Get help on partitioning here [Part 1]

fitalia · n00b Joined: 30 Jul 2005 Posts: 4

After entering

jmbsvicetto · Posted: Sun Jul 31, 2005 11:34 am Post subject:

So your disk is /dev/hdc. Unfortunately, I don't think you'll be able to exchange the cables

- I hand't noticed that you were using a laptop.
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Jorge.

Your twisted, but hopefully friendly daemon.
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fastwings · n00b Joined: 17 Aug 2005 Posts: 4

what is /opt what its use?
how much the /swap
size its good for?
have hd of 120g
??

jmbsvicetto · Posted: Thu Aug 18, 2005 1:09 pm Post subject:

Hi and welcome to the forums fastwings.

The /opt partition is generally used for large optional or paid software. So that you have an idea, the following is the list of my AMD64 /opt dir and its size.

damnbiker · n00b Joined: 02 Sep 2005 Posts: 11

Okay, I'm trying to get a multi OS set up going. I am running an AMD x64 with 200GB HD and 2 GB of ram

My first question is, do I really need a 4GB swap partition? It just seems kind of excessive, doesn't it?

This is how I currently have my drives partitioned:

sda1: 30Gb FAT32 (primary) for C:\
sda2: 4GB swap (primary)
sda3: 500 MB reiserfs (primary) for /
sda4: 160 GB extended
sda5: 10 GB reisrfs for /home
sda6: 10 GB reiserfs for /var
sda7: 140 GB reiserfs for /usr

I am thinking about installing Gentoo and Slackware and changing my partition setup to the following:

sda1: 30Gb FAT32 (primary) for C:\

sda2: 4GB swap (primary)

sda3: 80 GB extended

sda4: 500 MB reisrfs for /
sda5: 10 GB reisrfs for /home
sda6: 10 GB reiserfs for /var
sda7: 55 GB reiserfs for /usr

sda8: 80 GB extended

sda9: 500 MB reisrfs for /
sda10: 10 GB reisrfs for /home
sda11: 10 GB reiserfs for /var
sda12: 55 GB reiserfs for /usr

The first 80 GB extended would be for Gentoo, the second for Slackware. Will this work? I'd really like to not use a boot partition simply because I don't want to go through the hassle of installing XP_x64 again (and I think it would put me over the 4 partition limit)

One thing I am also unclear on is the whole mounting of each partition. I did the following:

mount /dev/sda4 /mnt/gentoo for the root
mkdir /mnt/gentoo/home
mount /dev/sda5 /mnt/gentoo/home
mkdir /mnt/gentoo/var
mount /dev/sda6 /mnt/gentoo/var
mkdir /mnt/gentoo/usr
mount /dev/sda7 /mnt/gentoo/usr

Is this correct? Do I need to extract the stage1 tarball only to the root?
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kimchi_sg · Advocate Joined: 26 Nov 2004 Posts: 2968

damnbiker · n00b Joined: 02 Sep 2005 Posts: 11

Great, thanks! I'll post the results when I actually get something working

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toofu · n00b Joined: 30 Jul 2005 Posts: 1

I've done alot of reading about partioning I want to get it right before I install. I'm using entire 2nd drive for my install so I will unplug my 1st drive before I start . So you partition with fdisk write your partion table should you reboot before formatting and again before mounting?

jmbsvicetto · Posted: Fri Sep 02, 2005 11:29 pm Post subject:

Hi and welcome to the forums.

If I understood your question correctly, you can partition the disks with fdisk, create the filesystems with the appropriate tool and mount them without needing to reboot once. You just go from one step to the next.
_________________
Jorge.

Your twisted, but hopefully friendly daemon.
AMD64 / x86 / Sparc Gentoo
Help answer || emwrap.sh

kimchi_sg · Advocate Joined: 26 Nov 2004 Posts: 2968

myha · Posted: Sun Sep 18, 2005 8:23 am Post subject:

Hi!
Im having a little problem here and I need some help with partitioning...
Well, my problem is next: I already have a windows system and I want to setup gentoo also. But I get stucked with partitioning, because I cant make primary partition since all are used by windows i think...
/dev/sda1 NTFS
/dev/sda2 NTFS
/dev/sda3 W95 ext'd (LBA) ????
/dev/sda5 NTFS

Is there any way to change win partititon from primary to logical without loosing data?
Do I have to reformat disk to be able to install gentoo on my system?

Thank you in advance,
Miha

jmbsvicetto · Posted: Sun Sep 18, 2005 12:56 pm Post subject:

Hi and welcome to the forums.

You don't need to create primary partitions to install Gentoo. I prefer to have /home in a primary partition, but that's not a requirement.
If you could show us the exact output of fdisk -l, it would be easier to make suggestions. However, from your previous post, I believe that you have no free space on your disk. Would you be interested in removing the sda2 and or sda5 partitions or reducing their size? Before trying to do anything like that, you should make backups of your information as a precaution. If you decide to remove one or more partitions, you can start with the live-cd, run fdisk, remove the desired parttions and use that space to create the partitions to Gentoo. If you want to try reducing the size of a Windows partition, you should start by defraging the disks, then use Partition Magic, qtparted or a similar tool to resize the partitions, check them, and then install Gentoo from the live-cd.
For more info on Partition Magic and qtparted read this thread or search the forums.
_________________
Jorge.

Your twisted, but hopefully friendly daemon.
AMD64 / x86 / Sparc Gentoo
Help answer || emwrap.sh

myha · Posted: Sun Sep 18, 2005 4:22 pm Post subject:

Hi!

Thank you for your answer, I managed to create all partitions as necessary using partition manager and installed Gentoo...

So thanks anyway and sorry for bothering... :oops:

Bye,
Miha

jmbsvicetto · Posted: Sun Sep 18, 2005 6:02 pm Post subject:

No problem. It was my pleasure.
If you ever need help again, don't hesitate asking! ;-)

_________________
Jorge.

Your twisted, but hopefully friendly daemon.
AMD64 / x86 / Sparc Gentoo
Help answer || emwrap.sh

Saketh · Posted: Mon Sep 19, 2005 7:41 pm Post subject: I have partitions already

I already installed Fedora Core 3, but I don't like it too much. So I have partitions that I want to destroy. I have PartitionMagic 8.0 for Windows.

I have Windows and Fedora Core dual-booted. I use the Windows chainloader to boot a linux.img of Fedora Core. Grub will not work.

So here's my partition table:
http://img247.imageshack.us/img247/7169/partitiontable6yj.png

According to this one book I have, I need to use fdisk in order to use the existing Linux partitions to install Gentoo. How would I do this?
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jmbsvicetto · Posted: Mon Sep 19, 2005 9:32 pm Post subject:

Hi and welcome to the forums.

If you want to keep using Fedora Core 3, you need to free some aditional space or do you want to create the Gentoo partitions inside the LVM? Do you have enough free space there? If you want to use Gentoo with the / filesystem inside the LVM, you need to read some docs on that.
Can you show the output of fdisk -l and your LVs inside your LVM partition?
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Jorge.

Your twisted, but hopefully friendly daemon.
AMD64 / x86 / Sparc Gentoo
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Saketh · Posted: Mon Sep 19, 2005 9:53 pm Post subject:

I want to destroy Fedora Core partitions in the process of putting Gentoo, unless (if and only if) it is easier to create new partitions.

I can't access my Linux partition right now. What information is in fdisk -l that I did not give in the above diagram of my partitions? I realize it is much easier for you to help me if I give you the fdisk -l, but I can't access that right now. Part of the reason why I want to destroy FC3.
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Men of genius do not excel in any profession because they labor in it, but they labor in it because they excel.
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jmbsvicetto · Posted: Tue Sep 20, 2005 12:33 am Post subject:

Ok. If you want to forego Fedora, then you just have to remove the ext3 and the LVM partitions. When you boot with the live-cd, run fdisk and remove the 83 and 8e partitions. The former is the /boot and the latter the LVM partitions.
You are following the Gentoo Handbook, right?
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Jorge.

Your twisted, but hopefully friendly daemon.
AMD64 / x86 / Sparc Gentoo
Help answer || emwrap.sh

Saketh · Posted: Tue Sep 20, 2005 1:03 am Post subject:

I am following the Gentoo Handbook.

The LVM partition is not going away for some reason, at least from PartitionMagic.

Again, here's my partition table.

I would assume that I go to fdisk, and do this:

jmbsvicetto · Posted: Tue Sep 20, 2005 1:11 am Post subject:

That looks correct, assuming that Partition Magic lists partitions by number.
If you're willing to live with 25GB in Linux, you won't need to touch the XP partition.
_________________
Jorge.

Your twisted, but hopefully friendly daemon.
AMD64 / x86 / Sparc Gentoo
Help answer || emwrap.sh

Saketh · Posted: Tue Sep 20, 2005 1:27 am Post subject:

I just want to confirm: Is there any way I can make sure that my Windows partitions are untouched (/dev/hda1, /dev/hda2)? Is there an option in fdisk that makes certain partitions unmodifiable?

And which filesystems should I put onto the partitions?

I want to confirm everything before I start partitioning - before it is too late.
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Men of genius do not excel in any profession because they labor in it, but they labor in it because they excel.
William Hazlitt (1778 - 1830)

jmbsvicetto · Posted: Tue Sep 20, 2005 2:03 am Post subject:

I understand your concern and that's healthy! :wink:

Until you write the partition table to the disk, nothing is lost! You can write the partition info to a paper, so that if you have any problem, you can recover the partition table. Write the number of the beginning and end sectors for each partition and its type. If anything goes wrong, that will allow you to recover your partitiont table.
I would use ext2 for /boot and reiserfs for all other partitions. However, some people prefer to use ext3, instead of reiserfs. That's your choice.
_________________
Jorge.

Your twisted, but hopefully friendly daemon.
AMD64 / x86 / Sparc Gentoo
Help answer || emwrap.sh

Saketh · Posted: Tue Sep 20, 2005 2:05 am Post subject:

This is somewhat unrelated, but I downloaded and burned the x86 CDs. I have a Pentium 4 Processor. I have a sneaky suspicion that I did something wrong. Was I suppoed to download some other type of iso?
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Men of genius do not excel in any profession because they labor in it, but they labor in it because they excel.
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jmbsvicetto · Posted: Tue Sep 20, 2005 2:10 am Post subject:

If you're using the minimal live-cd, then everything is correct. If you're using the universal cd and the package cd, then you're better served by the Pentium IV cds. You can use the x86 cds, but the programs won't be optimized for the Pentium IV. However, if you plan to do a Stage1/3 or to update your packages to the latest versions, there isn't much use on getting the Pentium IV cds.
_________________
Jorge.

Your twisted, but hopefully friendly daemon.
AMD64 / x86 / Sparc Gentoo
Help answer || emwrap.sh

Saketh · Posted: Tue Sep 20, 2005 2:22 am Post subject:

I am going to use Stage 3 install. I won't have an internet connection for a while (my card only works through ndiswrapper - I heard this doesn't happen under gentoo?).

I will try to use the x86 CDs. I am not that concerned about performance.

However, is there a significant performance difference? I'll get to partitioning tomorrow.
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Men of genius do not excel in any profession because they labor in it, but they labor in it because they excel.
William Hazlitt (1778 - 1830)