[webb3201]

Ok, I have a new (too me) iBook G3 900 with a 60gb hard drive. I would like to run Panther, OS9 and Yellow Dog (just because I can!). Now I can handle the first two, but had some questions on YDL.

First, recommend a good partitions strategy. I was planning a small partition for OS9 (about a GB or 2), and the rest for OSX and Linux. How do I go about partitioning.

Second, which should I install first?


Third, Any gotchas on this particular machine? I have failed in the past with getting Airport to work.

thanks for the help.

K

[Rainy Day]

You forgot OpenBSD (because you can)!

I wish i had understood UNIX volume management better when i partitioned my drive way back when. One of these days i'm gonna redo it. In retrospect, i wish i'd made a smaller partition for MacOS X, say about 3 or 4 GB, and had separate, larger partitions for my home folder, data, etc. I think it's a good idea to keep system files and data physically segregated.

It would be nice (for me) to have a partition for Jaguar, and another for Panther, with my data on yet another partition(s). Maybe a partition for music, video, etc. As of 10.2, MacOS X supports /etc/fstab, so very easy to automatically mount those volumes anywhere i want on boot-up. Even though they're separate partitions, when mounted they collectively behave like one big volume, not separate volumes on the desktop. UNIX is so !

So my advice is a number of smaller partitions which you could use for various OS's you want on the box (e.g. MacOS 9, MacOS X, Linux, OpenBSD, etc.), and maybe some larger partitions for data, etc. Always handy to have a few smaller partitions around for whatever misc need too. Also, don't forget that you'll probably want to have a swap partition for Linux, and OpenBSD. Not sure if these two can share swap partitions or not. Probably easier for then to each have their own (as i think the volume format differs). MacOS X doesn't use a swap partition though.

As for which to install first, that's mostly arbitrary. I prefer to have a separate MacOS 9 partition for booting (or i used to; don't really boot into 9 anymore), although i also have MacOS 9 installed on my MacOS X volume (for use by classic). But i rarely use classic under MacOS X anymore. I only have one program that i fire up classic for (American Heritage Talking Dictionary). I wish there were a MacOS X version of it.

[wataru]

I've never had a 60GB drive in a laptop before, but my previous experiences have taught me that it's best NOT to cut up a drive so much on a laptop. You can't add another disk, and you can't easily replace the one that's in it, so unless you can back up your whole drive very easily, you'll be in a tight spot sometime in the future and you'll wish you hadn't broken things up so much. That's just my opinion, though.

[Rainy Day]

I have a 40 GB drive in a laptop, and i stand by my previous post. There is NO problem whatsoever partitioning a laptop drive.

And you can buy enclosures for laptop drives and connect them as either an external FireWire or USB drive.

[wataru]

Originally posted by Rainy Day:
I have a 40 GB drive in a laptop, and i stand by my previous post. There is NO problem whatsoever partitioning a laptop drive.

And you can buy enclosures for laptop drives and connect them as either an external FireWire or USB drive.

There's no problem, except that if you tend to fill up your hard drive, as you approach your limit you'll be shuffling data around like crazy trying to make room for things. You don't have to worry about that on a single partition.

And yes, you can get enclosures for laptop drives, but you can't remove your laptop's drive without voiding your warranty, at least for an iBook. I don't know about current PowerBooks, though.

[diamondsw]

I have to vote against partitioning for normal use. I sed to (holdover from my OS 9 days), but with OS X there's no real need to. I also fell into the "gee, I need 2GB of space, but I only have 1GB here and 1.5GB over here..." problem. I repartitioned when Panther came out and just use a single big partition - much easier to deal with.

Now, as for running Linux, you'll need a second partition. I'd recommend only a couple GB for Linux, and just keep all of your data on the Mac side (since it sounds like OS X will still be your primary OS). I don't know about the kernel that ships with YDL, but the latest kernels (I compiled 2.6.5 for x86 over the weekend) have HFS+ support as an included module.

I recently got my hands on a free x86 box, and while Linux has been interesting, it's been a whole lot of RPM hell, KDE/Xfree bugs, incomplete kernel source, broken module loading, etc. Royal PITA, but I have learned a lot (some of this knowledge is of dubious value, though). Anyway, enough rambling from me. Good luck!

[Rainy Day]

Look, the only practical way to have multiple UNIX-like OS's on an HD is through multiple partitions. And the best way to do that is how i suggested in my first post at the top of this thread: Create partitions of sufficient size and headroom to accommodate the OS itself (i.e. about 3-4 GB), but not large enough to accommodate home directories or other user space.† Use separate (and presumably large) partitions for that. This also has the advantage of isolating user data from the OS.

But i can see that folks posting to this thread do not understand the UNIX disk system any better than i did when i first started using MacOS X. Please read the following in the Terminal:

man mount
man fstab

By appropriate use of the UNIX mount command, and /etc/fstab, you can create a seamless file structure which – for all intents and purposes – is EXACTLY the same as one large partition. The difference is the approach i am advocating is more robust and much more versatile than the single partition approach because it supports, among other things, multiple OS's and other situations. I will admit, however, that there will be perhaps 1-2 GB "wasted" disk space per 3-4 GB OS partition, but it has the advantage that if the user partitions do fill up, the OS will still have sufficient free disk space to continue to write to log and temporary files, etc., and the OS won't crash due to lack of disk space.

But you won't be shuffling files around if you choose to use a single large data partition.

_______________________
† Caveat: If you don't use a separate VM partition for MacOS X, you'll want to make your MacOS X OS-partition(s) large enough to have adequate space for swapfiles.

Posted by wataru:
And yes, you can get enclosures for laptop drives, but you can't remove your laptop's drive without voiding your warranty, at least for an iBook. I don't know about current PowerBooks, though.

And your point is? Look, you said:

Originally posted by wataru:
You can't add another disk, and you can't easily replace the one that's in it, so unless you can back up your whole drive very easily, you'll be in a tight spot sometime in the future and you'll wish you hadn't broken things up so much.

And that simply isn't true. You have a FireWire port, and can easily add drives. If you don't like your internal drive, it too can be replaced (although i will grant you that a notebook's drive is not as easily accessible as certain desktop models drive's are.) As regards warranty matters, just replace the original drive if you ever need to send the book in for repair!

Edit: Punctuation

[wataru]

Originally posted by Rainy Day:
But i can see that folks posting to this thread do not understand the UNIX disk system any better than i did when i first started using MacOS X.

Listen, I am plenty familiar with these issues. Don't go assuming that just because I disagree with you that I don't understand the issue fully.

I will admit, however, that there will be perhaps 1-2 GB "wasted" disk space

This is my only issue with partitioning. I see that you agree that it is a problem. You agree, I agree, it's all good.

And that simply isn't true. You have a FireWire port, and can easily add drives.

I should have been more specific. I meant adding internal drives. I don't consider external drives to be an adequate method of expansion since I move my compuer around all the time.

As regards warranty matters, just replace the original drive if you ever need to send the book in for repair!

That's all well and good if you can swap drives without leaving scratches or other evidence. Consider that models for which drive replacement is not covered by the warranty are usually a b*tch to open, so unless you've got some magic fingers you will leave evidence.

I'm just trying to let the original poster know of the potential pitfalls of partitioning and its consequences. We don't have to turn this into a holy war of data management strategies.

[Rainy Day]

Originally posted by wataru:
Listen, I am plenty familiar with these issues. Don't go assuming that just because I disagree with you that I don't understand the issue fully.

Your postings give me the impression you don't understand.

This is my only issue with partitioning. I see that you agree that it is a problem. You agree, I agree, it's all good.

No, it isn't any kind of problem; nothing more than a negligible "loss."

You are right about one thing: The original poster isn't served by this increasingly inane diatribe, so i'll bow out here; you may have the last word if you like.