min disk size for (useful) desktop

[YTResearch]

I don't build desktops so I don't know what people normally do for  
swap size but it's good to remember at build time if you have small  
drives. What I think about when sizing a server drive is memory, swap  
and dumps. You didn't mention how much memory you have, but if it's  
large, you may find yourself cramped in 20G due to swap allocation  
and additionally might need to turn crashdumps off. If you take a  
panic it can use a lot of space quickly with say 4GB of memory. Using  
4GB as an example, a default swap configuration coupled with a single  
panic dump saved could consume 12GB of your drive, with a more common  
2GB memory, the same scenario would use 6GB, still a big chunk on a  
20G drive. Though I've never done this, I suppose the swap could be  
reduced from the norm if you are certain you can stay out of a swap  
situation with your RAM. Dumps can be disabled if you are stable  
(look at dumpdev and dumpdir in man rc.conf).

On May 27, 2006, at 7:04 AM, John Cruz wrote:

> Pete C wrote:
>> . . . looking for advice/guidelines for a minimum disk size for a  
>> decent desktop install of 6-stable with gnome, openoffice,  
>> firefox, gimp etc. . . .
>>
>> . . . I have both a 20G and a 250G on hand, so I guess the  
>> question really is is 20G enough ? ? ?
>>
>> TIA
>>
>> Pete C
> Peter,
>
> 20g is what I would recommend that way you'll have room for the  
> install and room to play with. I'm  running apache/samba/kde, the  
> ports system, no office stuff though. 6.1 latest release
>
> Here's my df output to give you a better understanding
>
> john at taurus$ df
> Filesystem          1K-blocks         Used        Avail      
> Capacity     Mounted on
> /dev/ad0s1a        507630           72236       394784     
> 15%              /
> devfs                   1                            1               
> 0      100%            /dev
> /dev/ad0s1e        507630              434       466586      
> 0%               /tmp
> /dev/ad0s1f         16182566      5682340  9205622     
> 38%               /usr
> /dev/ad0s1d       1254862   1        48820  1005654     
> 13%               /var
>
>
> ~John
> _______________________________________________
> freebsd-questions at freebsd.org mailing list
> http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions
> To unsubscribe, send any mail to "freebsd-questions- 
> unsubscribe at freebsd.org"