Unless you have a reason for doing otherwise, we recommend that you create the following partitions:
- A swap partition (at least 32MB) ? swap partitions are used to support virtual memory. In other words, data is written to a swap partition when there is not enough RAM to store the data your system is processing. The size of your swap partition should be equal to twice your computer's RAM, or 32MB, whichever amount is larger.
For example, if you have 1GB of RAM or less, your swap partition should be at least equal to the amount of RAM on your system, up to two times the RAM. For more than 1GB of RAM, 2GB of swap is recommended. Creating a large swap space partition will be especially helpful if you plan to upgrade your RAM at a later time.
- A /boot partition (100MB) ? the partition mounted on /boot contains the operating system kernel (which allows your system to boot Red Hat Linux), along with files used during the bootstrap process. Due to the limitations of most PC BIOSes, creating a small partition to hold these files is a good idea. For most users, a 100MB boot partition is sufficient.
* Warning
Do not create your /boot partition as an LVM partition type. The boot loaders included with Red Hat Linux cannot read LVM partitions and you will not be able to boot your Red Hat Linux system.
* Caution
While partitioning your hard drive, keep in mind that the BIOS in some older systems cannot access more than the first 1024 cylinders on a hard drive. If this is the case, leave enough room for the /boot Linux partition on the first 1024 cylinders of your hard drive to boot Linux. The other Linux partitions can be after cylinder 1024.
If your hard drive is more than 1024 cylinders, you may need to create a /boot partition if you want the / (root) partition to use all of the remaining space on your hard drive.
In the disk partitioning tool parted, 1024 cylinders equals 528MB (this exact number is dependent on your BIOS, however). Refer to http://www.pcguide.com/ref/hdd/bios/sizeMB504-c.html for more information.
- A root partition (1.7-5.0GB) ? this is where "/" (the root directory) will be located. In this setup, all files (except those stored in /boot) are on the root partition. A 1.7GB root partition will permit the equivalent of a personal desktop installation (with very little free space), while a 5.0GB root partition will let you install every package.
Reference:
http://www.redhat.com/docs/manuals/linux/RHL-9-Manual/install-guide/s1-diskpartitioning.html
