Slackware Linux Essentials
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3.3 -Partitioning

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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.

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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.

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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:

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-# fdisk /dev/hda
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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:

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-Command (m for help): p
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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.

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

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

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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:

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

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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.

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Now we create the partitions with the n command:

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-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
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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.

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-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
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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.

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