Ubuntu partitioning questions...

[asintu]

I have a 750gb drive (only 700gb available) of which 10% (70GB) is used for Windows XP. I also have 4GB of ram.
Now I wanna install Ubuntu and after reading about it so much my plan is to create 3 more partitions: root(/), swap and /home (for storing/sharing files between xp and ubuntu). Six

1. Is this a good plan?
2. What should be type and size of these 3 partitions for maximum performance?
3. Does it matter in which order the partitions are created? Should I set all of them to start at the beginning?
4. When I install new applications in ubuntu they go into the root directory right?
5. What's the best type for the /home (storage) partition for maximum performance and accessibility by both xp and ubuntu (ext3,reiserFS, jfs, xfs etc.?!)
6. Does swap need to format?

Thanx.

 

[akhilles]

1. yes
2. I'd say either reiserFS or ext3.
3. No. Defrag your XP. Create partitions at the end of XP.
4. There are 2 root directories:

back slash (forum doesn't allow the symbol)
\root

The 1st is the root of the partition whereas the 2nd is the home of root user directory. aka admin.

5. I don't know how you're going to access a Linux partition w/o special drivers. I think the easiest solution is to create a FAT32 for both XP & Linux. Last time I checked, Linux had issues with writing to NTFS.
6. Yup. Once. Otherwise, the partition has no type & can't be recognized by anything as readable.

 

[Nothinman]

2. What should be type and size of these 3 partitions for maximum performance?

That's a loaded question, different filesystems perform differently under different workloads. Just go with ext3 for now since it's the default.

3. Does it matter in which order the partitions are created? Should I set all of them to start at the beginning?

Not really. If you have a really old BIOS that can only boot from the first 1024 cylinders then you'll need to worry, but that's pretty rare these days.

4. When I install new applications in ubuntu they go into the root directory right?

If you use the package manager the files get spread across the filesystem. Most of them go into /usr which will be in your root filesystem but depending on the package some files will end up under other directories.

5. What's the best type for the /home (storage) partition for maximum performance and accessibility by both xp and ubuntu (ext3,reiserFS, jfs, xfs etc.?!)

Again ext3's your only real option since it's the only one with an IFS driver for Windows AFAIK.

6. Does swap need to format?

Linux will put a small header at the end of the filesystem but that's it so it depends on what you consider a format.