installing arch on extended partition/logical drive

o12357 · 2009-09-04 11:58:40

hi there. i am a newbie to linux and about to install arch as my first linux installation.

i am using vaio AR laptop already running xp and would like to keep it and have double boot without reinstalling xp.

have 200gb hdd with recovery primary partition, system primary partition (where xp installed) and extended partition with one logical drive (D: ) of 100gb.

i was considering deleting the logical drive (and the extended partition if necessary), which if i understand correctly should give me 100gb of unallocated space.

i would then like to install arch on the 100gb of unallocated space.

i would like to know if the way i am planning to go about it is possible, and whether i can install arch completely on one extended partition devided into logical drives.

any comments or sugestions would be much appreciated...

Last edited by o12357 (2009-09-04 12:45:18)

neddie_seagoon · 2009-09-04 15:59:58

Depending on your partitioning scheme, you can go about it 2 ways:

1. Delete your extended partition so you are left with 2 primaries. When you install Arch, cfdisk should be able to create 2 more primary partitions (max of 4 afair) so you could have 1 for / and the other for swap.

2. If you want more partitions than that for Arch, I believe that GRUB should have no issue booting from a logical partition inside the extended (which you can configure as well in cfdisk during install), but someone please correct me if I'm wrong.

rusty99 · 2009-09-04 16:19:17

Quite right, grub is fine booting from within an extended partition.
I use a 3 primary, 1 extended setup with /boot, /var, /usr, / and /home as seperate logical partitions.

o12357 · 2009-09-05 15:53:10

thanks for the informative replies.

there is one more thing i would like your opinion on please.

my computer has two seperate 100gb hard drives but they are arranged in RAID 0 (stripe). if i understand correctly, that means that all OSs will see them as one drive.
i know i can cancel the RAID but that would mean reinstalling xp.

do i need to take the RAID into consideration when installing arch? does it make a difference to the boot loader for example?

lilsirecho · 2009-09-05 16:31:34

If you use the raid0 for booting I think you may have problems with any new apps.

In using raid0 archlinux, the present arrangement utilizes mdadm for raid systems.

Raid0 will not autoload in a new system (unless the kernel has autodetect md). Man mdadm outlines the procedure for raid in the latest archlinux kernels.

Mkinitcpio utilizes initramfs to handle raid assembly and enabling during boot sequences. It must be setup in mdadm via /etc/mdadm.conf and mkinitcpio to enable the same raid0 that you have provided in your HDD's.

o12357 · 2009-09-05 17:18:27

thanks for the reply lilsirecho. i am very new to linux so please bare with me while i try to understand your reply.

i am not sure i understand what you mean by saying if i use raid0 for booting. all i know is that my laptop has two physical hard drives and both are arranged in raid0 array.
when i go to disk management in windows, it shows only one 200gb disk.
when i enter BIOS at startup, it shows two 100gb hard drives, and when i enter raid info at startup it shows that the two physical disks are arranged in one bootable raid0 volume.

if i understand you correctly, does that mean that i need to set up raid0 for the archlinx installation so it can function with the existing raid0?

thanks...

Last edited by o12357 (2009-09-05 17:20:27)

lilsirecho · 2009-09-05 18:14:13

I believe that is correct. Grub has to have a reference to the md0 raid for booting.

Please see
http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=79306

This solution to the boot problem with md0 should be helpful for your case since grub must be modified to accomodate the raid.

I am not sure the data in your raid0 is appropo for your use in booting archlinux, however. If I understand correctly, it is windows related data and not applicable to linux.

If your raid0 is partitioned, it would be possible to establish a boot for each system using grub partition references differing for linux and windows systems.

Thus, you would have grub entries complete for linux and another set complete for windows.

I think AFAICT windows has to be first in the usual dual booting but am not an expert on that, not having used dual boot. It may be somewhat different when using raid for booting dual systems.

I suggest you read the wiki on dual boots.

Perhaps you will get advice from others on the subject also.

EDIT: Your asumption that all OS'es will recognize the raid0 devices as a single drive does not apply to archlinux which does not autodetect raid arrays but must have initramfs populated with the raid data established by mdadm and initiated into initramfs by mkinitcpio. Then during boot sequences , the array is assembled and enabled as a single drive,i.e., md0. The boot sequence assembles all drives having identical UUID's in the raid array.

Last edited by lilsirecho (2009-09-05 18:23:36)

o12357 · 2009-09-05 18:35:09

thank you very much for the detailed explanation.
will do more reading as you suggested.

nazar2sfive · 2015-05-29 08:39:07

/dev/sda1 * 2048 206847 204800 100M 7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda2 206848 209922047 209715200 100G 7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda3 209922048 593346559 383424512 182.9G 7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda4 593348606 976771869 383423264 182.9G f W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/sda5 593348608 946051071 352702464 168.2G 7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda6 946053120 976771869 30718750 14.7G 83 Linux

this is my list... i want to install arch linux on sda6... make it bootable ... no swap... this is how i am running ubuntu now but now want to change to arch linux .... can i do it with cfdisk from arch iso install.. i mean i don't think it is primary.... is primary necessary?

Last edited by nazar2sfive (2015-05-29 08:40:55)

WorMzy · 2015-05-29 09:40:31

Hi nazar2sfive, and welcome to the Arch forums. Please take a moment to read through the forum etiquette, in particular the sections regarding old threads and pasting code.

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Fo … bumping.22
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Fo … s_and_code

As this is a six year old thread, I'm going to lock it now.

Closing.

Arch Linux

#1 2009-09-04 11:58:40

installing arch on extended partition/logical drive

#2 2009-09-04 15:59:58

Re: installing arch on extended partition/logical drive

#3 2009-09-04 16:19:17

Re: installing arch on extended partition/logical drive

#4 2009-09-05 15:53:10

Re: installing arch on extended partition/logical drive

#5 2009-09-05 16:31:34

Re: installing arch on extended partition/logical drive

#6 2009-09-05 17:18:27

Re: installing arch on extended partition/logical drive

#7 2009-09-05 18:14:13

Re: installing arch on extended partition/logical drive

#8 2009-09-05 18:35:09

Re: installing arch on extended partition/logical drive

#9 2015-05-29 08:39:07

Re: installing arch on extended partition/logical drive

#10 2015-05-29 09:40:31

Re: installing arch on extended partition/logical drive

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