HD Install :: Partitions and frugal vs. full installation
What is the difference between the frugal and full installation? What does the frugal installation exclude that the full installation includes?
Also, what partitions do I need? (This will be a single-boot, not a dual-boot, and it will be a fresh install.) I understand that there are several necessary partitions. One is the swap partition, which I understand must be type 0x82. Since I have 256 MB of RAM, I'm allocating 512 MB to it. From what I've read, I can make this a primary or logical partition. Under what circumstances should this be a primary partition, and under what circumstances should this be a logical partition? I understand that the swap partition can be anywhere on the disk but certain locations are more optimal (for speed) than others.
I understand that another partition I need is a boot partition. I understand that all boot partitions must be within the first 1024 sectors of the hard drive and a primary partition. I understand that for Linux, the type must be 0x83. But what size should a boot partition be? Is it supposed to occupy the rest of the hard drive?
Do I need additional partitions? If so, where should they be located, should they be primary or logical, and what size should they be?
See wiki/docs, or even other forum posts for more info.
This might help you get started if you don't have a DSL yet (its the first popup, in dillo): http://damnsmalllinux.org/wiki/index.php/Local_Startup_Documentation
As to most of your questions, its really a matter of preference.
Typically using the 'ends' of a typical hard disk yields slightly better speeds, though it's pretty much negligible to the end user.
You also really only need 1 primary partition to boot from.
The difference is that frugal kinda emulates the livecd, the filesystem is readonly and packed (the ~50mb KNOPPIX file) and in full harddrive install everything is unpacked, writable and takes about 200 mb of space. Hd install is a little faster, because of no need to unpack, but it isn't as easily upgradable as frugal.
original here.