Slackware Linux Essentials
Prev	Chapter 3 Installation	Next

3.3 +Partitioning

+ +

After booting from your preferred media, you will need to partition your hard disk. +The disk partition is where the Linux filesystem will be created and is where Slackware +will be installed. At the very minimum we recommend creating two partitions; one for your +root filesystem (/) and one for swap space.

+ +

After the root disk finishes loading, it will present you with a login prompt. Log in +as root (there is no password). At the shell prompt, run either cfdisk(8) or fdisk(8). The cfdisk program provides a more user-friendly interface than the +regular fdisk program, but does lack some features. We will +briefly explain the fdisk program below.

+ +

Begin by running fdisk for your hard disk. In Linux, the hard +disks do not have drive letters, but are represented by a file. The first IDE hard disk +(primary master) is /dev/hda, the primary slave is /dev/hdb, and so on. SCSI disks follow the same type system, but +are in the form of /dev/sdX. You +will need to start fdisk and pass it your hard disk:

+ + + + + +

+# fdisk /dev/hda
+

+ +

Like all good Unix programs, fdisk gives you a prompt +(thought you were getting a menu, right?). The first thing you should do is examine your +current partitions. We do that by typing p at the fdisk prompt:

+ + + + + +

+Command (m for help): p
+

+ +

This will display all sorts of information about your current partitions. Most people +pick a free drive to install to and then remove any existing partitions on it to create +room for the Linux partitions.

+ +

+ + + + + +

IT IS VERY IMPORTANT THAT YOU BACK UP ANY INFORMATION YOU WANT TO SAVE BEFORE +DESTROYING THE PARTITION IT LIVES ON.

+ +

There is no easy way to recover from deleting a partition, so always back up before +playing with them.

+ +

Looking at the table of partition information you should see a partition number, the +size of the partition, and its type. There's more information, but don't worry about that +for now. We are going to delete all of the partitions on this drive to create the Linux +ones. We run the d command to delete those:

+ + + + + +

+Command (m for help): d
+Partition number (1-4): 1
+

+ +

This process should be continued for each of the partitions. After deleting the +partitions we are ready to create the Linux ones. We have decided to create one partition +for our root filesystem and one for swap. It is worth noting that Unix partitioning +schemes are the subject of many flame wars, and that most users will tell you the best +way to do it. At a minimum, you should create one partition for / and one for swap. Over time, you'll develop a method that works +well for you.

+ +

I use two basic partition schemes. The first is for a desktop. I make 4 partitions, +/, /home, /usr/local, and swap. This lets me re-install or upgrade the entire +installation under / without wiping out my data files under +/home or my custom compiled applications under /usr/local. For +servers, I often replace the /usr/local partition with a /var partition. Many different servers store information on that +partition and having it kept separate from / has certain +performance benefits. For now, we're sticking with just two partitions: / and swap.

+ +

Now we create the partitions with the n command:

+ + + + + +

+Command (m for help): n
+Command action
+   e   extended
+   p   primary partition (1-4)
+p
+Partition number (1-4):1
+First cylinder (0-1060, default 0):0
+ Last cylinder or +size or +sizeM or +sizeK (0-1060, default 1060):+64M
+

+ +

You need to make sure you create primary partitions. The first partition is going to +be our swap partition. We tell fdisk to make partition number 1 a primary partition. We +start it at cylinder 0 and for the ending cylinder we type +64M. This will give us a 64 +megabyte partition for swap. (The size of the swap partition you need actually depends on +the amount of RAM you have. It is conventional wisdom that a swap space double the size +of your RAM should be created.) Then we define primary partition number 2 starting at the +first available cylinder and going all the way to the end of the drive.

+ + + + + +

+Command (m for help):n
+Command action
+   e   extended
+   p   primary partition (1-4)
+p
+Partition number (1-4):2
+First cylinder (124-1060, default 124):124
+Last cylinder or +size or +sizeM or +sizeK (124-1060, default 1060):1060
+

+ +

We are almost done. We need to change the type of the first partition to type 82 +(Linux swap). Type t to change the type, select the first +partition, and type 82. Before writing your changes to the +disk, you should look at the new partition table one last time. Use the p in fdisk to display the partition +table. If everything looks good, type w to write your +changes to the disk and quit fdisk.

Prev	Home	Next
System Requirements	Up	The `setup` +Program