[7152faa] | 1 | <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
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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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[a04b192f] | 40 | <filename class="devicefile">/dev/sda</filename> for the primary
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[637d44b] | 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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[ea93c11] | 43 | refer to <ulink role='man' url='&man;cfdisk.8'>cfdisk(8)</ulink> or
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| 44 | <ulink role='man' url='&man;fdisk.8'>fdisk(8)</ulink> if
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[87bae31] | 45 | you do not yet know how to use the programs.</para>
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| 46 |
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[387a3a4a] | 47 | <note><para>For experienced users, other partitioning schemes are possible.
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| 48 | The new LFS system can be on a software <ulink
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[0ee07e5] | 49 | url="&blfs-book;postlfs/raid.html">RAID</ulink> array or an <ulink
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| 50 | url="&blfs-book;postlfs/aboutlvm.html">LVM</ulink> logical volume.
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[387a3a4a] | 51 | However, some of these options require an <ulink
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[0ee07e5] | 52 | url="&blfs-book;postlfs/initramfs.html">initramfs</ulink>, which is
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[387a3a4a] | 53 | an advanced topic. These partitioning methodologies are not recommended for
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| 54 | first time LFS users.</para></note>
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| 55 |
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[87bae31] | 56 | <para>Remember the designation of the new partition (e.g., <filename
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[cd591a6] | 57 | class="devicefile">sda5</filename>). This book will refer to this as
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[87bae31] | 58 | the LFS partition. Also remember the designation of the <systemitem
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| 59 | class="filesystem">swap</systemitem> partition. These names will be
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| 60 | needed later for the <filename>/etc/fstab</filename> file.</para>
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| 61 |
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[44917f1] | 62 | <sect2>
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| 63 | <title>Other Partition Issues</title>
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| 64 |
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[2ca8941] | 65 | <para>Requests for advice on system partitioning are often posted on the LFS mailing
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[b99b7d3] | 66 | lists. This is a highly subjective topic. The default for most distributions
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[44917f1] | 67 | is to use the entire drive with the exception of one small swap partition. This
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[2ca8941] | 68 | is not optimal for LFS for several reasons. It reduces flexibility, makes
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[44917f1] | 69 | sharing of data across multiple distributions or LFS builds more difficult, makes
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[2ca8941] | 70 | backups more time consuming, and can waste disk space through inefficient
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[44917f1] | 71 | allocation of file system structures.</para>
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| 72 |
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| 73 | <sect3>
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| 74 | <title>The Root Partition</title>
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[2ca8941] | 75 |
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[ffe0a2f] | 76 | <para>A root LFS partition (not to be confused with the
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| 77 | <filename class="directory">/root</filename> directory) of
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[b99b7d3] | 78 | twenty gigabytes is a good compromise for most systems. It provides enough
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[44917f1] | 79 | space to build LFS and most of BLFS, but is small enough so that multiple
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| 80 | partitions can be easily created for experimentation.</para> </sect3>
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[2ca8941] | 81 |
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[44917f1] | 82 | <sect3>
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| 83 | <title>The Swap Partition</title>
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[2ca8941] | 84 |
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[44917f1] | 85 | <para>Most distributions automatically create a swap partition. Generally
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[ffe0a2f] | 86 | the recommended size of the swap partition is about twice the amount of
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[44917f1] | 87 | physical RAM, however this is rarely needed. If disk space is limited,
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| 88 | hold the swap partition to two gigabytes and monitor the amount of disk
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| 89 | swapping.</para>
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[2ca8941] | 90 |
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[b99b7d3] | 91 | <para>If you want to use the hibernation feature (suspend-to-disk) of Linux,
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[a04b192f] | 92 | it writes out the contents of RAM to the swap partition before turning off
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[b99b7d3] | 93 | the machine. In this case the size of the swap partition should be at
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| 94 | least as large as the system's installed RAM.</para>
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| 95 |
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| 96 | <para>Swapping is never good. For mechanical hard drives you can generally
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| 97 | tell if a system is swapping by just listening to disk activity and
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[58f92b0] | 98 | observing how the system reacts to commands. With an SSD you will not
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[6612f54] | 99 | be able to hear swapping, but you can tell how much swap space is being used
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| 100 | by running the <command>top</command> or <command>free</command> programs. Use of
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[58f92b0] | 101 | an SSD for a swap partition should be avoided if possible. The first
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[b99b7d3] | 102 | reaction to swapping should be to check for an unreasonable command such as
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| 103 | trying to edit a five gigabyte file. If swapping becomes a normal
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| 104 | occurrence, the best solution is to purchase more RAM for your
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| 105 | system.</para> </sect3>
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[23a0f82] | 106 |
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| 107 | <sect3>
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| 108 | <title>The Grub Bios Partition</title>
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| 109 |
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| 110 | <para>If the <emphasis>boot disk</emphasis> has been partitioned with a
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| 111 | GUID Partition Table (GPT), then a small, typically 1 MB, partition must be
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| 112 | created if it does not already exist. This partition is not formatted, but
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[7eac1a5e] | 113 | must be available for GRUB to use during installation of the boot
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[23a0f82] | 114 | loader. This partition will normally be labeled 'BIOS Boot' if using
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| 115 | <command>fdisk</command> or have a code of <emphasis>EF02</emphasis> if
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[58f92b0] | 116 | using the <command>gdisk</command> command.</para>
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[23a0f82] | 117 |
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[a04b192f] | 118 | <note><para>The Grub Bios partition must be on the drive that the BIOS
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[6612f54] | 119 | uses to boot the system. This is not necessarily the drive that holds
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| 120 | the LFS root partition. The disks on a system may use different
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| 121 | partition table types. The necessity of the Grub Bios partition depends
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[23a0f82] | 122 | only on the partition table type of the boot disk.</para></note>
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| 123 | </sect3>
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[2ca8941] | 124 |
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[44917f1] | 125 | <sect3>
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| 126 | <title>Convenience Partitions</title>
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[2ca8941] | 127 |
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[44917f1] | 128 | <para>There are several other partitions that are not required, but should
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[ffe0a2f] | 129 | be considered when designing a disk layout. The following list
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[44917f1] | 130 | is not comprehensive, but is meant as a guide.</para>
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[2ca8941] | 131 |
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[44917f1] | 132 | <itemizedlist>
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[2ca8941] | 133 |
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[44917f1] | 134 | <listitem><para>/boot – Highly recommended. Use this partition to
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| 135 | store kernels and other booting information. To minimize potential boot
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| 136 | problems with larger disks, make this the first physical partition on
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[6612f54] | 137 | your first disk drive. A partition size of 200 megabytes is
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[44917f1] | 138 | adequate.</para></listitem>
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[2ca8941] | 139 |
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[cfaf727] | 140 | <listitem><para>/boot/efi – The EFI System Partition, which is
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| 141 | needed for booting the system with UEFI. Read
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| 142 | <ulink url="&blfs-book;postlfs/grub-setup.html">the BLFS page</ulink>
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| 143 | for details.</para></listitem>
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| 144 |
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[44917f1] | 145 | <listitem><para>/home – Highly recommended. Share your home
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| 146 | directory and user customization across multiple distributions or LFS
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| 147 | builds. The size is generally fairly large and depends on available disk
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| 148 | space.</para></listitem>
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[2ca8941] | 149 |
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[d7a9421] | 150 | <listitem><para>/usr – In LFS,
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| 151 | <filename class="directory">/bin</filename>,
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| 152 | <filename class="directory">/lib</filename>, and
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| 153 | <filename class="directory">/sbin</filename> are symlinks to their
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[6612f54] | 154 | counterparts in <filename class="directory">/usr</filename>.
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| 155 | So <filename class="directory">/usr</filename> contains all the binaries
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[d7a9421] | 156 | needed for the system to run. For LFS a separate partition for
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| 157 | <filename class="directory">/usr</filename> is normally not needed.
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[6612f54] | 158 | If you create it anyway, you should make a partition large enough to
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[58f92b0] | 159 | fit all the programs and libraries in the system. The root partition can be
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[d7a9421] | 160 | very small (maybe just one gigabyte) in this configuration, so it's
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| 161 | suitable for a thin client or diskless workstation (where
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| 162 | <filename class="directory">/usr</filename> is mounted from a remote
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[58f92b0] | 163 | server). However, you should be aware that an initramfs (not covered by
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[6612f54] | 164 | LFS) will be needed to boot a system with a separate
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[d7a9421] | 165 | <filename class="directory">/usr</filename> partition.</para></listitem>
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[2ca8941] | 166 |
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[44917f1] | 167 | <listitem><para>/opt – This directory is most useful for
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[fc472c8] | 168 | BLFS, where multiple large packages like KDE or Texlive can
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[44917f1] | 169 | be installed without embedding the files in the /usr hierarchy. If
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[da7032a] | 170 | used, 5 to 10 gigabytes is generally adequate.</para>
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[44917f1] | 171 | </listitem>
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[2ca8941] | 172 |
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[12a86f3] | 173 | <listitem revision='sysv'><para>/tmp – A separate /tmp partition
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[b00063f] | 174 | is rare, but useful if configuring a thin client. This partition, if
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| 175 | used, will usually not need to exceed a couple of
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| 176 | gigabytes. If you have enough RAM, you can mount a
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| 177 | <systemitem class='filesystem'>tmpfs</systemitem> on /tmp to make
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[58f92b0] | 178 | access to temporary files faster.</para></listitem>
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[b00063f] | 179 |
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| 180 | <listitem revision='systemd'><para>/tmp – By default, systemd
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| 181 | mounts a <systemitem class='filesystem'>tmpfs</systemitem> here.
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[58f92b0] | 182 | If you want to override that behavior, follow
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| 183 | <xref linkend='systemd-no-tmpfs'/> when configuring the LFS
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[b00063f] | 184 | system.</para></listitem>
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[2ca8941] | 185 |
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[44917f1] | 186 | <listitem><para>/usr/src – This partition is very
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| 187 | useful for providing a location to store BLFS source files and
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[6612f54] | 188 | share them across LFS builds. It can also be used as a location
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| 189 | for building BLFS packages. A reasonably large partition of 30-50
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| 190 | gigabytes provides plenty of room.</para></listitem>
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[2ca8941] | 191 |
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[44917f1] | 192 | </itemizedlist>
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[2ca8941] | 193 |
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[58f92b0] | 194 | <para>Any separate partition that you want automatically mounted when the
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| 195 | system starts must be specified in the <filename>/etc/fstab</filename> file.
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| 196 | Details about how to specify partitions will be discussed in <xref
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| 197 | linkend="ch-bootable-fstab"/>.</para>
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[2ca8941] | 198 |
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[44917f1] | 199 | </sect3>
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| 200 | </sect2>
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[87bae31] | 201 | </sect1>
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