What Size /boot Does Linux Take?

Forgive the thread subject, just a little attempt at a joke... sorry if it failed!

I've got Linux Mandrake 7.1 on an 8.4 GB HDD, problem is, it has more than 1024 cylinders, so I have to boot from a floppy cos LILO dies every time from the MBR.

All I need to know is how much space does the /boot partition need (cos I'm gonna repartition it so that theres a small /boot partition at the start of the drive than a larger / partition for the rest of the drive)

I just need to know how much space linux needs in its /boot s!!

I think you'll find most hard disks have more than 1024 cylinders!

Have a look here: http://www.linuxdoc.org/HOWTO/mini/Partition/

Yes, but a small partition at the start of a large hard drive gets round the problem... All i wanted to know was how much space the /boot directory needs!!!

10 MB seems to work, though, and my Linux box now works fine, apart from that I made a mistake with the X-Setup part of the install and now have no graphical interface, but I can soon put that right!

You got it. / and /boot don't really need much space at all.
I think you will find that many Distro's that have a feature to automatically setup up your partitions will often give you a combined boot-root in the neighborhood of about 20-35 MB.
/usr is the disk pig.

GUI?

You should be able to install XFree86 and all the dependencies plus a window manager with no problem.

Yeah, I can, it's just that my monitor only seems to work at a certain resolution and colour depth, but I keep forgetting what it is, so I have to try them all, but... the mouse seems to stop working after a couple of failed attempts, then the keyboard locks up after the 3rd or 4th, and i'm basically *****ed...

It's not a problem, I know what I'm doing, It's just a case of finding the right setting again!

Problem solved... It needed 16-bit colour, not 24- or 32-, at a resolution of 1024x768 @ 70Hz !!!!!

Like your attitude! You a Slackware user by any chance? :D

/* please, don't take offense to the Slackware user comment if you use another Distro. */

Currently using Mandrake 7.1, have tried Slackware before, don't know much about it cos i tried it for a short while then the motherboard died, so when i reinstalled everything I put mandrake on.

I've tried redhat as well, but i think I'll be sticking with mandrake for now (when i buy another comp. I might try a different distro on it as well, though)

No offence taken by the slackware comment - from what i saw of it it looked good!