Is there a good partition setup for my new Dell?

[gwt]

Just got a Dell Vostro 1500 Core 2 Duo with a 120GB HD and 2GB of RAM and I would like to dual boot XP Home with Vector Linux SOHO.

Does anybody have a good partitioning scheme for a drive this size?  Somebody mentioned that with this much RAM, I wouldn't need a swap partition. 

I also have the option to use Norton's Partition Magic to partition the drive size before instillation.  Would that work as well?

Any suggestions would be most appreciated.

[nightflier]

Opinions abound on this subject.

I run VL 5.8 SOHO with 1 GB of RAM and no swap. I have been unable to tell any difference from when I had a swap partiton. Memory usage is typically around 200 MB (according to htop) with Firefox, Thunderbird, Pidgin and Kmail running. Highest I have seen is 700 under heavy use.

All you need is one partition for VL. The OS itself typically takes 4+ GB. Then you will need space for your personal files and temp space. Burning DVD's?.. I'd say 20 GB would be a reasonable number.

Using Norton to re-size a partition and make a new one will work.

[MikeCindi]

Opinions abound on this subject.
...
All you need is one partition for VL.
...
Using Norton to re-size a partition and make a new one will work.

Here's another opinion: http://www.vectorlinux.com/forum2/index.php?topic=4232.msg27697#msg27697

Your new machine sounds like fun.
Mike

[lagagnon]

Does anybody have a good partitioning scheme for a drive this size?

First of all decide how much of the 120GB you want to dedicate to Windows versus Linux. You then use Gparted from a Live Linux CD to free up the amount you want for Linux (say 60GB). Norton might do thqat job for you - but I am unfamiliar with Partition Magic.

Somebody mentioned that with this much RAM, I wouldn't need a swap partition. 

That is probably true. You would have to be using quite a number of very resource intensive apps under VL to use 2GB.

I also have the option to use Norton's Partition Magic to partition the drive size before instillation.  Would that work as well?

Probably, but the VL install CD includes cfdisk which will do the job for you.

As said above you can get away with just one partition but I always prefer a distinct "/home" partition as it makes it easier to backup and easier to install a new version of VL while keeping all your data and settings. So if you decide on say 60GB for Linux I would do something like this:

7GB for "/" (the root partition)
53GB for "/home"
no swap (but normally swap is 2x your RAM up to a max of about 512MB. As said above I don't think you need this.). HTH

[gwt]

That is probably true. You would have to be using quite a number of very resource intensive apps under VL to use 2GB.

Such as?    Wine, for example?

As said above you can get away with just one partition but I always prefer a distinct "/home" partition as it makes it easier to backup and easier to install a new version of VL while keeping all your data and settings. So if you decide on say 60GB for Linux I would do something like this:

7GB for "/" (the root partition)
53GB for "/home"
no swap (but normally swap is 2x your RAM up to a max of about 512MB. As said above I don't think you need this.). HTH

So should the "/" and the "/home" partitions be created as primary partitions or extended partitions?     

I appreiciate the help, thanks...

[lagagnon]

Such as?    Wine, for example?

Wine is just an emulator - no way it, plus any reasonable Windows app, plus even a few Linux apps would approach 2GB.

So should the "/" and the "/home" partitions be created as primary partitions or extended partitions?     

I would do "/" as primary, "/home" can be logical on an extended partition. To be hoenst, I'm not sure how much difference it would make...

[nightflier]

Such as?    Wine, for example?

Maybe the Gimp doing a huge graphic with several layers, or other design programs manipulating big objects.

[MikeCindi]

There are situations when using VMware or Virtual Box where 2Gb can be used up quickly. Also if you are editing video you may have problems.

As lagagnon indicated it shouldn't matter if your partitions are primary or not.

HTH,
Mike

[The Headacher]

That is probably true. You would have to be using quite a number of very resource intensive apps under VL to use 2GB.

Such as?    Wine, for example?

Wine itself isn't very resource hungry, but I suppose you could find a winDOS program that's very resource hungry and runs on wine if you really want to . I worked at a bureau of engineering ( can't find a better translation, not sure this is correct) for some time. if we did some serious finite elements analysis (FEA) calculations the program would use all the available RAM and then start swapping to the harddrive. If you build a detailed enough model you can sure use all that RAM. Other candidates mihgt be games, though the video card is probably the limiting factor there.

Wine is just an emulator

No it's not, it's a software compatibility layer. The name wine is a recursive acronym for "Wine Is Not an Emulator".

[lagagnon]

Headacher and NightFlier: yes, no doubt intensive large apps along with other stuff loaded in the background, could reach 2GB of RAM use. I guess gwt will have to decide that if that is the sort of thing he intends to do then he probably should add a swap partition, say 500MB-1GB in size would do it. Maybe I'm just a casual user then because I have 1GB of RAM and have NEVER seen swap being used, no matter what sort of stuff I'm doing....

and yes, you're right, Wine is not really an emulator...

[The Headacher]

Well, I've never used more than 700 MB or something like that (including buffers/cache) on VL either lagagnon. I got carried away a little .

[gwt]

Headacher and NightFlier: yes, no doubt intensive large apps along with other stuff loaded in the background, could reach 2GB of RAM use. I guess gwt will have to decide that if that is the sort of thing he intends to do then he probably should add a swap partition, say 500MB-1GB in size would do it. Maybe I'm just a casual user then because I have 1GB of RAM and have NEVER seen swap being used, no matter what sort of stuff I'm doing....

I suppose I could still add a 1GB swap partition just in case.  After all, what's 1GB on a 120GB HD, right?

I'll probably divide it in half, with half the HD devoted to XP and the other half to Linux like lagagnon suggested. 

Once I decide on the partitioning scheme I'll go with, then the next topic I'll have to deal with is the video and sound drivers.  I have a distinct feeling they aren't going to work right out of the box.

_

[alec]

I have 10 GB for windows+apps
10 for /
10 for /home
2 for swap
rest for "Media", ntfs for all music, movies, games, windows tempfiles, read/write from both OS.

[nightflier]

Well, I've never used more than 700 MB or something like that (including buffers/cache) on VL either lagagnon. I got carried away a little .

I had to work at it. Here is what it took: http://cincibjj.com/temp/loaded.png

After all, what's 1GB on a 120GB HD, right?

Still a sizable chunk that probably won't get used. 512 is plenty.

I would try without first. You can always shrink a partition and make some room later if you end up needing it. I understand it is also possible to use a swap file like Windows does. Or experiment a little: Make a swap partition, then turn it on or off by (un)commenting the corresponding line in fstab and rebooting. Linux is at your command, not the other way around.

[gwt]

I have 10 GB for windows+apps
10 for /
10 for /home
2 for swap
rest for "Media", ntfs for all music, movies, games, windows tempfiles, read/write from both OS.

How big's the rest for "Media"?

And how do access it through both OS?

That would be ideal if I could do that instead of having, what in essence, is two different file (or home) directories for XP and Linux.