Re: Partitioning for Win, Linux, NetBSD

On Feb 13, 2005, at 11:17 AM, Eric "Shubes" wrote:

> Jeremy C. Reed wrote:
>> In your other email you mentioned /boot partition. I would not use
>> that
>> unless you have a old BIOS.
> I value your views, Jeremy, so I'm wondering "Why would that be?".
>
> My thinking is that a single /boot partition could be a good thing.
> Namely:
> .) there is no confusion as to which /boot is being used
> .) no redundant, unused /boot directories lying aroung
> .) ability to easily access/modify /boot from any distro
> .) easier management of /boot (kind of a summary of the first three
> points)
> .) OSs can be wiped out and reinstalled without effecting other
> installed OSs

I used to think the same way as Jeremy and threw all of my files under
one root partition and left it at that. The more I read about how Linux
worked, and the logic behind the organization of the filesystem, the
more I realized that doing that kind of thing wasn't such a great idea.
I think I learned why /boot should be a separate partition somewhere in
one of the Debian manuals, but I can't quite remember.

Anyway, one of the biggest reasons to use a /boot partition is to allow
the system to boot in cases where the root filesystem is corrupt or
needs repair. By having a /boot partition (and thereby having the
kernel on a known good, separate filesystem) the kernel can still be
loaded and used for system recovery. This way, if you're using hardware
that needs specific drivers, you don't need to worry about a recovery
cd containing the right kernel you need to repair the system with
because your kernel is still intact.

A good general rule most old-hat *NIXers use is to put the kernel in
/boot under a standard filesystem like ext2 and leave it mounted
read-only during normal operation.

Disadvantages to this include a slight issue of having to remount the
/boot partition read-write to upgrade the kernel, and a lack of disk
space if you use multiple kernels since generally /boot is a 10-20 MB
partition. Additionally, it adds the slight overhead of taking into
account the fact that you have a separate partition for /boot and
adjusting the partition table accordingly during your initial install.

Overall, however, I'd say that the advantages outweigh the
disadvantages in this light. Keeping the kernel safe and intact is too
good a bargain to live without.

- --
June Tate * http://www.theonelab.com * june@theonelab.com

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