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#1 2010-01-06 02:33:29

Daphron
Member
Registered: 2010-01-06
Posts: 27

Tripple Booting(MacOSX Leopard, Mint, Arch)

I am going to try to install arch soon and I would like a little advice on partitioning drives. I have 4 partitions on my macbook 5,2 right now and I would like to shrink them and add partitions for arch.


/dev/sda1 is  210 MB FAT (32-bit version)
/dev/sda2 is a 84 GB HFS+ (my mac OSX install, I want to take some of the space from this drive for my arch install
/dev/sda3 has 4 GB Swap Space (I might want to shrink the size of this, I used the 2x rule on it and that rule seems out of date from what I've read recently)
/dev/sda4 is a 72 GB Filesystem Linux Ext3 (version 1.0) (I also want to shrink this to get some space for arch also. This is my Linux Mint install)

I want to add arch to my computer but I need information on what I should do with partitioning. Do I need to make a new swap partition for Arch? If not, will arch automatically use the swap space or will I need to do something to get it to use it?

Really what I want to know is what an ideal filesystem will look like after the install and what I will need to do during the install to get it that way. I am reading the guides and I can't quite grasp the partitioning part, everything else looks fine. Good sizes for the partitions would be appreciated.

I am planning on using arch for a desktop and installing quite a bit of software on it eventually.

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#2 2010-01-06 05:55:43

mjheagle8
Member
From: /home/mjheagle8
Registered: 2009-07-12
Posts: 186

Re: Tripple Booting(MacOSX Leopard, Mint, Arch)

you do not need a new swap partition, all linux distros will use the same swap automatically.

ideal depends on what you'd like to accomplish with the system. here's mine (fairly standard):
mount - format - size
/boot - ext2 - 64 mb
swap - swap - 2 * ram
/       -  ext4 - 8 gb
/home - ext4 - the rest


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#3 2010-01-06 23:53:00

Daphron
Member
Registered: 2010-01-06
Posts: 27

Re: Tripple Booting(MacOSX Leopard, Mint, Arch)

Ok, thanks. Anything I should know about having partitions that go past 4? I seem to recall that you can only have 4 main partitions. Also, about how long should I have to get arch installed (getting to a point where I can stop is fine, I don't need to get the full thing installed, gui and all)

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#4 2010-01-07 01:18:11

mythus
Member
From: MS Gulf Coast
Registered: 2008-05-15
Posts: 509
Website

Re: Tripple Booting(MacOSX Leopard, Mint, Arch)

Daphron wrote:

Ok, thanks. Anything I should know about having partitions that go past 4? I seem to recall that you can only have 4 main partitions. Also, about how long should I have to get arch installed (getting to a point where I can stop is fine, I don't need to get the full thing installed, gui and all)

Greetings,

That first part is actually answered in the Beginner's Guide. You are right that the limit for primaries is 4.

How long it takes depends on the user and the user's environment. It typically takes around 10 to 20 minutes to install the bare bones system, but for some that can be longer, and for others it can be shorter.


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#5 2010-01-07 03:51:59

mjheagle8
Member
From: /home/mjheagle8
Registered: 2009-07-12
Posts: 186

Re: Tripple Booting(MacOSX Leopard, Mint, Arch)

Daphron wrote:

Ok, thanks. Anything I should know about having partitions that go past 4? I seem to recall that you can only have 4 main partitions. Also, about how long should I have to get arch installed (getting to a point where I can stop is fine, I don't need to get the full thing installed, gui and all)

yes, primary partitions are typically limited to 4. you could use a logical (extended) partition.

if you would like, it may be simpler to set up your partition scheme before installing using a gparted live cd if you're not comfortable with partitioning everything in fdisk.

my first installation took about 15 minutes for the base system, but that may vary (like mythus said). including gui and sound my first time took around 2 hours ish i'd say. depending on connection speed and skill. smile


Desktop/Laptop - DWM :: VM - screen
Registered Linux User Number 483137 :: Victory! :: GitHub

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