Arch Linux

jck

Member

From: USA

Registered: 2009-05-08

Posts: 98

Partitioning scheme

hey,
im going to install arch linux , could you suggest me a good partitioning scheme along with which filesystems to use for various partitions?

Wintervenom

Member

Registered: 2008-08-20

Posts: 1,011

Re: Partitioning scheme

For desktop (i.e., non-server environment) users, a root partition and a swap partition is all you need.  For a little bit of added safety, you might consider having your /home partition separate.  As far as file systems go, I'd suggest either Ext3, Ext4, or JFS.  Ext3 is the safest.  Ext4 performs much better and is more efficient, but slightly more riskier if there's an power interruption.  JFS also performs nicely, especially when combined with the deadline I/O scheduler, and its low resource usage makes it great for laptops and older computers.

Also, if you have four or more gigs of RAM in your machine, you may even want to consider binding your /tmp, /var/tmp, and other temporary to folders in /dev/shm for increased security, faster compiles, and better performance in programs that use temporary files extensively.

Last edited by Wintervenom (2009-05-19 04:13:33)

jck

Member

From: USA

Registered: 2009-05-08

Posts: 98

Re: Partitioning scheme

since i have 3 gb of ram i was planning not to have a swap partition. im planning to use ext4 for / reiserfs for var and ext4 for home. are there any benefits of creating seperate partitions for /usr and /tmp?

graysky

Wiki Maintainer

From: :wq

Registered: 2008-12-01

Posts: 10,597

Website

Re: Partitioning scheme

Also, if you have four or more gigs of RAM in your machine, you may even want to consider binding your /tmp, /var/tmp, and other temporary to folders in /dev/shm for increased security, faster compiles, and better performance in programs that use temporary files extensively.

My machine has 8 gigs on board.  Can you point me to a guide or post that explains your suggestion to bind /tmp and /var/tmp to /dev/shm?  Should I just create symlinks pointing them to /dev/shm/tmp and /dev/shm/var/tmp or..?

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Peanut

Member

From: Norway

Registered: 2009-05-24

Posts: 99

Re: Partitioning scheme

im planning to use ext4 for / reiserfs for var and ext4 for home. are there any benefits of creating seperate partitions for /usr and /tmp?

Personally, I use three partitions for the system (my personal data is kept on a separate harddrive):

/ - ext3 - a stable filesystem that is relatively rarely written to (except during system updates), containing eg. the linux kernel, libraries and applications
/var and /tmp - reiserfs - (/var is reiserfs, /tmp is a symlink to /var/tmp.) This partition is written to quite often due to the system logs in /var/log, the temporary files in /tmp and /var/tmp, etc. Keeping this partition separate prevents fragmentation of /usr over time, lowers the risk of / and /home being corrupted after an unclean shutdown, and so on (at least theoretically).
/home - ext3 - This one is obvious.

I don't believe there is anything to gain by separating /usr from the rest of your /-partition. Separating /tmp from /var might be useful for a server or something, but I don't think it would impact the average desktop computer at all.

A separate /boot partition within the early sectors of your harddrive may also be required if you use older bootloaders (like LILO?), but as long as you stick to GRUB, this won't be an issue.

karol

Archivist

Registered: 2009-05-06

Posts: 25,440

Re: Partitioning scheme

@graysky
And what apps are you running? Are you sure you'll notice the difference? Of course you may want to do it just for kicks.