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<!DOCTYPE sect1 PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook XML V4.5//EN"
"http://www.oasis-open.org/docbook/xml/4.5/docbookx.dtd" [
<!ENTITY % general-entities SYSTEM "../general.ent">
%general-entities;
]>
<sect1 id="ch-partitioning-creatingpartition">
<?dbhtml filename="creatingpartition.html"?>
<title>Creating a New Partition</title>
<para>Like most other operating systems, LFS is usually installed on a
dedicated partition. The recommended approach to building an LFS system
is to use an available empty partition or, if you have enough unpartitioned
space, to create one.</para>
<para>A minimal system requires a partition of around 10 gigabytes (GB).
This is enough to store all the source tarballs and compile the packages.
However, if the LFS system is intended to be the primary Linux system,
additional software will probably be installed which will require additional
space. A 30 GB partition is a reasonable size to provide for growth. The LFS
system itself will not take up this much room. A large portion of this
requirement is to provide sufficient free temporary storage as well as
for adding additional capabilities after LFS is complete. Additionally, compiling
packages can require a lot of disk space which will be reclaimed after the
package is installed.</para>
<para>Because there is not always enough Random Access Memory (RAM) available
for compilation processes, it is a good idea to use a small disk partition as
<systemitem class="filesystem">swap</systemitem> space. This is used by the
kernel to store seldom-used data and leave more memory available for active
processes. The <systemitem class="filesystem">swap</systemitem> partition for
an LFS system can be the same as the one used by the host system, in which
case it is not necessary to create another one.</para>
<para>Start a disk partitioning program such as <command>cfdisk</command>
or <command>fdisk</command> with a command line option naming the hard
disk on which the new partition will be created—for example
<filename class="devicefile">/dev/sda</filename> for the primary
disk drive. Create a Linux native partition and a
<systemitem class="filesystem">swap</systemitem> partition, if needed. Please
refer to <filename>cfdisk(8)</filename> or <filename>fdisk(8)</filename> if
you do not yet know how to use the programs.</para>
<note><para>For experienced users, other partitioning schemes are possible.
The new LFS system can be on a software <ulink
url="&blfs-book;postlfs/raid.html">RAID</ulink> array or an <ulink
url="&blfs-book;postlfs/aboutlvm.html">LVM</ulink> logical volume.
However, some of these options require an <ulink
url="&blfs-book;postlfs/initramfs.html">initramfs</ulink>, which is
an advanced topic. These partitioning methodologies are not recommended for
first time LFS users.</para></note>
<para>Remember the designation of the new partition (e.g., <filename
class="devicefile">sda5</filename>). This book will refer to this as
the LFS partition. Also remember the designation of the <systemitem
class="filesystem">swap</systemitem> partition. These names will be
needed later for the <filename>/etc/fstab</filename> file.</para>
<sect2>
<title>Other Partition Issues</title>
<para>Requests for advice on system partitioning are often posted on the LFS mailing
lists. This is a highly subjective topic. The default for most distributions
is to use the entire drive with the exception of one small swap partition. This
is not optimal for LFS for several reasons. It reduces flexibility, makes
sharing of data across multiple distributions or LFS builds more difficult, makes
backups more time consuming, and can waste disk space through inefficient
allocation of file system structures.</para>
<sect3>
<title>The Root Partition</title>
<para>A root LFS partition (not to be confused with the
<filename class="directory">/root</filename> directory) of
twenty gigabytes is a good compromise for most systems. It provides enough
space to build LFS and most of BLFS, but is small enough so that multiple
partitions can be easily created for experimentation.</para> </sect3>
<sect3>
<title>The Swap Partition</title>
<para>Most distributions automatically create a swap partition. Generally
the recommended size of the swap partition is about twice the amount of
physical RAM, however this is rarely needed. If disk space is limited,
hold the swap partition to two gigabytes and monitor the amount of disk
swapping.</para>
<para>If you want to use the hibernation feature (suspend-to-disk) of Linux,
it writes out the contents of RAM to the swap partition before turning off
the machine. In this case the size of the swap partition should be at
least as large as the system's installed RAM.</para>
<para>Swapping is never good. For mechanical hard drives you can generally
tell if a system is swapping by just listening to disk activity and
observing how the system reacts to commands. For an SSD drive you will not
be able to hear swapping but you can tell how much swap space is being used
by the <command>top</command> or <command>free</command> programs. Use of
an SSD drive for a swap partition should be avoided if possible. The first
reaction to swapping should be to check for an unreasonable command such as
trying to edit a five gigabyte file. If swapping becomes a normal
occurrence, the best solution is to purchase more RAM for your
system.</para> </sect3>
<sect3>
<title>The Grub Bios Partition</title>
<para>If the <emphasis>boot disk</emphasis> has been partitioned with a
GUID Partition Table (GPT), then a small, typically 1 MB, partition must be
created if it does not already exist. This partition is not formatted, but
must be available for GRUB to use during installation of the boot
loader. This partition will normally be labeled 'BIOS Boot' if using
<command>fdisk</command> or have a code of <emphasis>EF02</emphasis> if
using <command>gdisk</command>.</para>
<note><para>The Grub Bios partition must be on the drive that the BIOS
uses to boot the system. This is not necessarily the same drive where the
LFS root partition is located. Disks on a system may use different
partition table types. The requirement for this partition depends
only on the partition table type of the boot disk.</para></note>
</sect3>
<sect3>
<title>Convenience Partitions</title>
<para>There are several other partitions that are not required, but should
be considered when designing a disk layout. The following list
is not comprehensive, but is meant as a guide.</para>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem><para>/boot – Highly recommended. Use this partition to
store kernels and other booting information. To minimize potential boot
problems with larger disks, make this the first physical partition on
your first disk drive. A partition size of 200 megabytes is quite
adequate.</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>/home – Highly recommended. Share your home
directory and user customization across multiple distributions or LFS
builds. The size is generally fairly large and depends on available disk
space.</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>/usr – In LFS,
<filename class="directory">/bin</filename>,
<filename class="directory">/lib</filename>, and
<filename class="directory">/sbin</filename> are symlinks to their
counterpart in <filename class="directory">/usr</filename>.
So <filename class="directory">/usr</filename> contains all binaries
needed for the system to run. For LFS a separate partition for
<filename class="directory">/usr</filename> is normally not needed.
If you need it anyway, you should make a partition large enough to
fit all programs and libraries in the system. The root partition can be
very small (maybe just one gigabyte) in this configuration, so it's
suitable for a thin client or diskless workstation (where
<filename class="directory">/usr</filename> is mounted from a remote
server). However you should take care that an initramfs (not covered by
LFS) will be needed to boot a system with separate
<filename class="directory">/usr</filename> partition.</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>/opt – This directory is most useful for
BLFS where multiple installations of large packages like Gnome or KDE can
be installed without embedding the files in the /usr hierarchy. If
used, 5 to 10 gigabytes is generally adequate.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem><para>/tmp – A separate /tmp directory is rare, but
useful if configuring a thin client. This partition, if used, will
usually not need to exceed a couple of gigabytes.</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>/usr/src – This partition is very
useful for providing a location to store BLFS source files and
share them across LFS builds. It can also be used as a location
for building BLFS packages. A reasonably large partition of 30-50
gigabytes allows plenty of room.</para></listitem>
</itemizedlist>
<para>Any separate partition that you want automatically mounted upon boot
needs to be specified in the <filename>/etc/fstab</filename>. Details
about how to specify partitions will be discussed in <xref
linkend="ch-bootable-fstab"/>. </para>
</sect3>
</sect2>
</sect1>
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