I would like try having an:All files in one partition install-any tip?

yvonney · 2008-06-27 09:03:19

Hi Everyone!

Could use a comment or two on any technical/logical stuff on this one.

Objective is to be able to install the new FABULOUS 2008.06 ISO from CD onto ONE partition... with ALL files in ONE partition. I know that having a swap and a home partition as well as root is advised though I'd like to try an install with everything in one partition.

When I first tried this: I 'think' I had to have a wiped drive for the installer to allow me to select 'NONE' for swap partition.... This then allowed me to, I believe, install EVERYTHING on one partition....WITHOUT a swap space... are there any cool ways to do this when a drive already has a couple of partitions on it...??
Boot commands? etc.?

I MAY have missed something though I don't believe I could proceed with the NONE option for selecting swap space during install WHEN the drive had other partitions on it...

thanks for reading!

Morgan141 · 2008-06-27 09:09:47

The 'none' option for the swap partition should always be there, regardless of the partitions on the hard drive. I did this very recently using the 2008.03RC install cd and my hard drive was partitioned. Of course this may have changed for the new install cd but I don't see why it would be.

Last edited by Morgan141 (2008-06-27 09:11:49)

yvonney · 2008-06-27 09:22:54

wow.... nice timing!
yes, obviously because I had not tried and checked for myself ..I was mistaken... hehe
it's a great case of being happy I was wrong and happy for the info.... big thanks!

I find it interesting there's a lot about ubuntu and newbie installs and the single partition option (though maybe that even has a swap partition.... dunno...
I'm playing around with a few ideas... as well as getting a handle of partitions and having more or less of them....

1) encompassing either dual or multi boot for sure... I've had that working great with ARCH installed first and then XP.. surprised me!
2) any benefits to Grub4dos or other, over grub... guess not...?
3) most interesting is something I read about having the entire /boot partition on a USB key

it really is the coolest time for me to be getting so far along with ARCH...um, relatively (for me) speaking... :-)
I was really not quite catching on after years of nix toying, until I got excited about ARCH and the wiki/community and distro... really been big for me.

Last edited by yvonney (2008-06-27 09:26:06)

jimmy512 · 2008-06-27 09:56:05

I'm pretty sure the debian single-partition option also creates a swap partition, like ubuntu (they probably all do). You could try manually partitoning, and not creating a swap space, and then editing your /etc/fstab file during the relevant stage in the set up to remove the entry it makes. This might produce errors after the partition disk stage though.

If it works, it might be possible to have a disk image in your filesystem, that is mounted as swap during boot up. I have never tried this, but I cant see why it wont work.

klixon · 2008-06-27 10:40:25

jimmy512 wrote:

If it works, it might be possible to have a disk image in your filesystem, that is mounted as swap during boot up. I have never tried this, but I cant see why it wont work.

for a 64MB (64 * 1024 == 65536 ) swap-file:

# dd if=/dev/zero of=/swapfile bs=1024 count=65536
# mkswap /swapfile
# swapon /swapfile       # this activates it immediately

and add this line to /etc/fstab to auto-activate it at boot-time

/swapfile swap swap defaults 0 0

lilsirecho · 2008-06-27 14:04:47

Yvonney;

It should be possible...FaunOS is installed on one partition from USB flash.

yvonney · 2008-06-27 16:35:56

thanks for the greatness!

[no swap partition possible]
As certain as 'i' can be that I have installed the whole of ARCH into one partition... and now I believe I was incorrect that the drive normally needs to be wiped to get the NONE option for swap when installing..

[running/creating with swap-file]
I have read about this and planned to manually create a swap-file AFTER the install. I'm interested in seeing what's what etc. when ALL of ARCH is in one partition.

[having /boot and/or? /home on USB yet running from drive as NORMAL]

I like to start out as stock as possible.. FaunOS was cool, and also had me going... hmmm.... OK, I don't really understand enough yet to have it all, just work from USB. I kinda don't really yet deserve to understand FaunOS or the cool Live-arch and there's the other one I believe that's great, is that Archie!?! Gotta learn about all of them when I'm better with ARCH.

So stay with what I love most and that's ARCH.... So, I wanna be able to make stock arch installs do stuff.

I'm going to be doing more studying about ways to have grub or grub4dos? or? ..... or a /boot partition or whatever on a USB key.... WHILE having ARCH on the hard drive be as stock/regular install-ish as is possible...

good morning!

Last edited by yvonney (2008-06-27 22:24:29)

Arch Linux

#1 2008-06-27 09:03:19

I would like try having an:All files in one partition install-any tip?

#2 2008-06-27 09:09:47

Re: I would like try having an:All files in one partition install-any tip?

#3 2008-06-27 09:22:54

Re: I would like try having an:All files in one partition install-any tip?

#4 2008-06-27 09:56:05

Re: I would like try having an:All files in one partition install-any tip?

#5 2008-06-27 10:40:25

Re: I would like try having an:All files in one partition install-any tip?

#6 2008-06-27 14:04:47

Re: I would like try having an:All files in one partition install-any tip?

#7 2008-06-27 16:35:56

Re: I would like try having an:All files in one partition install-any tip?

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