What is the recommended disk partition for kubuntu 14.04 manual install and dual boot with Windows 8.1 64 bit?

Question

My computer has 6GB RAM and Windows 8.1 64 bit. I try to install kubuntu 14.04 64 bit by manual disk partition. My current disk has 283GB Free Space. (parted) print free
Model: ATA WDC WD10EZEX-22B (scsi) Disk /dev/sda: 1000GB Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/4096B Partition Table: gpt

Number  Start   End     Size    File system  Name                          Flags
        17.4kB  1049kB  1031kB  Free Space
 1      1049kB  840MB   839MB   ntfs         Basic data partition          hidden, diag
 2      840MB   1113MB  273MB   fat32        EFI system partition          boot
 3      1113MB  1247MB  134MB                Microsoft reserved partition  msftres
 4      1247MB  162GB   161GB   ntfs         Basic data partition          msftdata
 5      162GB   700GB   538GB   ntfs         Basic data partition          msftdata
        700GB   983GB   283GB   Free Space
 6      983GB   1000GB  16.9GB  ntfs         Basic data partition          hidden, diag
        1000GB  1000GB  729kB   Free Space

Answer 1

In my experience, I always tend to go overboard with the size of the root partition. I also tend to assign 40-50 Gb to root, but I'm beginning to doubt that much space is actually necessary (correct me if I'm wrong). I'm currently running Kubuntu 14.04 on a new machine for about 6 months, and have installed as much software as I'll ever need (VirtualBox, wine, Calligra, Krita, etc.), but most apps' user data winds up in /home's hidden folders.

My system is only using about 10 of the 50 Gb...Perhaps the next time I'll try giving only 30 Gb to root, and keep those extra 20 for downloads, movies, etc. Your /home partition should definitely be the biggest, and as to your 16Gb swap...I'd say that's way beyond what you'll be needing. People used to recommend making swap double or triple your RAM capacity, but that was back when ram was measured in MB ;)

You won't be using your swap unless you used up all your RAM, which isn't all that likely. I have 8Gb of RAM, and even with Virtualbox using 4 of them, + tons od¡f apps in the background, (Firefox, Thunderbird, Ktorrent, Libreoffice, etc.), some of them fairly memory hungry, I've never reached anything near 8Gb, so my 4Gb swap aren't particularly being put to good use...

Answer 2

I shrinked as much space as I wanted and then while installation made 3 partitions:

• First partition of size 50 gigabytes, type Ext4 and mounted it to /
• Second of size 16 gigabytes, type SWAP (16 gigabytes is probably far more than I need)
• Third of size what was left, type Ext4 and mounted it to /home

And that is it.

Answer 3

I was unsuccessful setting up a dual boot with Windows 8.1 that came pre-installed on my Acer. I did make the backup flash drive, which came in handy. I trashed windows trying to install Ubuntu, and I trashed Ubuntu when I tried putting windows back on it.

I discovered that I could install windows on my smaller drives and have a spare one loaded and ready to plug into my desktop if I should decide to get rid of it.

I ended up installing Windows on the 1TB that came with the computer, and Ubuntu on a 230GB HDD I pulled from a laptop. I use an external HDD for data.

I see you have about 280GB for Ubuntu, about the same as me. I partitioned mine as follows: 380MB /boot, 24GB /, 8GB swap (At the end of the drive) and the gap of 200GB was partitioned for /home.

You can share the NTFS partitions with Linux for your data if you like.

I really recommend that you find another HDD to boot Ubuntu. You can still dual boot, but you choose your boot from the BIOS instead of Grub. Also, with my system, the OS that came with the computer, it will always wipe and use the entire HDD to reinstall windows 8.

As for the swap, I found I had accidentally left swap off for a while. It didn't pose any problem until I overloaded the system with graphics I tried to edit. Otherwise, I didn't miss it. So if you have 8GB or more RAM, I wouldn't use swap unless you run some intense software.