Partition sizes for small harddisk

[Jerry McAllister]

> 
> Hi
> 
> I'm trying to install FreeBSD 4.10 on an older computer with a 852 MB hard 
> disk.
> According to the handbook, 250 MB should suffice for text mode only.
> However, both the "User" and (retried) "Minimal" distributions left me 
> with no space in /usr
> I used the default partitioning (entire disk) and said "No" to the ports 
> and linux compatibility prompts.
> 
> Assuming that the defaults are optimized for larger disks, how would I 
> best divide the available space?

With that little disk space, I would be inclined to make it all
just one root (/) partition - with a bit of swap.   You might not
even be able to have a swap as big as memory with no more disk than 
that, but try for a swap of memory size or at least 100 MB or so
and the rest in /. 

I think FreeBSD has grown since they made those claims of 250 MB
being enough for a minimum.   You might be able to cram it in, 
but would have little room for doing anything.   

Good luck,

////jerry

> 
> thanks
> Mark
>