Mandrake install and partitions

[Blayze]

I am going to install Mandrake 8.1 tonight on my WinXP system. I have Partition Magic setup.

My question is can Mandrake install to a Slave disk? What partitions should I create?

 

[n0cmonkey]

It can install where ever you have free space. Make a swap,a /, and maybe /boot. I like having seperate /tmp and /var, but those are really optional.

 

[Blayze]

thanks

I was just wondering cause my 30 gig drive (primary) is about full, and my 20 gig drive (slave) is 75% free...

 

[Blayze]

Partition magics little wizard only created a swap and a /

do I really need a boot?

 

[Zlash]

If your not sure and you have a seperate drive your installing it on, i'd let linux make the partitions for you on it. I believe if it's like redhat it needs at least 3 partitions but i've never installed mandrake.

 

[Dreadogg]

yes those two are fine, I just installed mandrake the same way and it boots just fine! It also has this handy boot manager that lets your computer dual boot without an extra app! you'll see this is a real cake setup good luck and hope everything probs alright for you! Oh yea if you have a scroll mouse make sure you configure it while its probing for it at setup !

 

[GeSuN]

How much space do the /boot partition needs? Isnt it the partition where the kernell goes?? How big can a kernel be?

What about the other partitions? How big do they have to be?

 

[n0cmonkey]

<< How much space do the /boot partition needs? Isnt it the partition where the kernell goes?? How big can a kernel be? >>



20MB + I usually go with 100MB or so just to be safe.



<< What about the other partitions? How big do they have to be? >>



It depends on what you want to do with the system. A fine way to do things is to just make a swap, /boot, and / partition.

 

[GeSuN]

Tkx

but about the / partition, is this the partition where your put all your stuff or is it better to have a /(dont know the name) ??

 

[JohnDoh2]

I have installed Mandrake 8.1 at least 10 times and screwed it up at least 11! I have had it install with either 2 or 3 partitions as follows:

Two: Swap and Home
Good: I was able to install all the programs and crap i wanted up to the partitions max size
Bad: When i screw up the system all my downloaded tar.gz's and work are lost with the re-install

Three: Boot, Swap and Home
Good: When i screw up the system i can re-install the system without touching the Home partition so all my personal files (porn?) are not lost.
Bad: Mandrake seems to want to install programs to the boot partition and thus it was full and the system unusable quickly!!
Note: If you use this setup learn to install programs to the Home partition or make the Boot partition huge.

If you any of you Linux Goonru's know how to specify alternate install paths when installing apps i would love to hear it!!!!

Doh!!

 

[Barnaby W. Füi]

you can be as simple as to just have a /, and have it swap to a file on your FS, however it is recommended to have a / and a swap partition.

on this machine i have a /, /home, and swap. on my p233 i just have / and swap, as i dont have anything important on my /home, and just for reasons of simplicity.

 

[BlackOmen]

/ and swap are adequate, however having a /home partition will keep your own files safe between any oopsies that might occur.

 

[n0cmonkey]

<< Tkx

but about the / partition, is this the partition where your put all your stuff or is it better to have a /(dont know the name) ?? >>



Programs should be installed in /usr/local (programs you install, not system default ones). If you only have a / this should be fine. If you make a small /, make sure you have a /usr or atleast /usr/local for installing programs.

JohnDoh2, this also applies to you. If you want to specify an alternate install point (/home/JohnDoh2/bin) you can do that in the ./config with a "--prefix=/home/JohnDoh2/" usually. ./config --help for more help on that.