Arch Linux

crowhill

Member

Registered: 2009-02-04

Posts: 11

boot-able partition

hi there

yesterday, i gave the installation of archlinux on my dell xps m1330 a try. it's not as easy and quick as "everyone" wants you to believe. in fact, my installation is not yet complete. however, i totally love the concept/philosophy of archlinux and i'll definitely try it again tonight.

i have two questions (more will follow, for sure ):

1. when i created the partitions according to the official beginner's guide and then hit "write" in the partitioner, it said that no partition is marked as boot-able. which partition do i have to mark as boot-able? here is the example given in the beginner's guide:

sda1               Primary     Linux                             15440    #root
sda2               Primary     Linux                             6256     #/var
sda3               Primary     Linux swap / Solaris        1024     #swap
sda4               Primary     Linux                             140480  #/home

i read in this forum that the /boot folder will be in the /root partition. does this mean that i make /root boot-able or, in case /boot is supposed to be boot-able, would it be better to make an additional /boot partition?

2. i run ubuntu on my system. does anybody know of some kind of a list that tells me what information i can gain (using ubuntu) in order to be better prepared for the installation of archlinux? i mean, is there some kind of a checklist for hardware configurations that to know would be helpful?

thanks a lot in advance,
best regards,
crowhill

Last edited by crowhill (2009-02-04 14:25:54)

pointone

Wiki Admin

From: Waterloo, ON

Registered: 2008-02-21

Posts: 379

Re: boot-able partition

Yes, you'll want to make whichever partition contains /boot bootable--in this case, your root partition. A separate /boot partition is not necessary; it's a matter of preference.

If you're already running Ubuntu without issue, Arch will likely fully support your system.

There is a wiki article for your particular laptop you may want to read: http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Dell_XPS_M1330

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crowhill

Member

Registered: 2009-02-04

Posts: 11

Re: boot-able partition

Yes, you'll want to make whichever partition contains /boot bootable--in this case, your root partition. A separate /boot partition is not necessary; it's a matter of preference.

If you're already running Ubuntu without issue, Arch will likely fully support your system.

There is a wiki article for your particular laptop you may want to read: http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Dell_XPS_M1330

thank you very much for the reply. will try again tonight

cheers,
crowhill

perbh

Member

From: Republic of Texas

Registered: 2005-03-04

Posts: 765

Re: boot-able partition

No need for bootable partitions when you use grub/lilo and install the bootloader in the MBR. This is a carry-over from windoze of old where the default DOS bootloader in MBR (bless it's cotton socks - it has only 446 bytes to work with) would look for the first (and only) _primary_ partition with the boot-flag set.
If you install grub/lilo in MBR - it takes care of it all.