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Comment by keithpeter | Hacker News Reader

A thinkpad X60 with a 120Gb disk managed to compile the kernel, base and xenocara ok in 5.5 release, but it took a fair time (some hours). If you use the default partition layout which defines separate slices for a lot of subdirectories of /usr, you run out of space in the src directory trying to compile, so I tend to select a custom layout and have just swap and a / directory.

The mtier binary update packages will save the fan and some electricity though. Thanks to all who commented with their experience.

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Making one big partition isn't the best idea because OpenBSD defaults the way it does for stability, data integrity and, a big surprise... security reasons[0].

That said, you shouldn't run out of space in the default partitions when building the system (ports are another story).

As far as I know the installer defaults to giving you around 2GB in /usr/src (which is more than enough to hold the source and build everything) and if the disk isn't big enough to do that, it won't partition it (60GB is big enough to get a separate /usr/src so 120GB is surely enough).

This assumes the instructions[1] are followed so everything is put in the right places and all the object files aren't dumped into the partition. Other than that, I don't know what could have went wrong.

[0] http://www.openbsd.org/faq/faq4.html#Partitioning

[1] http://www.openbsd.org/faq/faq5.html#BldUserland

OK, I'll have another go with the installer's 'default' partitioning scheme this time around as I intend to use the mtier binary upgrade packages. Last time I tried the compilation I had something like 75Kb free after the compile completed. It worked though.

Your first reference mentions the idea of leaving a part of the hard drive unformatted to allow for making new versions of partitions if necessary - I might try that as I keep little user data on this machine.

The problem in that thread was caused by building ports, which will fill up /usr. If you're going to build ports, I'd recommend changing the working dirs[0] to a different partition (I use /home).

Because of how the auto-partitioner decides the sizes, a 120GB disk should get the same partition sizes as a 256GB disk (the 256GB will just get more /home space). My 256GB disk has 2G each for /usr /usr/obj and /usr/src, and with that I can build kernel, userland and xenocara with no problems (unless I've filled up /usr by building Firefox from ports).

[0] http://www.openbsd.org/faq/faq15.html#PortsConfig

If you want to build ports on a machine, you should add a large (several dozen GB at least) /usr/ports partition. Keep in mind that monsters like firefox and libreoffice have insane space requirements.

Diverting ports builds to /home is a hack that works around the wrong choice made during install (which will invariably happen when you first start out, that's ok -- be prepared to reinstall with better parameters once you learn more about what you need).

Definitely a learning experience.

I have built Iceape on gNewSense linux on an X60 and I can say that under linux you need at least 20Gb of space and 6 hours on the core-duo with 2Gb RAM.

I always plan on a throw-away install when first playing with an operating system and repeat the install when I know what the 'rules' are. I shall be encrypting my /home just for peace of mind if I leave the laptop on the bus, so that is another thing to research.

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