I plan on using one 500GB SATA hardrive for my Knoppmyth backend. How should I partition this drive?

I read the Pamphlet of KnoppMyth (http://hust.la/KnoppMyth/) and it said to do this:

Create 4 partitions.

/ - 2.5 GB
swap (1.5 times memory. I have 1 GB memory so this partition would be 1.5 GB)
/cache (3-10 GB recommended. Is this enough for HD?)
/myth (rest of drive)


It recommends ext2 for the live buffer and ext3 for the data.

The Linux HTPC HowTo (http://www.linuxis.us/linux/media/howto/linux-htpc/harddrives.html) said reiserfs or reiser4 for a root filesystem is probably the best bet. For the media partitions it recommended XFS. The HowTo didn't use "Ext3 anywhere because it's slow all around and fscking a TB ext2 filesystem would take probably an hour or longer."

Also, is there another forum that I could join that has active MythTV, KnoppMYTH users that I could find answers to my questions?

What version of Myth does knoppmyth install? I don't use knoppmyth, but I know that at least .20 and further no longer use a separate "live buffer," they just record live like any other recording in the recordings directory (what you are planning on partitioning as /myth) so you wouldn't need a separate partition for that. Just for safety and possible future planning I would recommend a slightly larger / partition (closer to 10GB). And if you ever plan on expanding memory maybe a slightly large swap (This might seem a little wasteful, but having them bigger won't really cost you much program space for HD programs and make may thing easier on you down the road).

Ext3 isn't so bad and it is resizeable, and it works well for me, but the other filesystems are faster. I use ext3 because I can easily read them with my XP machine using fs-driver, as my machines serve a few functions in addition to an HTPC.

Just my 2 cents.

I would be good practice to create at least /tmp, /var, /usr and /boot as well. You could also use lvm to manage your physical disks. This would let you be conservative on the partition sizes and grow them as needed. When you add disks down the road, you can simply add it to the logical volume and grow the filesystems as necessary.

XFS or JFS would be ideal for the partition that stores your recordings as they handle large files better than ext3 or reiser (both good for smaller files or large directories). All of those filesystems can be grown while only some can be shrunk (reiser for sure, not sure about the rest).

I plan on using one 500GB SATA hardrive for my Knoppmyth backend. How should I partition this drive?

I read the Pamphlet of KnoppMyth (http://hust.la/KnoppMyth/) and it said to do this:


Do the the auto install and it will automatically create the partitions for you.