Arch Linux

Socialsymbol

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Registered: 2010-06-29

Posts: 18

[SOLVED]Unusable Free Space Partitions in cfdisk

I am attempting to install Arch Linux alongside Fedora. I start out with the top three partitions and ~80gb unallocated space.

http://boonce.org/up/IMG_0006.JPG

As you may be able to see, I've created a 15gb /root system at the beginning of /dev/sda2, and set the type to 83 linux. I then created a 10gb /var partition following the /root, and once again set the type to 83 linux. However, when I attempt to continue on to create my /home partition, the remaining ~65gb of unallocated space is now being read as "unusable" and I get no option to create a new partition from it.

The only explanation I could think of is I'm maxing out on one of two things: One, either I'm making too many partitions on one drive in general, or two, I've got too many primary partitions (but then I should still be able to create new logical ones, right?)

Any help is appreciated. If you need any more information or can't see the image I posted clearly enough, just ask and I'll clarify.

Last edited by Socialsymbol (2010-08-18 20:53:48)

stqn

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Registered: 2010-03-19

Posts: 1,191

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Re: [SOLVED]Unusable Free Space Partitions in cfdisk

I think the problem is you have four primary partitions, which is the maximum. You should be making an "extended" partition which will then contain the other partitions.

Edit: you should remove one (the latest?) primary partition to be able to make the extended one.

Last edited by stqn (2010-08-18 20:01:59)

Socialsymbol

Member

Registered: 2010-06-29

Posts: 18

Re: [SOLVED]Unusable Free Space Partitions in cfdisk

I think the problem is you have four primary partitions, which is the maximum. You should be making an "extended" partition which will then contain the other partitions.

Edit: you should remove one (the latest?) primary partition to be able to make the extended one.

Actually, I just became aware that apparently you can only have one extended partition per hard drive, and I'm already using one for Fedora...

So I'm guessing this isn't going to work?

EDIT: I fixed it in cfdisk. Just created all my arch partitions as logical. Dual booting fine now.

Thanks for the help.

Last edited by Socialsymbol (2010-08-18 20:53:34)

stqn

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Registered: 2010-03-19

Posts: 1,191

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Re: [SOLVED]Unusable Free Space Partitions in cfdisk

Make the extended partition fill the whole disk (besides the first few primary partitions) so that you can put as many secondary partitions in it as necessary?

Edit: The secondary partitions should show up as "Logical" in cfdisk, and I have no clue how you can make this in cfdisk.

Last edited by stqn (2010-08-18 20:30:03)