Disk partitioning and swap

[Jerry Feldman]

I would like to see some discussion on the advantages and disadvantages of
allocating 1 large file system in contrast to having some small ones. 
One restriction is the location of the kernel, but a small /boot partition
could be allocated for this. In the olden days of small disks, root, usr,
var, and home would be allocated on separate disks. But today with
multi-GB drives in the pocket money range, does it make sense to follow
the old Unix model. 

Also, what is the cost of swapping to the root file system rather than
allocating a separate swap partition. 

I am asking this question more in context of the new Linux users who are
migrating from the Windoz environment rather than from the experienced
Linux user. Also, we have an Installfest coming up on May 1, and I would
like to use some guidelines. 
Let's take an example:
We have 4GB available for Linux on a drive which may be shared with
Windoz. 
Question 1, what is the cost of an extended partition vs. a primary
partition. (You can only allocate 4 primary partitions on a physical
drive). 

Question 2. Using this scenario:
Partition 1: /boot 100MB (for vmlinux, and modules) Linux Native
Partition 2: swap (depends on memory size. I normally allocate maximum, 
                   but I think that the newer kernels have eliminated that
                   restriction).
Partition 3: Root - Rest of disk.

What are the main advantages/disadvantages of this allocation scheme in
contrast to (something similar to ):
Partition 1: root+usr (500 MB)
Partition 2: swap
Partition 3: /var (Depends on intended use)
Partition 4: /home (Depends on intended use). 

If the intended use is a mail server, I would probably have a large /var
for spool and logs. If this is used as a multi-user platform with a number
of users, then the /home would be rather large.

Question 3: If we use extended partitions, should swap be in a primary or
is there no significant performance issue.   

Jerry Feldman <gaf at blu.org>
Boston Linux and Unix
http://www.blu.org

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