Handbook Talk:X86/Installation/Disks
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A comment [[User:Larry|Larry]] 13:52, 13 May 2024 (UTC) : A reply [[User:Sally|Sally]] 16:39, 19 February 2025 (UTC) :: Your reply ~~~~
Just some minor suggestions for correction
- "On AMD64 systems, these are called partitions." -> On x86 systems, these are called partitions.
- "The AMD64 Installation CDs provide support for LVM2." -> The x86 installation CDs provide support for LVM2.
- "As can be seen, it very much depends on what the administrator want to achieve." -> As can be seen, it very much depends on what the administrator wants to achieve.
- "What about swap space" -> What about swap space?
- "What is the BIOS boot partition" -> What is the BIOS boot partition?
Msi (talk) 18:23, 4 August 2015 (UTC)
Change suggested swap amount
A problem that arised on my x86 box: the suggested swap size (512MB) is too low. Because generally x86 boxes have less than 4GB RAM, it would be advisable to use at least 2GB of swap space. This machine here, using 1GB ram and 512MB swap, is unable to compile firefox or libreoffice. — The preceding unsigned comment was added by SlaveJobs (talk • contribs) 18 September 2015
/boot is required for GPT
I do not like to have "useless" partition, better only `/root` and `/swap`. Please add this info. On my first install it was a bad surprise for me that `/boot` is required with GPT. Vitaly-zdanevich (talk) 23:46, 4 January 2020 (UTC)
- Hi Vitaly-zdanevich , perhaps you're meaning that an ESP (recommended in the amd64 Handbook as /boot/efi) is required for GPT layout when the motherboard's primary bootload firmware is set to EFI boot? A /boot partition is not strictly required for using GPT, but yes, you'll need an ESP when using EFI boot...which is not strictly required for GPT. If this is what you mean, the case is already covered in the Handbook. Please let me know if I'm not understanding something correctly. Thank you! --Maffblaster (talk) 22:06, 14 July 2022 (UTC)
NTFS
NTFS is part of Windows since NT 3.1, not 3.1. --Nikitastepanov (talk) 13:41, 4 July 2020 (UTC)
- A fix was provided (Special:Diff/880587/880632). --Blacki (talk) 04:26, 14 July 2022 (UTC)
Default partitioning scheme
In the suggested partitions, it seems that there are two partitions called "sda2" but none called "sda1" - is a correction required? Chuckery Towers (talk) 16:04, 8 October 2021 (UTC)
Swap Space - Change 2GB or less option to 4GB
Now that software uses a lot more RAM at compiling time on machines that have a gig or less ends up OoM often when just using the old 2x rule of thumb. Seeing swap space to 4GB means all program I've tested can continue to compile.
This a common new user trap when it comes to older computers with Gentoo, so the change will help those users and reduce support questions to Gentoo. As a side point, I don't think we should teaching how to offload the compiling with a custom binhost in the Handbook and have instead already improved the Wiki to help with learning that step when the user is at the right time to add this feature to their toolbox.
Handbook:X86/Installation/Disks#What_about_swap_space.3F
Immolo (talk) 18:38, 5 February 2025 (UTC)
- Be aware that swap space is much slower than real RAM. It is faster to reduce MAKEOPTS= than to use swap space.
- MAKEOPTS can be sent on a per package basis, so that only packages that need the reduced MAKEOPTS are affected. Its possible that even with MAKEOPTS="-j1" swap will still be required.
- --NeddySeagoon (talk) 20:20, 11 February 2025 (UTC)
- I agree, maybe adding a note such as:
On machines with less than 2GB of RAM, it is recommended to only use a MAKEOPTS of
-j1, as swap is much slower than RAM and is only considered as a prevention to exhausting memory, rather than a solution.