Arch Linux

jonnybarnes

Member

From: Manchester, UK

Registered: 2011-05-11

Posts: 129

Website

Formatting SSD

I have Ubuntu installed on my SSD at the moment. I want to try Arch. I have also just added a HDD to my system. I checked it was there in Ubuntu with the tool gdisk. I have created a GPT partition table on the drive, but the space remains unformatted for now, I shall format it during the Arch installation.

Looking at the SSD wiki page it suggests to use GPT for the drive. This requires the gdisk program, can this program be used during the installation process? The Installation Guide talks about fdisk and cfdisk only.

If I do use GPT, then I shall have to use GRUB2. The wiki page says to create a ~1MB partition (using gdisk) at the start of the device. Once this has been done, will

# sudo grub_bios-install --boot-directory=/boot --no-floppy --recheck /dev/sda

make use of this partition automatically?

Thanks for the help.
Jonny

demian

Member

From: Frankfurt, Germany

Registered: 2009-05-06

Posts: 709

Re: Formatting SSD

Any SSD will run perfectly fine with MSDOS partition style including alignment etc. Unless you have a good reason to use GTP I'd stick with MSDOS for compatibility reasons.

If you still want to use GPT you should use the ArchBoot install cd. It comes with grub2 (and parted, if you want to check/modify/create your GPT during the installation process).

Regards,
demian

Last edited by demian (2011-05-13 17:17:15)

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no place like /home
github

jonnybarnes

Member

From: Manchester, UK

Registered: 2011-05-11

Posts: 129

Website

Re: Formatting SSD

So when I try and partition/format the SSD I get the following error message:

FATAL ERROR: Bad primary partition 1: Partition ends in the final partial cylind

then my screen runs out of space.

MrArchy

Member

Registered: 2011-05-15

Posts: 3

Re: Formatting SSD

I use GPT style with grub2-bios just fine. (Currently no issues, though haven't used it that long) I have a UEFI capable system, but I don't know if its bugged intel firmware or a kernel bug. I always get a kernel trap when I do a simple reboot. Shutdown works fine though. (UEFI mode). So I went back to bios mode. (Intel DH67CL)
All this is with btrfs in raid0 (2x vertex 3) 1gbps read (sorry had to mention it). I know it is experimental, but its really really nice. Oh, yeah do boot on a separate partition if using btrfs.