Practical Problem

@prasad-aSUfhP • Oct 26, 2024

Oct 26, 2024

1.3K

Hey Guys (and gals),

I have a real life problem for all of you techies. Its not a problem per se, but wanted all of your opinions on how I should do things best, so here goes.

I recently purchased a new lappie ... a Turion, 1GB, nForce, yada-yada,blah-blah, thingy. Now it came with recovery disks *shakes a fist at the vendor (name withheld for whatever reasons)*, so everytime I reinstall the HP software *oops*, reformats my hdd (160GB), and installs Vista on it automatically. Whether I want it or not. Obviously I dont want it. So I go with this tirage and download the latest Ubuntu, *whew, sigh of relief*.

Now, what would be the best partition configuration for this setup -
1. Ubuntu (Default OS)
2. Vista / XP (for using Microsoft Office, would you believe it 😀 )
My maximum usage on this machine would be MS Office + Putty + music + games (loads of them) + movies + any free text editor. I stress on MS Office because sadly OpenOffice or Abiword have yet to deliver on the same quality of docs as MS Office has doing.

Hence, the problem is, how should I divide my hdd into partitions so as to access my songs and movies and games from both the OSes. I was thinking something like -

10 GB for Windows (NTFS)
10 GB for Ubuntu (ext3) mounted as /
1 GB as swap space
100 mb mounted as boot
40 GB for songs (fat32)
40 GB for games (fat32)
40 GB for movies (fat32)
rest for misc (fat32)

Can you suggest a better way to reformat?

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Rocker

@rocker-ZpZLKM • Aug 29, 2007

kidakaka
10 GB for Windows (NTFS)
10 GB for Ubuntu (ext3) mounted as /
1 GB as swap space
100 mb mounted as boot
40 GB for songs (fat32)
40 GB for games (fat32)
40 GB for movies (fat32)
rest for misc (fat32)

Can you suggest a better way to reformat?
How about Star Office? 😒 You won't have to use M$ then!

Vista installation will take around 10 GB ( ~ 8 GB ) Better way would be to allot 20 GB to Windows & 30 GB to Movies.

Swap should get 2 GB, in my opinion 😉
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Prasad Ajinkya

@prasad-aSUfhP • Aug 29, 2007

Rocker
How about Star Office? 😒 You won't have to use M$ then!

Vista installation will take around 10 GB ( ~ 8 GB ) Better way would be to allot 20 GB to Windows & 30 GB to Movies.

Swap should get 2 GB, in my opinion 😉
Hey Rocker, thanks!

So a general rule of the thumb for swap is twice the RAM?
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Ashraf HZ

@Ash • Aug 29, 2007

Nice setup 😀 Hm, I didn't know you can use one swap partition for both Ubuntu and Windows, thats cool.
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Prasad Ajinkya

@prasad-aSUfhP • Aug 29, 2007

Heh, yeah! Again a question, here, ash .. I dont think we can use one swap partition for ubuntu and windows .. the swap was meant for ubuntu only
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xheavenlyx

@xheavenlyx-CbvN62 • Sep 1, 2007

My God, This world is sure a small place!!

I bought a HP laptop just 4 months ago. After 3 weeks of hell now I have:

WinXP, VISTA, Ubuntu7.04

Never use the recovery disk (It SUX bad), download Gpart or some linux partition software for better results, and DONT remove the partition with recovery HP. And bytheway you cannot access ext3 or any linux type with Windows, but you CAN access windows from linux for your files.

So you can have a common NTFS part for your music and movies and other pirated $hit which can be accessed thru M$ and Linux both. I went thru about 20 diff sites for this help and believe me it will be invaluable to read up on this!!

I dont use swap, if you got 1~2GB RAM then there is no need for swap. If you are planning on doing video editing or 3D stuff on linux then you can have a swap partition.
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xheavenlyx

@xheavenlyx-CbvN62 • Sep 1, 2007

Oh and my allotment is as follows:

70GB Vista (By mistake)
20GB XP
20GB Linux
5GB Recovery part.

Presently using Grub loader but preffer EasyBDC
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Prasad Ajinkya

@prasad-aSUfhP • Sep 2, 2007

Awesome x_heavenly_x!! Small world after all 😀
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mahul

@mahul-ZxpiLA • Nov 15, 2007

hey kaka i think u should allot more 4 vista definitely else u might run out of virtual memory if u run graphics applications...n i more question why use ubuntu when there r better distros available? n ash as far as my knowledge goes there is nothing of swap 4 windows.....windows uses its c drive 4 virtual memory n u can actually increase/decrease it..cntct me if u wanna know more
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xheavenlyx

@xheavenlyx-CbvN62 • Nov 17, 2007

You dont need to Q why we use Ubuntu, its a personal choice since linuX is completely customizable. I use DSL(damn small linux) on my Extensa 500 ACER laptop (Prehistorically '98).

And yea its known Windooz does not use swap.

anyway, wanted to add, anyone tihnking of buying HP. DONT, you will regret it bad, take it from a first hand sufferer of HP. My wireless died away ...i mean not died, but win/linux cannot detect the hardware anymore.

I am still looking for a sol actively, If I get a temp fix, im gonna sell this $hit off.
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Ashraf HZ

@Ash • Apr 15, 2008
*bump*
Its now my turn to join the party 😛 I upgraded my laptop HDD from 20 GB to 120 GB. I had previously partitioned my 20 GB as:
5GB: Windows
0.7GB: Swap (i need it.. the 384 MB ram isnt enough. I just pointed a page file to be at that particular partition instead of C drive)
5 GB: Data
5 GB: Programs
0.3 GB: temp
4 GB: Misc

I know, kinda silly to partition it even though the space was not much 😉 But it was fun to test around. With the 120 upgrade, it'll be similar to kidakaka's setup:
```
 
[U]GB [/U][U]Content[/U]
10  Contains the Windows XP system files, MS Office, laptop drivers 
     and security programs
0.8 Swap partition for Windows
12  Reserved for the Linux OS
0.8 Swap partition for Linux
30  Partition for installed software
55  Partition for data files 
10  Partition for miscellaneous uses
1   Temporary partition for TEMP and IE
```
I'll figure out which will be the primary, extended and logical partitions later. I've done a clean reinstall using the image disks provided. Gonna install SP2 and then SP3 when it finally comes out (hopefully soon). After installing all the updates and drivers, i'm going to create an image using the free DriveImage XML. Next time when I want to reformat the OS, i'll just reinstall that image over C drive 😀
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Prasad Ajinkya

@prasad-aSUfhP • Apr 16, 2008

Awesome touch with the TEMP and IE. Never thought of that!! Very nice ash! even from a security aspect, pretty cool!
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Ashraf HZ

@Ash • Apr 16, 2008

Thanks 😉 Though, I'm still a bit clueless on the linux aspect. I forgot to allocate space for the boot partition for linux. Does it have to be placed in a primary partition, or can I mount it on a logical partition instead? I'm just playing around with GParted at the moment. Appreciate your help, bro 😀

I just downloaded SP3 RC2 Refresh. Contemplating whether to install it now or wait till end of this month *sigh*
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xheavenlyx

@xheavenlyx-CbvN62 • Apr 16, 2008

Nice one!!

Oh, you should know this. I think by Windows swap you mean a pagefile partition for temporary usage of HD as a RAM. But this actually possibly can slow your windows down.

The page file is used as RAM for big tasks. This means your hard drive has to access the partition and the normal disk space for windows use AND another drive for your programs for example photoshop on drive G: Extra work. So using the main windows drive as a pagefile partition is fine.

I am really not sure, search around for more on partition stuff for a lightning fast PC! 😀

The linux partition needs a primary partition, not an extended/logical. The 12GB u have created should be primary (If its not, then redo). In short
Create two main primary partitions and the rest unallocated can be turned into logical free space for all other needs.

As for linux distribution use this quiz:

#-Link-Snipped-#

It depends on your likes and uses and needs, which distro to use.

On a personal note, my favorites till now (or what all I have exposed myself to) are:

DSL (Only 50MB with a full desktop GUI!!)
Puppy (about 300MB? full desktop)
Ubuntu (my first one and i liked it)
Edubuntu (Educational Ubuntu)
Xubuntu (For older PC's)
(I was gonna give links to the sites but u can do it urself, too much work lol)

And Kidakaka can help further. He knows about linux. 😀

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Ashraf HZ

@Ash • Apr 16, 2008

Wow, thanks bro! I've used Ubuntu once, it looked cool 😀

The reason I have a separate partition for the page file is because it can get fragmented easily when the computer is in use. Keeping it seperate from C: allows me to defrag C pretty quick and efficiently.. and the page file cant really fragment in its own partition, since there isnt any other files there. Also, it's partition is right next to C, so it shouldnt be too slow. Hope thats not too confusing 😛

Ideally the page file should be on the first partition of a 2nd hard disk for best performance, but you can't fit an extra one in a laptop anyway, lol. If you have lots of RAM, theres no need for a page file. Unfortunately mine isnt enough so I've still got to use one.

Linux uses at least 2 or 3 partitions right? for its root, boot and swap.. yea? I cant remember how I configured Ubuntu last time. It involved mostly trial and error 😛

Also, hows Edubuntu like?

Check this out: <a href="https://scibuntu.sourceforge.net/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Scibuntu - Ubuntu Linux for scientist and sciencestudents</a>
I wonder if its good for running engineering apps? Why don't you give that a try, hehe.

Again, thanks for your help, guys!

[EDIT]
Tried the quiz.. it suggested openSUSE! lol.. Apparently because I selected the option that my laptop is more than a few years old. Breezing through reviews, it seems to be good. Has anyone here have experience with it?

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Prasad Ajinkya

@prasad-aSUfhP • Apr 16, 2008

Well, have used openSUSE here in the office. Installed it on some machines. It runs very nicely on some machines, infact, a friend of mine with the same config as mine is happier on openSUSE - he uses Photoshop and Flash very frequently.

Check out this link - #-Link-Snipped-#

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Ashraf HZ

@Ash • Apr 16, 2008

Cool, thanks for the info. I'll give it a shot then! I'll try DSL too.

Has anyone successfully created a BartPE boot disc from an OEM XP CD, btw?

[EDIT]
*gasp* openSUSE installation CD is 4.1 GB? Gonna take a while to download.. 😔 Just to reconfirm.. the Swap partition can be in a logical partition right? I decided to spilt the Linux partition into 2 as well: 6 GB for / (root) and 6 GB for /home. The root is in primary, but /home is in a logical partition. Is this alright?
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Ashraf HZ

@Ash • Apr 17, 2008

Sorry for the double post!

Successfully installed openSUSE. Installation was pretty smooth, and it's automatic partition config almost got it right, haha. After minor adjustments, it was ok. However, I still have trouble configuring the PPPoE with my DSL modem. Had to install that smpppd package, but still no avail. Oh well, I still got time to kill 😉

Its fast and the interface is pretty nice. I activated the 3D desktop thing for fun, and finally got to do that rotating cube desktop thing that I always see on youtube 😀
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Prasad Ajinkya

@prasad-aSUfhP • Apr 17, 2008

Hey!! An update ... or a tweak for that matter. Try to use mozilla thunderbird as your mail client. And keep your mail folder on a FAT32 or an NTFS drive, so that you can access it from both Windows and Linux. That way, you can access all your mails from both the OSes seamlessly.
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Kaustubh Katdare

@thebigk • Apr 17, 2008

kidakaka
Hey!! An update ... or a tweak for that matter. Try to use mozilla thunderbird as your mail client. And keep your mail folder on a FAT32 or an NTFS drive, so that you can access it from both Windows and Linux. That way, you can access all your mails from both the OSes seamlessly.
Hey that's cool! I'll have to try it out. Thanks! 😀
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Ashraf HZ

@Ash • Apr 17, 2008

Nice tip!

Btw kidakaka, I'm still struggling with setting up my PPPoE connection. I've downloaded Kinternet, ppp-gnome, and other stuff. Im stuck! Ubuntu was much easier to set up.. 😔 Maybe I should reinstall it.. I don't know how many settings I've already messed around with, haha.
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desijays

@desijays-2SqnUc • Apr 17, 2008

AH!! A thread with the old timers

I see Linux is making quite the impact.

Well, this might help someone who wants to use Windows programs. You might already know this though since its quite common.

Problem:

I have linux on my computer but,

I want to use MS office
I want to use Winamp
I want to use photoshop
I want to use IE
I want to use flash
I want to play counterstrike
I want to play neverwinter nights 2
I want to play minesweeper

Solution:

Get into linux
Install virtual box or vmware
Then install XP or Vista inside linux
Now you can use MS office, winamp, photoshop, IE, flash inside linux.
But if you want to play counterstrike or neverwinter nights 2, you're system must be real good or it would choke.
You can play minesweeper without any problems though. (Duh!!)

I once did the following purely out of curiosity and it worked.

I installed slackware 12.0(linux) then installed virtual box. installed windows in virtual box. Then I installed virtual box inside windows. I then installed ubuntu fiesty inside that. As you can see it worked without a glitch. And in ubuntu I checked my mail. Wasnt like ripping fast. But manageable none the less.

God bless vmware and virtual box. Sometimes when I want to switch distros, I check them out in virtual box before i make a permanent change.
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Ashraf HZ

@Ash • Apr 18, 2008

desijays
I want to play counterstrike
What? People still play that? 😛

Good advice about using virtualizer software to deal with compatibility issues.
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Prasad Ajinkya

@prasad-aSUfhP • Apr 18, 2008

hmm .. even I do every once in a while 😀 .. for old times sake ;-)
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desijays

@desijays-2SqnUc • Apr 21, 2008

You should try doing that all the time. You can cure AWS (Afflicted by Windows Syndrome) !!
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MaRo

@maro-Ce3knx • Apr 23, 2008

My own experience

15 GB Ubuntu
15 GB XP
120 GB Data

I just use XP for Sony Vegas, So I think of getting VMware and run XP on Ubuntu, but for games thing you have to purely run XP on machine no VMwares, I'm not into PC gaming & movies just one or two movies but I've a lot of Songs and video clips so VMware wouldn't effect performance, but guess what? give it a try, try to install VMware and see what happens, nothing to lose 😁
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desijays

@desijays-2SqnUc • Apr 23, 2008

vmware is a commercial virtualization software. I use one called virtual box. Its just as good I believe. And most importantly it is open source and thus freely available.
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Ashraf HZ

@Ash • May 3, 2008

Friends, its time for celebrations. I've finally managed to configure my PPpoe connection on openSUSE!!! I'm posting from it right now 😀

It took a lot trial and error *sigh* turns out openSUSE support for PPpoe (which some DSL modems use) is kinda buggy. I don't know why it can't be as simple as Win XP or even Ubuntu (using simple command lines).

If any of you had any problem with setting up you PPpoe connection with openSUSE, here's how I did it:

Google for two packages: smpppd and kinternet (from a working internet connection, of course. Believe it or not, these two important rpm's are NOT included in the basic CD!). Make sure the versions matches your version of openSUSE. Install these packages using YaST Control Center (Find Software Management). You may need to add the local directory to which you downloaded the packages from as a source (check Software Repositories). Now go to DNS and Hostname (under Network Services) and if your ISP provided the two DNS addresses, enter them there. Make sure the Write Hostname thing is UNCHECKED (this happened to be the last discovery for me before I could connect). Then, set up your DSL account (there should be a DSL option in the Control Center menu). After entering your username and password, you'll need to enter the two DNS addresses again, by making sure Dial on Demand is CHECKED and Automatically Receive DNS is UNCHECKED. Once you click Finish, it'll reinitialize your LAN as well as confirming the smpppd and kinternet is installed. Now, on the bottom right of the screen theres the Networking Icon. Left click on it once, go to Dial Up Connections, and select your DSL connection to connect to 😀

I dont have full optimized speeds yet, but that'll be easy to fix. Im just glad I got online in the first place!

Well, it seems straight forward now, but it took me a hell long to figure it out. When I had initial problems with connecting with ubuntu, a quick google search found a solution that required typing up some commands (all that sudo stuff), which was pretty quick. But with openSUSE.. darn 😛 Google didnt give me much at all. There isnt an official guide for it in the wiki of openSUSE too. I found solutions requiring the packages of rp-pppoe, NetworkManager, gnome-ppp.. damn mind boggling. I ended up messing so much of my settings (randomly). Almost gave up! I left it for a week, then reinstalled the thing today to give it a shot. Persistence pays off (I learned something useful from the Small Talk interview! haha) 😉

Speaking of Virtual Box, I created a partition just for it, hehe. I tried running openSUSE live CD in it, but it was a bit slow. It was still interesting to play around in the virtual machine, though.
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gohm

@gohm-F3UUpP • May 3, 2008

Before I Google, I'll need to Webster-online so I can decipher half of what you are saying, lol. Techies, sheesh 😁 Obviously other will follow this at least. Ok, ok, I'll go back to my gears, axles and cogs now... laugh.

ash
Friends, its time for celebrations. I've finally managed to configure my PPpoe connection on openSUSE!!! I'm posting from it right now 😀

It took a lot trial and error *sigh* turns out openSUSE support for PPpoe (which some DSL modems use) is kinda buggy. I don't know why it can't be as simple as Win XP or even Ubuntu (using simple command lines).

If any of you had any problem with setting up you PPpoe connection with openSUSE, here's how I did it:

Google for two packages: smpppd and kinternet (from a working internet connection, of course. Believe it or not, these two important rpm's are NOT included in the basic CD!). Make sure the versions matches your version of openSUSE. Install these packages using YaST Control Center (Find Software Management). You may need to add the local directory to which you downloaded the packages from as a source (check Software Repositories). Now go to DNS and Hostname (under Network Services) and if your ISP provided the two DNS addresses, enter them there. Make sure the Write Hostname thing is UNCHECKED (this happened to be the last discovery for me before I could connect). Then, set up your DSL account (there should be a DSL option in the Control Center menu). After entering your username and password, you'll need to enter the two DNS addresses again, by making sure Dial on Demand is CHECKED and Automatically Receive DNS is UNCHECKED. Once you click Finish, it'll reinitialize your LAN as well as confirming the smpppd and kinternet is installed. Now, on the bottom right of the screen theres the Networking Icon. Left click on it once, go to Dial Up Connections, and select your DSL connection to connect to 😀

I dont have full optimized speeds yet, but that'll be easy to fix. Im just glad I got online in the first place!

Well, it seems straight forward now, but it took me a hell long to figure it out. When I had initial problems with connecting with ubuntu, a quick google search found a solution that required typing up some commands (all that sudo stuff), which was pretty quick. But with openSUSE.. darn 😛 Google didnt give me much at all. There isnt an official guide for it in the wiki of openSUSE too. I found solutions requiring the packages of rp-pppoe, NetworkManager, gnome-ppp.. damn mind boggling. I ended up messing so much of my settings (randomly). Almost gave up! I left it for a week, then reinstalled the thing today to give it a shot. Persistence pays off (I learned something useful from the Small Talk interview! haha) 😉

Speaking of Virtual Box, I created a partition just for it, hehe. I tried running openSUSE live CD in it, but it was a bit slow. It was still interesting to play around in the virtual machine, though.

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