Arch Linux

Gaspode

Member

Registered: 2009-09-12

Posts: 13

Manual Partition of Hard Drive [Solved]

Hi Folks.
I'm pretty sure something like this already exists, but i didn't find any help using the search, so...
I want to install Archlinux on my Computer, which already has Windows XP running (which is why I can't use the Auto-Prepare feature). So I chose the "Manually partition hard drive(s)" option. I selected the HD /dev/sda which is the only one i have got. Then, cfdisk showed me the four partitions that i already had:

sda1 (bootable) primary NTFS (this is the partition where Windows XP is installed)
sda5 logical NTFS (to store Data while working with windows)
sda6 logical linux ext3 (i had Ubuntu installed before wanting to install Arch)
sda7 logical linux swap (from the Ubuntu installation)

I deleted the two linux partitions and created new ones (again linux ext3 and linux swap) and chose "write". It wrote the partition table, and when it was finished I selected Quit and then Done in the HD selection menu. According to the installation guide, the setup should have told me now if there had been a mistake, but it didn't. So i selected "Return to Main Menu" in the "Prepare Hard Drive" Window, and selected "Select Packages" which is the next step, but it prompted a Message: "You must do 'Prepare Hard Drives' first before goin here!" What mistake could I possibly have made? There is nothing about this in the Installation guide, so I hope you guys can help me...

Gaspode

PS: Sorry for any spelling mistakes or something like that, I'm not a native english speaker :-)

Last edited by Gaspode (2009-09-12 13:20:01)

deej

Member

Registered: 2008-02-08

Posts: 395

Re: Manual Partition of Hard Drive [Solved]

You need to stay in that menu item [ "HD selection menu" ] & select 'Manually mount partitions..." or some such thing ( about the third choice down, as I recall ).
You can also create a file system in this option, then carry on...

Deej

Gaspode

Member

Registered: 2009-09-12

Posts: 13

Re: Manual Partition of Hard Drive [Solved]

First of all thank you for answering that quick.
Can someone tell me how to use this option ("Manally Configure block Devices, fileystems and mountponts") without touching the two NTFS Partitions? I don't want mess around with them it will be enough work to install arch and get it working the way i want it to, theres no need to reinstall windows too...

Gaspode

PS: In this menu there seems to be an additional partition (sda2). Is this the extended partition (translated it from the german word, don't know if it exists in english) that contains the logical partitions?

EDIT: Is there anything changed if i just leave the raw -> no_fs for the two ntfs partitions?

Last edited by Gaspode (2009-09-12 11:43:59)

deej

Member

Registered: 2008-02-08

Posts: 395

Re: Manual Partition of Hard Drive [Solved]

Just ignore all but your two linux partitions ( linux + swap ).
Select sda6 as root and sda7 as swap. That's it. Carry on installing
You'll be able to access your windows stuff from Arch... but get it [ Arch ] installed first,
then we'll attack that

Deej

[EDIT]

When it comes to installing Grub, elect to install it to SDA ! Not sda6 nor sda1 but sda !

[EDIT 2]

The installer will complain about no boot partition - is your hard drive a SATA or IDE ?
With SATA II, maybe SATA, no boot partition is needed. With IDE I'm not so sure...

Last edited by deej (2009-09-12 11:44:29)

Gaspode

Member

Registered: 2009-09-12

Posts: 13

Re: Manual Partition of Hard Drive [Solved]

Okay Thank you again...

My HD is a Sata (pretty new so it should be SataII but i'm not so shure abot this)

Last edited by Gaspode (2009-09-12 11:46:18)

deej

Member

Registered: 2008-02-08

Posts: 395

Re: Manual Partition of Hard Drive [Solved]

OK, no boot partition will be needed, carry on installing.

Deej

Gaspode

Member

Registered: 2009-09-12

Posts: 13

Re: Manual Partition of Hard Drive [Solved]

Ok there. I have arrived at cnfiguring my System. I wanted to set a Root Password, but i got an Error from the fs. It tells me something about being unable to read an inode block? The error message repeats itself for 3 minutes now and I'm unable to do anything else. Any guess what went wrong?

Gaspode

EDIT: I repeated the installation and chose to recreate the filesystem instead of using the existing one.

EDIT2: Anything special i need to do when configuring the system? If not I will just leave the defaults and set a root passwd...

Last edited by Gaspode (2009-09-12 12:51:58)

Gaspode

Member

Registered: 2009-09-12

Posts: 13

Re: Manual Partition of Hard Drive [Solved]

Okay... I installed Arch successfully, and when it came to installing grub, i installed it to sda. It then asked me to take a look on the menu.lst . I was happy to see that there already was an entry for Windows, and so i left it unchanged, saved and finished. I rebooted, removed the disc, and the grub boot menu opened, but it doesn't show any entry to boot windows...

Gaspode

EDIT: Everything's ok, just forgot to uncomment the Windows section Oo. Thank you for your help, and I guess my next questions will go into the Desktop Environments Forum :-)

Last edited by Gaspode (2009-09-12 13:17:56)

deej

Member

Registered: 2008-02-08

Posts: 395

Re: Manual Partition of Hard Drive [Solved]

Sorry I missed your last two posts - I've been out. Glad everything, so far, installed OK

You ought to have maybe added 'hal' to the daemons in rc.conf + set the keymap plus
uncommented your locale, but they are all do-able at any time.

Deej