Partition sizes for dual boot

I currently have a HP DV9000 running XP on an 80 gig disk with 4 gigs of ram. I want to install Ubuntu HH and dual boot.

Here is what I know so far:
I can access ext2/3 file systems in XP, with the proper software, though from what I read, it is very easy to mess up stuff doing so as rights management is out the window.
I want to have root and home be separate partitions.
g-parted is good, especially in live CD form.
The XP partition and home will undoubtedly be the largest as this is where most files and programs will live.

Here is what I don't know:
Can HH read/write to NTFS (100%)?
Can I have programs like SETI (through BOINC) run under XP and HH and keep working on the same work unit?
If so, what file system would be the best choice for such an arrangement?
How big should I set my partition sizes (swap, root, others?)

I have seen people saying swap should be the size of your ram but then again I have never heard anyone say anything over 2 gigs. As for the other partitions, I have never used Ubuntu before and will no doubt try a lot of crazy stuff and absolutely destroy the OS beyond help at least once, hence the need for root to be separate. Will other partitions help in keeping my data in the event of a reinstall?

Also, I am working on getting a second, larger, disk up and running, if I can find the disk caddy and adapter for less than an arm and a leg. Would putting HH on its own disk be a good idea and will running the boot manager (grub?) be more difficult to deal with?

Thank you for your help in advance oh great and powerful Linux gurus.

 

hmm seems like youre taking a complicated route for a first timer! good for you

i wouldnt suggest a separate partition for root, as if you screw the OS and use the same root it will be just as screwed on reinstall. you should just have /home separate (i personally like clean reinstalls with all my music/media/documents backed up, but thats cuz i like working with a clean slate and redoing all the cosmetics and settings etc)

as far as i know ntfs read/write works perfectly (ive actually used ubuntu to delete things off of windows partition that were just being a hassle to uninstall) it does however ignore permissions, so be careful- you could delete core dll's and such

for partition sizes- ubuntu is a little retarded when it comes to updating kernels, so while in general linux i would suggest 32mb for boot, i would probably say go for 64 or 100mb. swap is whatever you want based on research, ive never personally used any (its set at 2048mb). since your hd is small i would really suggest waiting until you get the other drive. if its external there might be some issues, but it should work fine; you could also have the OS on the 80gb drive and have /home on the other one.

there are packages for boinc in the ubuntu repositories, so theres no problem with that. umm as for working on the same unit i dont know.

 

hahaha! what a way to start, vicariouscheese!

1) Ubuntu can read/write to NTFS using the NTFS-3g utility

2)Not as far I can can tell, no. Anyway, when you're in Ubuntu, I don't think you can be in XP at the same time. So that'll be rather silly.

3)Given this is your first time with Ubuntu, you should go through things as simple as possible, to have a ''feeler''. Thus, I recommend not creating /boot, /var, etc partitions for sake of simplicity.

Since you have 4Gb of RAM, you have 2 options:
a)have minimal swap of 256 if you do NOT use the hibernate option
b)use 4Gb of swap if you use the hibernate option.
This is because the data is saved to the swap partition when you hibernate.

Back to partitions. It will depend if you play games with your computer often.

If you don't play games, there's a very elegant solution possible:
My usual dual boot strategy is to use a 10Gb partition for /, a 10-15Gb (or whatever size you want. But the more space in C:\, the less space in /home) partition for Windows C:\, and the rest of the space for /home (barring swap, of course). because 10Gb is usually plenty for root, but 5Gb is a bit too small. For simplicity, just choose ext3 for both / and /home

Then, install a program called "fs-driver" that allows read/write of Ext3 partitions in Windows. This way, both C:\ and /root share /home to store your personal data. This has the added advantage that if you want to install a new Linux distro, you can just format the /root partition, and your personal data will still be intact in /home.


If you DO play games, you can just extend you C:\ driver to be larger. Another reason is that, even though *some* games can be installed and played from the /home partition through fs-driver, they suffer a slight speed drop.

 

Good, I figured there was some utility to do so but just haven't been looking hard enough for it.

Yes, I realize that it running both OSes at the same time is a non-trivial operation but what I am more curious about is the saved data I have from other applications. Example: can I use a saved game file from the xp install on the Ubuntu install? Emphasis on NOT using wine here but on using two different versions of the same program, xp and Linux.

I already found fs-driver and knew I could read/write from ext3 but this does clear up other questions I had about installing programs to an ext3 partition. Since *some* probably means guess and check, I will go with xp and /root on one disk and /home and any NTFS xp strorage I need on my larger disk when it arives.

one last question then: does swap do much other than keep room available for hibernate? I have never used hibernate with xp and have no need to use it with Ubuntu so keeping this minimal would be nice. Also where should I put the swap partition? I will eventually have two SATA internal drives with the newer larger drive being marginally faster. If swap is the equivalent of virtual memory in windows, would it be good to have it be on the fastest disk?

 

That, I'm not too sure. Maybe some one else with more experience can help. Though I think the problem will be at the XP end. Ubuntu has a very strong ability to read file formats that Windows uses. But Windows might not be able to read formats in ubuntu natively (like .odt files or xorg.conf, for example).

It will depend on what format the data is saved by the program.

If it is mutually readable, then you can tell the program to save the data into the /home directory, and just read off from XP and Ubuntu.

From my experience (experts, correct me if I'm wrong), swap is used as 'virtual memory' only when the physical RAM has run out. Since you have 4Gb of RAM, you'll hardly ever access swap. So I doubt it makes a big difference if the swap is on the big drive or the smaller one.

The Archlinux guide says to put the swap after / and before /home. Though the effects for end users could only be measured in milliseconds. So you could put it either there, or the back.