Installing Ubuntu 7.10- Partitioning Problem

Good afternoon Ladies and Gentlemen,

I,m trying to install Ubuntu on a box that has XP installed. I set up 4 drives for Windows and left about 100 GB unpartitioned to put on Linux.

When I try to install Linux it gets to the place where I have selected the unpartitioned space and tells me to set mount points for root and swap. It gives me a blank box to do so. How do I designate the root directory and the swap and how do I tell it how much space to use? I tried "/ 10GB Swap 10 GB but that didn't fly.

I'm brand new to Linux and am kind of wandering in the dark here. Can anyone help?

drc

I do not use Ubuntu here, and each distribution provides it's own installation routine, so can only provide generic information. First, a description of the Linux file system: The Linux file system is a unified hierarchal system. What this means is that there are no drives as with Windows (no c:, d:, etc.). The root of the file system is labeled with a slash (/). The root directory can (and does) have sub-directories. Any sub-directory can have it's own sub-directories (the one similarity with the structure of the Windows file system). Partitions are mounted to locations in the file system's hierarchy (directories). The main system partition is mounted to the root of the file system (/). Additional partitions (including your Windows partitions) are mounted to other locations (directories) in the Linux file system. Any Windows partitions are usually mounted to directories under the /mnt directory, for example if you have only the Windows C: drive, it may be mounted at /mnt/win_c or more recently /media/win_c. Many distributions permit you to create additional Linux partitions such as one to be mounted at /home. The advantage of such a configuration is that when or if you decide to upgrade to a newer release version of your chosen distribution or try a different distribution, you can more easily retain any existing user data since all user files are stored under the /home directory.

As for partition size, a swap partition of 2 GB is more than ample for nearly any system configuration. I have heard recommendations for swap ranging from 256 MB to 2 GB, and rules ranging from one half to double your system RAM in MB's. Since you have set aside 100 GB for Linux, the use of 2 GB swap will not make a notable dent in your usable storage capacity while insuring you have plenty of swap space.

The last time I tested Ubuntu, the installer did not allow for the creation of partitions beyond the root (/) partition so I was not able to create a /home partition. If this has changed, you should set up a root (/) partition of about ten GB and allocate the remaining space for your /home partition. My root partition has about four GB of about six GB used. With a ten GB root partition you should be able to install any Linux programs you want and still have room to spare. The object is to provide as much user space as possible (especially for a home system). Then if you want to download music or video or even large iso images, you will have ample room to do so.

I do not recall how the Ubuntu installer worked, but you should have an option (button or link) to create or add a partition somewhere in the screen after you select the option to use the empty space on the disk. For what it is worth, I use the ext3 file system here, but there are many others (most notably ext2, and reiser). Each file system format has its strengths and weaknesses. I use the ext3 file system here because it is an advancement from the ext2 file system (actually it is the ext2 file system with a journal added). I started using Linux in 1998, and the ext2 file system was the defacto format in use, so I stuck with it. It is very reliable, and provides good performance. It has been my experience that each distribution has a preferred file system format, and you will get the best results when using that format.

I am sorry I can not provide better (more detailed) information, but I hope what I have given proves to be useful,