New user doing install having partition issues

Hi,

I'll try to answer some of your questions.

First, I would advise to create at least two Linux partitions : a medium one (~10 or 20 Go) for the system, and the rest for the /home directories. This will make possible to reinstall the system without erasing personal data. Just specify / as the mounting point for the system, and /home for the home.

* For example, what order should the partitions be in (system and swap)
As far as I can tell, it does not really matter. It would if you had several disks (it is better to put swap on the fastest disk).

* How do you combine partitions?
I am not sure about that, so consider it as a half answer. What I would do is to delete both partitions and to create a new one on the free space. I am not sure if there is another way to proceed.

* Will the system simply ignore the extra two partitions? Can Unix access these partitions?
No, it won't ignore them. You will have your partitions mounted as external hard drives, and you will be able to access them, read and write files. I am surprised that the file format is fat32 and not ntfs though, but it is probably fortunate, since Linux deals better with FAT partitions.

Hope it helps.

Thanks for trying to help. Please remember that I am not Unix savy and am installing Ubuntu not Linux and need to be led by the nose through this install. You have raised more questions for me. I know how to delete partitions, but how do you create them? Remember that I haven't gone that far in the install and am concerned about doing something that I cannot recover from. I still don't know what file structure to set each of the partitions to (Ext3 journaling file system, Ext2 file system, ReiserFS journaling file system, JFS journaling file system, XFS journaling file system, FAT16 file system, FAT32 file system, swap area). What does "do not use the partition" mean?

Also, you say to set up a 10-20GB partition for the system but don't say anything about where the swap partition is to go (I understand that in my case it should be 2GB in size). Also, is Ubuntu like Windows XP in that it has a Programs folder? If so, where does that folder end up?

It would really help if I could find an install guide for the novice Unix user. I am actually quite experienced otherwise as I have been in the computer industry for many years (over 40) and have actually developed operating systems but have not played with them for a long time and so am out of date.

Please bear with me. I do not mean to be difficult but rather am trying to do this correctly and ensure that I have a good system set up so that I can determine if I can convert all my systems.

OK, many new question :-)

First, when you use Ubuntu, you use Linux. Linux is the kernel of the operating system. Sorry for the misunderstanding.

When you will install Ubuntu, you will get, after a few steps, a screen like this one:

http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/lifehacker/2008/10/ibex_partition.jpg

This is an interface from which you will be able to choose and to edit the partitions on which you want to install Ubuntu. You have to tick the "manual" option, and then edit the partitions. You get there :

http://www.dedoimedo.com/images/computers/ubuntu-8.10-install-5.jpg

As I said above, I am not 100% sure how to resize your partitions. I think the only way to go is to delete them, and to create new partitions. Maybe there is another way, but I don't know it.

OK, so you will need 3 partitions for Ubuntu. One will be small, ~2Go is perfect, for the swap. The second one is medium, for the system. The third one can be as big as you want.

So:
Partition #1: 2Go, file system type: swap, mount point: none
Partition #2: 10Go, file system type: ext3, mount point: /
Partition #3: as much as you want, file system type: ext3, mount point: /home

You will have to format the 3 of them (if you do not tick the boxes, Ubuntu will ask you that it is necessary).

A very important thing: you can play as you want with the partitioning tool, nothing will be done on your disk before you validate your choice (by clicking on "Forward"). You can't make a mistake, there will be big warnings when you will be at that stage. So, just try to delete, create, modify your partitions, you can cancel everything before validating.

If you want more information about the whole install process, you can try to read the page from which I took the pictures: http://www.dedoimedo.com/computers/ubuntu-8-10-review.html

This is great. I am now much further along. What I need to know now is if programs that are added to the system go into the system partition or the general file area? By the way, I found that once you create free space on the disk by deleting existing partitions, the Prepare Partitions window provides an option to Create New Partition.

I have also noticed that sometimes the install program seems to go away for a while and the only way to get it to respond is to minimize the window and then activate it. Don't know if this is a bug or just something else to pique my curiosity.

I'm glad to see that some of your problems are fixed.

About the system vs. home: if you are not used to Unix file system, you may find the file hierarchy a bit strange. There is no such a thing as "Program Files" in Ubuntu, when a program is installed, it is split into many parts: the program itself is in /usr/bin ; libraries are in /usr/lib ; system configuration files are in /etc ; temporary files are in /tmp ; etc etc. The whole point is: you don't need to know that.

So, to answer your question: yes, the programs you will install are "somewhere" in the system, and they know where to install themselves --that is the whole point of "Ubuntu packages". These programs are available to the different users of the computer, and nobody --except the "administrator" of the computer-- can modify them. They will be installed in this "system" partition, so this is why you need ~ 10 Go there --maybe 20 Go if you want to be very comfortable.

The only thing you have to worry about is the content of the /home directory, in which you will have the files of the different users of your computer, including you of course. If I remember properly, when a new user is created, some directories are automatically made (Document, Music, etc), but of course you are completely free to organize your home directory as you wish.

I can't tell if what you observed with the install program is a bug or not. I remember that at some points, everything seemed to "freeze" because the program is looking for something, or calculating whatever. This can cause some strange delays (the programs are on the CD, so it is quite slow) and might look like everything is frozen. Anyway, if you can get to the next screen, it is probably not very important, right?

Thank you for your help. I think I've got it now. I am going to set up a 30GB system partition (I have a lot of progrms to load), a 2GB swap partition (in the middle to minimize head movement), and the balance as my user space. I've tried to create a DVD of my XP system rebuild partition just in case but the system didn't provide me a way to do that. I'll just have to be careful and hope I got it right.