[673b0d8] | 1 | <?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?>
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[b06ca36] | 2 | <!DOCTYPE sect1 PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook XML V4.5//EN"
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| 3 | "http://www.oasis-open.org/docbook/xml/4.5/docbookx.dtd" [
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[673b0d8] | 4 | <!ENTITY % general-entities SYSTEM "../general.ent">
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| 5 | %general-entities;
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| 6 | ]>
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[87bae31] | 7 |
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[afcfd74] | 8 | <sect1 id="ch-partitioning-creatingpartition">
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[87bae31] | 9 | <?dbhtml filename="creatingpartition.html"?>
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[1422130] | 10 |
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[87bae31] | 11 | <title>Creating a New Partition</title>
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| 12 |
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| 13 | <para>Like most other operating systems, LFS is usually installed on a
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| 14 | dedicated partition. The recommended approach to building an LFS system
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| 15 | is to use an available empty partition or, if you have enough unpartitioned
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[8e3448a] | 16 | space, to create one.</para>
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| 17 |
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[210fc78] | 18 | <para>A minimal system requires a partition of around 10 gigabytes (GB).
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[87bae31] | 19 | This is enough to store all the source tarballs and compile the packages.
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| 20 | However, if the LFS system is intended to be the primary Linux system,
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| 21 | additional software will probably be installed which will require additional
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[210fc78] | 22 | space. A 30 GB partition is a reasonable size to provide for growth. The LFS
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[b14e957] | 23 | system itself will not take up this much room. A large portion of this
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[1118b17] | 24 | requirement is to provide sufficient free temporary storage as well as
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[0d57ec9] | 25 | for adding additional capabilities after LFS is complete. Additionally, compiling
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[b14e957] | 26 | packages can require a lot of disk space which will be reclaimed after the
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| 27 | package is installed.</para>
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[81fd230] | 28 |
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[87bae31] | 29 | <para>Because there is not always enough Random Access Memory (RAM) available
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| 30 | for compilation processes, it is a good idea to use a small disk partition as
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| 31 | <systemitem class="filesystem">swap</systemitem> space. This is used by the
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| 32 | kernel to store seldom-used data and leave more memory available for active
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| 33 | processes. The <systemitem class="filesystem">swap</systemitem> partition for
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| 34 | an LFS system can be the same as the one used by the host system, in which
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| 35 | case it is not necessary to create another one.</para>
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| 36 |
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| 37 | <para>Start a disk partitioning program such as <command>cfdisk</command>
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| 38 | or <command>fdisk</command> with a command line option naming the hard
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| 39 | disk on which the new partition will be created—for example
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[637d44b] | 40 | <filename class="devicefile">/dev/sda</filename> for the primary
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| 41 | disk drive. Create a Linux native partition and a
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[87bae31] | 42 | <systemitem class="filesystem">swap</systemitem> partition, if needed. Please
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| 43 | refer to <filename>cfdisk(8)</filename> or <filename>fdisk(8)</filename> if
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| 44 | you do not yet know how to use the programs.</para>
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| 45 |
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[387a3a4a] | 46 | <note><para>For experienced users, other partitioning schemes are possible.
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| 47 | The new LFS system can be on a software <ulink
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[0ee07e5] | 48 | url="&blfs-book;postlfs/raid.html">RAID</ulink> array or an <ulink
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| 49 | url="&blfs-book;postlfs/aboutlvm.html">LVM</ulink> logical volume.
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[387a3a4a] | 50 | However, some of these options require an <ulink
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[0ee07e5] | 51 | url="&blfs-book;postlfs/initramfs.html">initramfs</ulink>, which is
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[387a3a4a] | 52 | an advanced topic. These partitioning methodologies are not recommended for
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| 53 | first time LFS users.</para></note>
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| 54 |
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[87bae31] | 55 | <para>Remember the designation of the new partition (e.g., <filename
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[cd591a6] | 56 | class="devicefile">sda5</filename>). This book will refer to this as
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[87bae31] | 57 | the LFS partition. Also remember the designation of the <systemitem
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| 58 | class="filesystem">swap</systemitem> partition. These names will be
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| 59 | needed later for the <filename>/etc/fstab</filename> file.</para>
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| 60 |
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[44917f1] | 61 | <sect2>
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| 62 | <title>Other Partition Issues</title>
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| 63 |
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[2ca8941] | 64 | <para>Requests for advice on system partitioning are often posted on the LFS mailing
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[b99b7d3] | 65 | lists. This is a highly subjective topic. The default for most distributions
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[44917f1] | 66 | is to use the entire drive with the exception of one small swap partition. This
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[2ca8941] | 67 | is not optimal for LFS for several reasons. It reduces flexibility, makes
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[44917f1] | 68 | sharing of data across multiple distributions or LFS builds more difficult, makes
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[2ca8941] | 69 | backups more time consuming, and can waste disk space through inefficient
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[44917f1] | 70 | allocation of file system structures.</para>
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| 71 |
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| 72 | <sect3>
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| 73 | <title>The Root Partition</title>
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[2ca8941] | 74 |
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[ffe0a2f] | 75 | <para>A root LFS partition (not to be confused with the
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| 76 | <filename class="directory">/root</filename> directory) of
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[b99b7d3] | 77 | twenty gigabytes is a good compromise for most systems. It provides enough
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[44917f1] | 78 | space to build LFS and most of BLFS, but is small enough so that multiple
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| 79 | partitions can be easily created for experimentation.</para> </sect3>
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[2ca8941] | 80 |
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[44917f1] | 81 | <sect3>
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| 82 | <title>The Swap Partition</title>
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[2ca8941] | 83 |
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[44917f1] | 84 | <para>Most distributions automatically create a swap partition. Generally
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[ffe0a2f] | 85 | the recommended size of the swap partition is about twice the amount of
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[44917f1] | 86 | physical RAM, however this is rarely needed. If disk space is limited,
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| 87 | hold the swap partition to two gigabytes and monitor the amount of disk
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| 88 | swapping.</para>
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[2ca8941] | 89 |
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[b99b7d3] | 90 | <para>If you want to use the hibernation feature (suspend-to-disk) of Linux,
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| 91 | it writes out the contents of RAM to the swap partition before turning off
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| 92 | the machine. In this case the size of the swap partition should be at
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| 93 | least as large as the system's installed RAM.</para>
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| 94 |
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| 95 | <para>Swapping is never good. For mechanical hard drives you can generally
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| 96 | tell if a system is swapping by just listening to disk activity and
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| 97 | observing how the system reacts to commands. For an SSD drive you will not
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| 98 | be able to hear swapping but you can tell how much swap space is being used
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| 99 | by the <command>top</command> or <command>free</command> programs. Use of
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| 100 | an SSD drive for a swap partition should be avoided if possible. The first
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| 101 | reaction to swapping should be to check for an unreasonable command such as
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| 102 | trying to edit a five gigabyte file. If swapping becomes a normal
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| 103 | occurrence, the best solution is to purchase more RAM for your
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| 104 | system.</para> </sect3>
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[23a0f82] | 105 |
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| 106 | <sect3>
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| 107 | <title>The Grub Bios Partition</title>
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| 108 |
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| 109 | <para>If the <emphasis>boot disk</emphasis> has been partitioned with a
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| 110 | GUID Partition Table (GPT), then a small, typically 1 MB, partition must be
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| 111 | created if it does not already exist. This partition is not formatted, but
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[7eac1a5e] | 112 | must be available for GRUB to use during installation of the boot
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[23a0f82] | 113 | loader. This partition will normally be labeled 'BIOS Boot' if using
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| 114 | <command>fdisk</command> or have a code of <emphasis>EF02</emphasis> if
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| 115 | using <command>gdisk</command>.</para>
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| 116 |
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| 117 | <note><para>The Grub Bios partition must be on the drive that the BIOS
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| 118 | uses to boot the system. This is not necessarily the same drive where the
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| 119 | LFS root partition is located. Disks on a system may use different
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[1af5572] | 120 | partition table types. The requirement for this partition depends
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[23a0f82] | 121 | only on the partition table type of the boot disk.</para></note>
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| 122 | </sect3>
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[2ca8941] | 123 |
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[44917f1] | 124 | <sect3>
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| 125 | <title>Convenience Partitions</title>
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[2ca8941] | 126 |
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[44917f1] | 127 | <para>There are several other partitions that are not required, but should
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[ffe0a2f] | 128 | be considered when designing a disk layout. The following list
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[44917f1] | 129 | is not comprehensive, but is meant as a guide.</para>
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[2ca8941] | 130 |
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[44917f1] | 131 | <itemizedlist>
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[2ca8941] | 132 |
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[44917f1] | 133 | <listitem><para>/boot – Highly recommended. Use this partition to
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| 134 | store kernels and other booting information. To minimize potential boot
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| 135 | problems with larger disks, make this the first physical partition on
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[b99b7d3] | 136 | your first disk drive. A partition size of 200 megabytes is quite
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[44917f1] | 137 | adequate.</para></listitem>
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[2ca8941] | 138 |
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[44917f1] | 139 | <listitem><para>/home – Highly recommended. Share your home
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| 140 | directory and user customization across multiple distributions or LFS
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| 141 | builds. The size is generally fairly large and depends on available disk
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| 142 | space.</para></listitem>
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[2ca8941] | 143 |
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[d7a9421] | 144 | <listitem><para>/usr – In LFS,
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| 145 | <filename class="directory">/bin</filename>,
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| 146 | <filename class="directory">/lib</filename>, and
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| 147 | <filename class="directory">/sbin</filename> are symlinks to their
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| 148 | counterpart in <filename class="directory">/usr</filename>.
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| 149 | So <filename class="directory">/usr</filename> contains all binaries
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| 150 | needed for the system to run. For LFS a separate partition for
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| 151 | <filename class="directory">/usr</filename> is normally not needed.
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| 152 | If you need it anyway, you should make a partition large enough to
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| 153 | fit all programs and libraries in the system. The root partition can be
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| 154 | very small (maybe just one gigabyte) in this configuration, so it's
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| 155 | suitable for a thin client or diskless workstation (where
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| 156 | <filename class="directory">/usr</filename> is mounted from a remote
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| 157 | server). However you should take care that an initramfs (not covered by
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| 158 | LFS) will be needed to boot a system with separate
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| 159 | <filename class="directory">/usr</filename> partition.</para></listitem>
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[2ca8941] | 160 |
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[44917f1] | 161 | <listitem><para>/opt – This directory is most useful for
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| 162 | BLFS where multiple installations of large packages like Gnome or KDE can
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| 163 | be installed without embedding the files in the /usr hierarchy. If
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[da7032a] | 164 | used, 5 to 10 gigabytes is generally adequate.</para>
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[44917f1] | 165 | </listitem>
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[2ca8941] | 166 |
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[44917f1] | 167 | <listitem><para>/tmp – A separate /tmp directory is rare, but
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[ffe0a2f] | 168 | useful if configuring a thin client. This partition, if used, will
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[44917f1] | 169 | usually not need to exceed a couple of gigabytes.</para></listitem>
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[2ca8941] | 170 |
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[44917f1] | 171 | <listitem><para>/usr/src – This partition is very
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| 172 | useful for providing a location to store BLFS source files and
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| 173 | share them across LFS builds. It can also be used as a location
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| 174 | for building BLFS packages. A reasonably large partition of 30-50
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| 175 | gigabytes allows plenty of room.</para></listitem>
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[2ca8941] | 176 |
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[44917f1] | 177 | </itemizedlist>
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[2ca8941] | 178 |
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[44917f1] | 179 | <para>Any separate partition that you want automatically mounted upon boot
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| 180 | needs to be specified in the <filename>/etc/fstab</filename>. Details
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| 181 | about how to specify partitions will be discussed in <xref
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| 182 | linkend="ch-bootable-fstab"/>. </para>
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[2ca8941] | 183 |
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[44917f1] | 184 | </sect3>
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| 185 | </sect2>
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[87bae31] | 186 | </sect1>
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