Trouble Partitioning HDD Linux dual-boot

[iDiDiT]

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I originally installed Ubuntu 11.10 on the far left partition over the whole HDD. A couple months later I dual-booted with Blackbuntu 10.10 (far-right). When I dual-booted 10.10 it automatically set the root, swap, and home folder the way it is to the furthest right. (err.. two swaps..?)

I want to install LMDE on this same HDD now. Originally I had planned to overwrite everything on the far left, but due to some circumstances I would rather shrink the partition and install it in the middle-- which is where the unallocated 44 GiB came from.

Now I am ready to install LMDE in the free space, but I have some questions.

1. How do I give the first partition to the far left a root, swap, and home folder? Is that necessary? Should I use some of the unallocated 44 GiB to make these?

2. When creating the new parition what File System should I create it to, and which should it be on Logical or other? How much space should I give to each of these folders?

Some people say leave it on default, some people say it should be fat32, some say ntfs, what is the correct one?

3. In "System Monitor" under "Hardware" it says 2 GiB of "System Memory" is required. So when creating the root, swap, and home folder, do they each need 2GiB, or is that all together, or is that only for one of the three?

Please help, I am sitting at my desk waiting! Thanks very much.

[AceInfinity]

Some people say leave it on default, some people say it should be fat32, some say ntfs, what is the correct one?

Neither as far as i'm concerned, I believe the proper filesystem is Ext4. So if by default it's Ext4, then that would be right.

A question though, why are you splitting your hard drive into 3 different systems when you can only use one Linux at a time? Seems a bit of a waste to me. Why do you need 3 different Linux versions? Unless you're going to be using all 3 all the time why waste the space? Seems a bit unethical to me as if you're just testing you can boot up LiveCD's.

[iDiDiT]

I wanted to overwrite the partition on the left, which currently is Oneiric. When I started the LMDE install I can't tell if I like it enough yet because I can't use all the settings, or actually get a true feeling of what running LMDE is like until I actually install it. I may not end up erasing 11.10 and just scrapping LMDE. So, since I have the space I am just adding it the the unallocated space I made> as seen in the attachment.

The quesiton I have is how do I make a root, swap, and home folder? Seriously, is it in the unallocated space, preceding, following, other partition space? Because the partition on the left does not have anything, so this would be a good time to add it. I can't seem to find very many good step-by-step tutorials for Linux dual-boot installs. A couple were good, but then they left out a key element that I need answered to continue. For now I'm just sitting here waiting..

[AceInfinity]

I know what you're trying to do, but having 3 Linux partitions for different Linux distro's seems a bit over-extensive to me...

They are good to have I believe, but I'm pretty sure the linux install will take care of the partition you're installing linux to. Meaning it will ask you or give you the option as to where to add the swap and home. At least in my experience i'm pretty sure it gave me the option, but I ran Linux Mint.

[Zoidberg]

1. How do I give the first partition to the far left a root, swap, and home folder? Is that necessary? Should I use some of the unallocated 44 GiB to make these?

2. When creating the new parition what File System should I create it to, and which should it be on Logical or other? How much space should I give to each of these folders?

Some people say leave it on default, some people say it should be fat32, some say ntfs, what is the correct one?

3. In "System Monitor" under "Hardware" it says 2 GiB of "System Memory" is required. So when creating the root, swap, and home folder, do they each need 2GiB, or is that all together, or is that only for one of the three?

Please help, I am sitting at my desk waiting! Thanks very much.

1. It's not strictly necessary with a modern computer. If you want to use the suspend to disk function (hibernate) then you need a swap partition at least equal to the amount of RAM you have (it's probably best to add 10-15% on top of that for bad sectors etc.). A separate home folder is useful if you want to tinker with you system, because if you break it you can just reinstall leaving the home partition intact and keep all of your files. But this is completely optional. It's up to you what you use to create these partitions, I'd use the 40gb of unallocated space, because it's wasted otherwise.

2. There are a number of filesystems to choose from, the swap partition needs to be formatted as linux-swap (if that's not the exact name, it will be similar), otherwise you can use a number of filesystems. Do not use fat32, it's not suitable for operating systems. NTFS isn't designed for Linux-based operating systems and you should never use it (apart from on Windows of course). If you don't know what to go for use ext4 as mentioned by AceInfinity.

3. I haven't used LMDE or any other Debian based distro for a while, but I'm sure as the distro is aimed at newer users (for the most part) the installer will handle the partitioning for you. When you come to the paritioning part of the installer you will probably be able to simply click the free space and then hit next on the installer. If not, there will probably be an option along the lines of "Install LMDE in the largest free space". That would be the option to take.

There really isn't a need to triple boot these distros though. Make sure you backup.