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8. Partitioning
If you have chosen "Custom" on the previous screen, you will be presented
the choice of which partitioning program to use to partition your hard
drive(s).
8.1 Disk Druid
The first option, and the one I recommend, especially for someone new to
Linux, Disk Druid is a graphical partitioning utility that is built into
the RedHat Linux install. This is the program that will allow you to decide
how big and where your Linux partitions are going to be located. The interface
is quite self explanatory, but if you need a little help the bar to the
left of the screen displays short instructions on how to use Disk Druid.
8.2 Fdisk
Your second option, fdisk is the more traditional partitioning utility.
Fdisk will be familiar to anyone who has used older, command line type
fdisk programs, but its is nothing like the fdisk program the Windows provides,
so unless you are comfortable with using a command line partitioning utility
I would recommend using Disk Druid instead.
8.3 Required Partitions
Linux gives you plenty of flexibility with where you put your partitions,
but there are certain minimal requirements that you must have in order
to continue. The biggest, and certainly the most critical partition should
be "/". This partition is called the root directory, or most of the time
simply "root." This is where everything else, except for the swap, is stored
under, somewhat like the "c:\" on a windows computer. The next partition
that you must have is the "swap partition." Again, similar to the Windows
"swap file" only this is another whole partition dedicated to storing information
that is swapped in and out of physical memory. Finally, I would recommend
a "/boot" partition, primarily because the BIOS need to access this without
any other help. This is where the "kernel" will be stored and if the BIOS
cannot access where the kernel is stored, your system will not boot.
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