Chapter 5 · Hardware, Disks, Partitions, and Filesystems·v1.0.0·Updated 7/6/2026·~12 min
What's changed: Initial version (topic 1.05, subtopics 1.05.1–1.05.3)
5.2Disk Layout and Partitioning
Key points
Learn partition design: the ESP (EFI System Partition) required for UEFI boot, choosing among fdisk, gdisk, and parted, allocation policy for / (root), /var, /home, /boot, and swap, and LVM basics (physical/logical volumes, online growth, snapshots).
A disk is divided into partitions before use. The ledger of divisions is the partition table—legacy MBR or the current mainstream GPT. How you divide is a design decision that directly affects stable operation.
5.2.1Partition tables and tools
- MBR: 2 TB limit, four primary partitions (extended as the workaround). GPT: practically no size limit, many partitions, paired with UEFI boot.
- The ESP (EFI System Partition) is a FAT-formatted partition holding the boot loader for UEFI boot (mounted at /boot/efi).
- Tools: fdisk (the interactive staple; originally MBR, now GPT too), gdisk (fdisk-style, GPT-only), parted (both tables, strong at non-interactive scripting).
fdisk -llists disks and partitions.
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