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When installing to free space created with diskmgmt.msc from Windows 10 for dual boot, can Ubuntu just install everything to that free space as one partition? Or, is it required to create /home and /root? From what I read, swap isn't really required unless there's low RAM.

Thufir
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2 Answers2

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You need at least one partition holding everything. Making separate partitions for /home, /srv, /opt, /var or swap is optional and depends on your preferences and intended use of the system. Some swap space is just about always highly recommended, but Ubuntu is perfectly able to use a swap file just like Windows; a separate swap partition is not needed and future Ubuntu versions will no longer create it by default.

AlexP
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After having made unallocated space, the Ubuntu installer would normally take all of that free space, unless you tell it otherwise during the install process.

The number of partitions used is moot, because your Windows 10 system probably uses GPT disk partitioning, and you can have up to 128 partitions. If however, your disk is formatted in MBR, then the max is 4 partitions, and Ubuntu installer will probably opt to install all of Ubuntu into a single extended partition.

Don't set up separate / and /home (and /whatever) unless you have a very good reason to do so... and especially if you've only set aside a small amount of disk space for Ubuntu.

Swap space is highly recommended. (Either swap partition or swapfile).

heynnema
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  • Swap partition is not required. And I just saw where 17.04 will use swap file by default. 17.04 Ubuntu To Begin Making Use Of Swapfiles In Place Of SWAP Partitions http://blog.surgut.co.uk/2016/12/swapfiles-by-default-in-ubuntu.html no more than 5% of free disk space or 2GiB, whichever is lower. – oldfred Dec 17 '16 at 15:49
  • @oldfred the use of a swap file vs a swap partition is moot... as I said, swap is required... no matter how much RAM you have. – heynnema Dec 17 '16 at 15:51
  • Swap space is recommended, but not required. I disagree with your advice about creating a separate /home; IMHO, it's generally a good practice to do so, with the caveat that you need to understand how much space to give to the root (/) and /home partitions. The reason is that creating a separate /home partition helps protect your personal files (which go in /home) should you want to re-install or make other major changes. – Rod Smith Dec 20 '16 at 19:36
  • @RodSmith especially in a small memory computer, without swap, the computer will freeze/crash if memory gets full, no? My experience, esp with small disk environments, is that the user calculates the partition sizes wrong when they break it into / and /home, and they always either 1) run out of room on root, or 2) waste a lot of free space that could be better utilized if there was only 1 partition + swap. I have 16G RAM and my swap still gets used. – heynnema Dec 21 '16 at 01:38
  • I'm not advocating for installing without swap space; I'm just saying that it's possible to do so, whereas your answer explicitly states otherwise, which is factually in error. In other words, you're overstating the matter. As to the merits of breaking off a separate /home partition, that is a matter of opinion, and you're entitled to yours just as I'm entitled to mine; but comments in response to an answer aren't the best place to hash this out. This question and its answers address it. – Rod Smith Dec 21 '16 at 17:01
  • @RodSmith I've edited my answer. – heynnema Dec 21 '16 at 17:15