Thinking About Installing Ubuntu 9.04

/ denotes the root partition, not the boot partition. It's true that Ubuntu doesn't make a /boot partition by default (thus making / effectively the boot partition), but I usually make a /boot partition manually.

To the OP. The largest partition should be /home. You do not want a 5GB /home partition! This is where all your personal files and music and videos, etc.. will go.

If you have a 250 GB drive try this:

/boot = 100 MB ext3
/ = 20 GB ext4
swap = double size of RAM (it is important to have a good amount of swap for laptops because you will need it in hibernation mode).
/home = the rest of the disk, ext4

You can also add your own partitions if you want, such as /music or /files or /videos. However, I find it easier to just create a folder on the /home partition for these purposes.

 

Why not create a separate partition for data and store all data in that alone. This way during fresh install, you can delete existing OS and install fresh over it.

I didn't wish to confuse the OP and therefore as in Ubuntu's case, / denotes root and boot.

 

.There you go

 

Hi guys, thanks a ton for the feedback . I think I pretty much have this partition thing nailed down ! I have another question, though: is there any disadvantage to creating a larger root (/) partition?

The reason I ask is because I have a few computer games (I've checked the Wine application database; they all run with a platinum or gold rating, so I don't think I should have any problems running them on Ubuntu), which could take up several GBs. So could I create maybe a 40 GB root partition?

Many thanks for the link. I find the information much easier to understand when it's put in comparison to Windows . So I think you are right, then; the /home partition is just for data. Since root would be parallel to C:\ under Windows, then the root folder would also contain the "Program Files", where all the software would go.

Right, I'm going to make /home a large partition. But about how big are the software packages under Ubuntu? Like VLC media player might be ~20 MB under Windows (as an example) but could it be ~5 MB under Ubuntu? This should give me a better idea of how big to create my root partition.

Also, why would I want to make the /boot partition ext3? Won't I get better boot-up speeds under ext4?

 

All games using Wine will be on your /home partition, not root.

 

Oh, that's a bit confusing. So Ubuntu software will go onto the root partition, whereas Wine and its software will go onto the /home partition, correct?

 

Yes, that's a very important recommendation! Having a separate /home partition is also very useful if you're installing/upgrading to a new Ubuntu version - you can mount your existing /home partition and everything works like before. I didn't upgrade Intrepid to Jaunty but rather installed Jaunty anew by formatting my root partition with ext4 and mounting my existing /home partition (with ext3). No problems at all!

 

Not quite wine itself is also installed in your root partition - only Windows apps will be installed in /home.

 

Well, for the root partition a size of, say, 10 GiB should be sufficient. On my Jaunty system only 3.88 GiB are used.

I don't have a separate boot partition and I don't think it's necessary. But if you create one you should use ext4 also for that one. I see no reason why one should format the other partitions with ext4 but the boot partition with ext3.

 

The games, and any data for them, will be installed in the /home/user/.wine folder. So he needs the space on his /home partition. The space that Wine requires on the root partition is relatively insignificant and fixed. It doesn't grow as you add more games or Window applications.

 

Er, yes - did I write anything different?
EDIT: Okay, I see - you were more specific.

 

To realize full potential of ext4, its good idea to start fresh as then everything is written in ext4 mode, if you convert from ext3, all the old data would remain in ext3 mode even after conversion.

 

Yes, but I'm not quite sure if ext4 mode only applies to newly created files or also to altered files.

 

From what I understand from their wiki, only to newly created files.

 

Yes, one could interpret it that way. So we have 2 alternatives: Copying all files to, say, an external HD and back, or waiting for the promised online defragger that will apply ext4 to all data.

 

Yep I too am waiting for that defragger, don't know if it will make it to the Ubuntu repos.

 

I'm looking forward to it. Mind you there's not much on my box as everything I need is keeps it's holding my external HD bay...

I'll just re-install ubuntu on the weekend and make all of it ext4.

Simpler for now.

 

So Far So Good!

A quick heads up; I've been a tad bit busy lately, but I got around to installing Ubuntu last night. I managed to set up the partitions just fine (ext4 plus the swap file), so now I just have to play around with it for a while . But so far, boot-up has been smooth, and no graphics or wi-fi issues as far as I can tell.

I'll post back if I have any questions (or forum search, if need be).

Once again, a big thanks to everyone for their advice .