> I have a Compaq 9232 Pentium Computer
> 48 MB Ram
> Primary HD is a Quantam Fireball 1.2 GB w/360MB free space
> Secondary HD is a Western Digital 2.1GB w/ 1.17 GB free space
> the second drive appears to need EZ-Drive for the bios
> what size swap file would I likely need?
The very general rule is that the swap partition should be about twice
the size of your RAM. However, it *depends*. You have more RAM than
most other systems, which means if your use of the RAM is average, you
will need to swap less than you would if you had less RAM.
However, one question begs to be asked: How much of that memory do you
really plan to use? Do you have it because you want to run a few
small/medium-sized programs really fast, or do you have it because you
are going to run a number of really big applications at the same time?
If you just want a system for learning Linux or just sort of hacking
around, then you won't need much swap; in fact, you might get by with
*none* (not my usual recommendation!). But if you are planning to work
on large multimedia projects, involving concurrent desktop publishing,
sound editing, photographic manipulation, etc., then you'd better shoot
for the high-end.
In any case, it's better to have too much than too little. If you are
low, then in order to avoid out-of-memory problems, you will have to go
back and repartition and reinstall. If you give yourself too much swap,
the result is that everything will work fine. For most people, this is
preferable!
Quote:> Any installation/partitioning tips or detail would be greatly
> appreciated.
Create and format the Linux partitions using the Linux installation
program; do not try to do either from DOS/Windows.
Quote:> My goal was to use about 400 mb for linux on the second drive and keep
> at least 160MB free on the first dive.
I found that a full install of Red Hat Linux consumed about 285 MB. I
would recommend that you have at least twice that much to allow Linux to
run efficiently, and reserve space for whatever future expansion you
will later desire.
- Jay Ts
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