HDD re-install w/ multipartition questions

[firebyrd10]

Wow, this is one complicated topic.
Seeing as I can't tell if it was fixed or not,

Make knoppix install to your root partition, then delete the /home on the root partition and change the fstab to point to the partition with your home on it. I think you can do the same with /boot

[shah]

If I'm not mistaken, I've seen multiple partition installation option in Mepis.
We don't need complicated multipartion installer.........just the standard one that used by other Distro: /boot; /swap; /root; /home; /var
Put this option in Advanced user so that newbie won't confused.

[CrashedAgain]

From what I learned, the reasoning for seperate partitions, is two fold; one, it makes for re-installing only one partition during a OS re-install, thus retaining other partitions, intact. Two, if one partition grows to excess, it doesn't take out anoither one, e.g. /home grows to exceed its "boundaries", it won't eat away from the / (root) partition... The big issue here is, the /boot partition was created because Knoppix uses LILO ( by default ), and can put its files on that "small" partition, saved for it, as the FIRST 50 MB of the physical disk, the problem is, as Eco2Geek says, yes, the re-install is going to be Kanotix, and Kanotix uses GRUB by default, hence, not even Knoppix really has any files on the boot partition, of the drive, it has its LILO files still saved in /boot, which is on the / (root) partition.

What I might want to do; go into cfdisk, disolve the 50 MB as /hda1, and put it into the /hda5, then take a few extra gigabyte from the /hda6, and place it also into /hda1 -=- what would be a good size for root in Kanotix BH9a ????? Now, I'm going to have to learn GRUB, and after I got so used to LILO... Oh well...

EDIT:
Oops, typo, What I meant to say was: take the 50 MB from /hda1 and put it into /hda5, and then take a few of the GB from /hda6 and put it into /hda5 -=- not /hda1, that would be gone. Sorry for the confussion, me bad.
END EDIT

I'm still confused what sizes that would give in the end. IMHO 5 G is lots for a Linux O/S provided you don't put data on the same partition .
Data should/must go on a a separate partition so it is safe from O/S upsets. You can call it /home and set it up so that your system recognizes it as /home or just call it data & connect to it fro your /home/user via sysmlinks....ie my folder 'pictures' in /home/user is actually a symlink to the folder 'MyPersonalPics' (you don't have to use the same name) on hda6 (Data). This is actually a very flexible setup and I am not limited in any way by drive size. If hda6 is getting to full I can stick some data on hda1 & create another symlink, /home/user will now have a 'pictures2' link which is actually on hda1.

Whether or not it is /home or data, it is not going to get formatted if you reinstall. The installer knows nothing of links and/or /home connections in the existing O/S, it just formats the one and only partition it is told to be the target for the install, in this case hda5.

[Cuddles]

I think you got it CrashedAgain,

My /hda6, which is affectionately called /home, has my "user" accounts under it, but, also, what I set up, a /gblusr, for GLoBalUSeR. This folder has permissions for root and group fully, and other is set to none. The owner isnt important, but the group is set to "users", which has all the user names set in the group file. I set this folder up as a "common" repository, as you called it, for "data". Nice thing is, is that this /home/gblusr folder, if the partition that /home is using, gets to used up, then another device can be added, possibly another hard drive, and have it use a mount point of /home/gblusr -=- thus increasing the space that "everyone" can use, if the need arrises.

Currently, with Knoppix 3.4, this is what I got, and what is used, and available:

root@Morpheus:~# df -h
Filesystem            Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/hda5             4.6G  3.0G  1.4G  68% / -=- (root)
/dev/hda6              33G   17G   15G  54% /home -=- (home)
/dev/hda1              38G   17G   20G  46% /mnt/hda1 -=- (boot)
/dev/hdc1             2.7G  2.5G  231M  92% /mnt/hdc1 -=- (Win98 Install for Wine)
/dev/hdc2              71G   22G   46G  32% /mnt/hdc2 -=- (Backup ext3 storage)
root@Morpheus:~#

I dont know why /hda1 is reporting the complete /hda device statistics, it should only be reporting 50 MB. The /hdc1 ( Win98 partition ) is quite large because I installed a game, 1.9 GB arcade game, on it, and havent removed it, yet. The Win98 partition usually only has around 1 GB used, and around 1.5 GB free space, nothing is loaded into Windows, its just a plain vanilla install.

My /hdc2 backup partition is where I place my backup images, off-loaded source, and my backups of my Knoppix system, when I am going to do a re-install - just in case. I will take "snap-shots" of the /etc, /sbin, /bin, etc... of the system before this, place them there, and when a re-install completes, locate, and replace back, any scripts that I created, to be used in the new install, like my "adjusttime" script, my "sysstat", ... KMail setups, XFree86, fstab, and sources.list.

As you said CrashedAgain, 5 GB should be enough, but, I dont think when I install something it isnt going into the / (root) partition, only "user" configurations are being saved into the "users" folders. Usually my root partition gets to around 58%, its higher right now because I did a apt-get update, and havent done a "clean" yet. Amazing what those downloaded repositories can add up to.

I guess I will go with Kanotix installing under what I already have set up, and if the need arrises, I can use qtparted to change partitions "live", cant I ???

Having this installed for the amount of time I have had it, and watching for any space usage fluctuations, they havent shot up drastically, and no partition has "bottomed out", yet.I might have a good break-down of partitions, for what I use the system for. I havent done any major sound editing yet, which would create large amounts of storage, but, then again, those files would be either created in the /gblusr folder, having the "lions share" of the disk space, or use my /hdc2 partition, which has a mojority of a 81 GB disk.

I think I have a good idea what I am going to do during this next install, and having already broken out my /home, it will make it a lot easier. I need to "learn up" on GRUB though, being from the Knoppix arena, LILO has been what I have used, all this time. But, from what little I have read about GRUB, it is easier to use than LILO. LILO, when changed, must be "refreshed" into the MBR or partition, and GRUB, once installed, does not require this, when making boot changes, from what I recall. GRUB places its "boot" into where it needs, and when it is called upon to do its magic, it looks for its files, itself. Am I right ???

I am waiting for the Kanotix CD to arrive, and am waiting to "acquire" a NIC, for this computer, before the install can begin... I think "I" am ready though

[baldyeti]

Hi Cuddles,

I think you managed to send waves of excited anticipation through the whole forum !-) Kanotix is one fine distro - I am running mepis myself since over a year, upgraded with Kano's kernel and the occasional upgrade (KDE mostly) from the regular debian pools. Dist-upgrade from unstable is asking for trouble in my opinion.

Anyway I thought I'd suggest the following: why not shrink your big /home, say by 5 Gb, install kanotix to the resulting hda7, and dual-boot with your existing knoppix? This way you can gradually copy/adjust your new distro's settings by merely checking how you did things under knoppix. Just a thought, naturally. Have a lot of fun with the install!

[CrashedAgain]

I need to "learn up" on GRUB though......

Kanotix does have lilo if you prefer to stick with what you are used to. It's not available as an option through Kanotix's knoppix-installer but you can edit /root/.knofig to specify lilo instead of grub. Also, it seems to want to use reiserfs no matter what you specify using the installer but again you can correct this by editing .knofig if you prefer something else.