Webs’ Random Ideas

I always do the same thing before installing an OS, no matter which OS it is. I grab my handy Ubuntu 7.10 disk, boot up, and partition the drive. I don’t really install it as my favorite OS is Xubuntu, but the partition editor is really easy to use.

It’s important to note this can be done without touching a pre-existing OS install. Follow the directions below and you can be all set for a dual boot. Here is what I do when I need to partition drives:

Boot up a copy of Ubuntu 7.10. After POST the boot loader appears, click on “Start of Install Ubuntu”. Once the desktop appears click “Install.

When the installer loads up, click “Forward”. Choose your time zone from the drop down box or the map, I recommend using Chicago, and then click “Forward”. Click forward again unless you want to change your language. The installer will then scan your disks. Click “Manual” and then “Forward” to edit the partition table. The partitioner should now load up.

If you already have another OS installed you should see it. This partition editor will show all existing partitions. From here you can remove, add, or edit partitions.

Now you will need to plan out your partitions. This is very important as you do not want to have to go back in later and make changes. Here is my recommendation for partition sizes:

If hard drive size is under 100GB, then split your drive so that half is for one OS and the other half is for the new one. This holds true even if your current OS is Windows. If you have more than 100GB you may want to think about which OS is going to be your primary OS. If you are not sure, just go half and half.

If you don’t already have unallocated space, you can use this to create your partitions for Linux. If it’s not enough for your Linux partitions or you do not have any, click on the current partition to highlight it. Then click on “Edit partition” below. From here you should be able to change the size of the partition. Make sure you give yourself at least a 10gb window for any currently installed OS and resize the partition, keeping in mind this partition editor works in MBs. It may take a LONG time to run, so give it as much time as it needs.

Now we have our hard drive space, I recommend creating a partition for root “/”, home “/home”, and swap. By separating root and home you can make it easy to play around in Linux without losing everything. If you install something or run a command that tanks your install, all of the user settings are stored on a separate partition so nothing is lost. Home includes the desktop, program files for the user, terminal command history, and other items.

So, let’s set up those partitions…

Next you are going to click on the unallocated space and click “New partition”. Set the size you want and the filesystem (for sake of ease I recommend ext3). Click OK and then click edit and go back in and set the mount point to what you want, if you want root set to “/”. You should still have unallocated space left, so do the same thing. For swap, you select swap for filesystem.

The beauty of separating root and home is that if you screw up your install from playing around in Linux, all you have to do is go back into the install, choose “Manual” for editing the partition table, and then click the box to reformat root. As long as you don’t reformat “/home” your Desktop, user settings, and files stored in “/home” will still be there after the re-install. Even your command history for your shell will still be there.

Now that you have the partitions set up, it’s time to install and play! Have fun and feel free to let me know how your experience goes…