs on one big partition.
why not have /usr/local as reiserfs (perhaps uning a binding mount point for now to avoid repoartitioning) then, obviously it's your system but running programs out of /var just seams 'wrong'.

p.s is reiserfs really that good for compiling? i've found resier to use more CPU so i'd have thought it was worse for compiling.


When most applications barf, they barf in the /tmp directory. If an application starts to do this without my knowledge, I would rather it fill up the /tmp partition than my / partition.
Doesn't /tmp clear itself on reboot anyway? I used to do the same but now i mount /tmp to ram and added the space i had for /tmp to swap

blueshiftoverwatch
November 26th, 2009, 08:52 PM
/ = Ext4
/home = ReiserFS

Confuzius
November 26th, 2009, 09:48 PM
I had a separate /home partition once, but dual booting two distros with the same username screwed it all up somehow.

Is there a way to do that safely with multiple distros sharing the same username or should a shared /home have different user names like "confbuntu" and "confdora"

blithen
November 26th, 2009, 09:52 PM
That's the reason I do / and /home. This way I can be worry free with clean installs :D

Im a /home, / Guy too. And for this reason!

ssam
November 26th, 2009, 10:49 PM
everything on /. the ubuntu installer can do a clean install preserving /home. just use the manual partitioner and dont tick the format box.

actually i usually have a /data that is a big partition on another disk. eg my desktop has / (including home) on a WD raptor, and /data is a 1TB drive, my beagle board has / (including /home) on an SD card, and /data on a 400GB disk.

i use /data to hold big things like music, iso files, virual disk images. stuff that either does not need backing up, or only needs backing up occasionally. home folder needs daily snapshots (rsnapshot).

sharing /home across distros is likely to lead to trouble. eg if the distros have different versions of a program both messing with the same config file.

The Real Dave
November 26th, 2009, 10:57 PM
/ and /home. For Ubuntu anyways. All my disks are partition madness :) What are the benefits of having a seperate /boot?

Sam
November 26th, 2009, 11:39 PM
/boot
swap
/
/home

Exodist
November 26th, 2009, 11:43 PM
I have my system on my root file system / and my /home folder on a totally separate drive all together.

Tibuda
November 26th, 2009, 11:46 PM
I only have /, /home and swap, but I would like to know the benefits of a /boot partition and how much space do you have on /boot.

tad1073
November 26th, 2009, 11:49 PM
/boot, /, /usr, /home, /var

szymon_g
November 26th, 2009, 11:54 PM
"other, please specify"

/swap - not too big, 500mb is enough (used mostly for hibernating)
/boot on ext3 - sure, grub2 can boot from ext4, same as patched grub- but it is not always applicable. circa 100mb

/ - small, 3gb, ext4
/var - 3gb, ext4- it is better to have it seperated, just in case of some over-reacting applications (i.e. flooding to rsyslog). of course- you still have to have logrotate

/usr - 12gb, ext4- all default stuff goes there

/home/users/username - i always set up system to use it instead of default /home/username- its much easier to manage (for me).

/home/services/ - for services like apache, ftp etc
/home/games/ - for games that aren't installed from repo (like ETQW)
/home/shared/ - as name suggests, for shared data (shared between users)

those 4 directories can be located on one partition (ext4 for me), or seperated- that depends from importance of selected services (is it rather server or rather desktop? does it works in well networked environment? etc)

/tmp in ramdisk, as tmpfs
/var/run in ramdisk

Barrucadu
November 27th, 2009, 12:20 AM
Ext2:
/boot

JFS:
/
/var
/home

tmpfs:
/tmp
~/tmp/downloads
~/tmp/misc
~/tmp/uzbl
~/tmp/vlc

almufadado
November 27th, 2009, 12:48 AM
I install as "/" and "/home" and "swap".

Then a have a different drive, a "data" drive to where i move the default folders (doc's images, etc).

As I intend to test some features in of some other distros, I will be considering go "/boot" too.

I think this will help :
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/CreateBootPartitionAfterInstall

jimi_hendrix
November 27th, 2009, 01:08 AM
I have a / and a /home since i do reinstalls often (i like testing distros), i had a /, /home/ and /boot on fedora 10 though, since grub didnt support ext4 at the time and would not read your /boot if it was ext4

beercz
November 27th, 2009, 01:17 AM
/ and /home for me.

Thank you and goodnight!

Firestem4
November 27th, 2009, 01:19 AM
I actually have everything under /, and swap as a separate partition.

Yes
November 27th, 2009, 02:30 AM
/, /home and /boot are ext3. /var is reiserfs.

renkinjutsu
November 27th, 2009, 08:09 AM
I only have /, /home and swap, but I would like to know the benefits of a /boot partition and how much space do you have on /boot.

i use 100MB for my /boot partition, but i could do with a little less space too..

PurposeOfReason
November 27th, 2009, 08:50 AM
I have a few drives.


Disk /dev/sda: 500.1 GB, 500107862016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 60801 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x1d350ef6

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 1 60801 488384001 83 Linux

Disk /dev/sdb: 1000.2 GB, 1000204886016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 121601 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00027226

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1 1 121601 976760001 83 Linux

Disk /dev/sdc: 64.0 GB, 64023257088 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 7783 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x90909090

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdc1 * 1 13 102400 7 HPFS/NTFS
Partition 1 does not end on cylinder boundary.
/dev/sdc2 13 6375 51097600 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sdc3 6375 6381 48195 83 Linux
/dev/sdc4 6381 7783 11267728+ 83 Linux

Disk /dev/sdd: 750.2 GB, 750156374016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 91201 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x8f8000b1

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdd1 1 30 240943+ 83 Linux
/dev/sdd2 1276 1785 4096575 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sdd3 1786 91201 718234020 83 Linux
/dev/sdd4 31 1275 10000462+ 83 Linux

Partition table entries are not in disk order

I prefer seperate storage partitions instead of putting stuff in home.

thegreenblob
November 27th, 2009, 09:03 AM
I use /, /boot, and /home, simply cause it's default in Arch. I don't really know any advantage of having a /boot, but I don't know of a con either.

However having a seperate /home partition is really useful if you want to keep all your files and settings while reinstalling or upgrading, or installing a new distro.

Ylon
November 27th, 2009, 09:56 AM
/ and swap.