With my extensive Linux background, I based the system on RedHat Linux 7.0 (Valhalla) this was not because it's a special version or that it's fantastically stable, just that it was the most up to date version at the time. If you are thinking of making a similar system, there are several keywords that I have italized, Google will be able to offer much background on them.
The system has two modes, player mode and maintenance mode they are exactly what they sound like. The main drive (/dev/hda) is partitioned into lots of slices, each has it's own purpose.
| Partition | Size | Use |
| /dev/hda1 | 1Gb | Root Filesystem |
| /dev/hda2 | 70Mb | Swap Space |
| /dev/hda3 | 30Mb | Logical Partition |
| /dev/hda4 | 10.5Gb | Music Storage |
| /dev/hda5 | 10Mb | Permanent Database (track lists etc) |
| /dev/hda6 | 10Mb | Temporary Database (state) |
| /dev/hda7 | 10Mb | Log partition |
| /dev/hdb1 | 12Gb | Music Storage |
Each partition is used and mounted in different ways depending on the mode the player is in at the time.