From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Fri Feb 24 03:48:27 2006 Return-Path: X-Original-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 070FE16A420 for ; Fri, 24 Feb 2006 03:48:27 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from jerrymc@clunix.cl.msu.edu) Received: from clunix.cl.msu.edu (clunix.cl.msu.edu [35.9.2.10]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id AC3F243D49 for ; Fri, 24 Feb 2006 03:48:26 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from jerrymc@clunix.cl.msu.edu) Received: from clunix.cl.msu.edu (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by clunix.cl.msu.edu (8.12.10+Sun/8.12.2) with ESMTP id k1O3mQiU008526; Thu, 23 Feb 2006 22:48:26 -0500 (EST) Received: (from jerrymc@localhost) by clunix.cl.msu.edu (8.12.10+Sun/8.12.2/Submit) id k1O3mP3W008525; Thu, 23 Feb 2006 22:48:25 -0500 (EST) From: Jerry McAllister Message-Id: <200602240348.k1O3mP3W008525@clunix.cl.msu.edu> To: gs_stoller@juno.com Date: Thu, 23 Feb 2006 22:48:25 -0500 (EST) In-Reply-To: <20060222.164330.8420.330983@webmail39.nyc.untd.com> X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.5 PL7] MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: New Computer System X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Fri, 24 Feb 2006 03:48:27 -0000 > > I bought a new system (it was on sale), it has 180 Gigabytes > of hard drive. Naturally I want to slice it up, so where can I find > the documentation on the slice/partition process and table. As I > recall, I can make 4 hard slices/partitions and then I can further > break-down 1 (or more of them) to have logical slices/partitions. > Where can I find documentation on the logical slices/partitions and > how to use them? Can I boot into a ( FreeBSD ) logical slice, and > if so, how do I do it? (For the 4 hard slices, one uses function > keys F1 thru F4 .) Has someone already setup the capability of > booting into logical slices, and if so, where can I get it and its > documentation? It is all documented in the FreeBSD Handbook that is available online at the freebsd.org web site. Forget the concept of logical slices in FreeBSD. Everything is logical actually, but not in the sense people are used to seeing in Microsloth. Yes, you can make up to 4 primary slices on a disk drive. That is also true in MS world and others. After that it gets a little different. First of all, if you intend to only run FreeBSD on that machine or even just that disk, then there is no reason to use more than one primary slice that you make the size of the whole disk (minus the scrap that gets wasted in rounding to even cylinders for building slices and partitions) Each slice can then be subdivided in up to 8 partitions a-h, but for practical purposes partition c is reserved. Many people also still skip partition d for obscure historical purposes that no longer are meaningful. Also, the b partition is usually used to designate space used for swap. The only reason you need to divide the boot slice in to partitions is for ease of management. You will probably want a fairly small root partition and a sizeable chunk dedicated to swap. There are two main reasons for using more divisions, but it depends on your usage and needs. One reason is to make backups and restores manageable. The bigger the partition, the longer it takes to back up and to recover if there is a problem. The other reason is to help contain runaway disk usage and sometimes to isolate one clump of users or applications from another clump of users or applications. For those reasons, I generally make the following partitions. partition Mount size comments a = / (root) 128MB b = swap 1.5 GB or more - 2.5 X the system memory. c = reserved whole slice for internal use e = /tmp 512 MB Occasionally something can fill /tmp and I don't want it overfilling some other partition. f = /usr 2.5 GB ports and a lot of stuff live there g = /var 1.5 GB more if I want a database living there also log files live there and can grow h = /home All of the remainder of the whole slice/disk Pick any name. /home is easy to remember I also move some directories such as /usr/local and /var/spool and /var/log and even /var/db/... in to the /home partition and make sym links if they start growing.. If you have a second hard disk then you might want to make one large slice and two partitions on it. One for additional swap and the rest in to extra space to use however you see fit. I typically mount mine as /work. ////jerry