Novell LINUX ENTERPRISE SERVER 10 - INSTALLATION AND ADMINISTRATION 04-08-2006 Installation Manual page 46

The partitions to create depend on the available space. The following are some basic
partitioning guidelines:
Up to 4 GB:
One partition for the swap space and one root partition (/). In this case, the root
partition must allow for those directories that often reside on their own partitions
if more space is available.
4 GB or More:
A swap partition, a root partition (1 GB), and one partition each for the following
directories as needed: /usr (4 GB or more), /opt (4 GB or more), and /var
(1 GB). If you do not want to have separate partitions for these directories, add the
suggested disk space to the root partition. The rest of the available space can be
used for /home.
Depending on the hardware, it might also be useful to create a boot partition (/boot)
to hold the boot mechanism and the Linux kernel. This partition should be located at
the start of the disk and should be at least 8 MB or one cylinder. As a rule of thumb,
always create such a partition if it was included in YaST's original proposal. If you are
unsure about this, create a boot partition to be on the safe side.
You should also be aware that some (mostly commercial) programs install their data
in /opt. Therefore, either create a separate partition for /opt or make the root partition
large enough.
Partitioning with YaST
When you select the partitioning item in the suggestion window for the first time, the
YaST partitioning dialog displays the proposed partition settings. Accept these current
settings as they are or change them before continuing. Alternatively, discard all the
settings and start over from scratch.
Nothing in the partitioning setup is changed if you select Accept Proposal. If you select
Base Partition Setup on This Proposal, the Expert Partitioner opens. It allows tweaking
the partition setup in every detail. This dialog is explained in
(page 161). The original setup as proposed by YaST is offered there as a starting point.
Selecting Create Custom Partition Setup opens the dialog for hard disk selection. Use
the list to choose among the existing hard disks on your system. SUSE Linux Enterprise
will be installed on the disk selected in this dialog.
46 Installation and Administration
Section 7.5.8, "Partitioner"