Alpha Core manual fdisk

Mike Barnes strepsil at gmail.com
Mon Oct 18 22:23:48 UTC 2004


Since there have been a few queries on the subject, here's a pretty
detailed guide on doing the  partitioning manually for an SRM-based
system during install. This will end up on the web site fairly soon.

When the installer gets to the point of giving you the option to
Autopartition or use Disk Druid, switch to virtual console 2 - Alt-F2
in text mode, or Ctrl-Alt-F2 in graphical install. There should be a
shell prompt sitting there.

Assuming /dev/sda as the drive to partition, run:
   fdisk /dev/sda

At the fdisk prompt, hit "b" to switch to BSD disklabel mode.

By default, there will be a single partition ('c') occupying the
entire disk span, marked as type "unused". This can stay.

Create your first partition (hit 'n', 'a'). To leave room for the
bootloader, you'll want to start at an offset of about 5 meg. Cylinder
4 is usually sufficient. For the ending point, you can use the
+(number)(unit) notation which will work fine. The prompt doesn't say
so, but using "g" to indicate gigabyte works fine.

For example, a 10 gig partition can be created by giving the value
"+10G" when prompted for the ending cylinder.

Repeat, creating any desired partitions (don't forget to allocate some
swap space). You'll need to view the partition table ('p')
occasionally as you go if you're creating more than one to make sure
you're creating new partitions after the end of your previous ones.

Once you've got your partitions defined, you'll need to set them to
the correct type. Hit 't' at the fdisk prompt, then choose the
partition to change. The list of types can be viewed by entering 'l'.
For ext2 or ext3 partitions, use type 8. Don't change the type of
partition "c".

Once you're all set, use the 'w' command to write out the partition
table, and quit fdisk.

Switch back to the installer at this point (Alt-F1 for text mode,
Alt-F7 for graphical). Choose the "Disk Druid" option. You should see
a list of the partitions you created. You'll need to go to each one
and edit it - select the partition and hit "F3". Go into the
"Filesystem Options" section and choose to format the partition as
ext3, then go back and select the mount point for that partition.

You should be able to continue the install from there.

Please let me know if there are any inaccuracies in this message,
since I'm writing it from memory, and I haven't yet had a coffee
today. :)




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