Having difficulty installing arch linux

Kurushimi · 2010-01-27 03:24:32

Okay, so currently I have Windows. Before I put in the CD and restart my computer, I went to the Windows disk manager, and created some partitions so I wouldn't have to do it from the installation (I fear I may mess up and erase all my data). I'm trying to get a dual boot so i created partitions like http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Win … _Dual_Boot suggested. All the new partitions I created were raw, I didn't give them a filesystem. When I start the installer with the Arch Linux Net CD, and get to the Hardware part, I select "Manually configure block devices, filesystems and mountpoints." It shows a list of partitions except they ALL appear to be raw. I think it had the correct number of partitions, but I had no idea which one's were supposed to be my Windows partitions (i.e. Windows and Recovery partition) and which one's were the new one's I created. Not wanting to screw anything up, I decided to restart and ask for help here. Why don't my Windows partitions show up as having an NTFS filesystem?

Also, that article I linked to said the boot partition should be in the first 8.5 GB of the disk. Is it possible to do this in the Window's disk manager?

Last edited by Kurushimi (2010-01-27 03:29:42)

sand_man · 2010-01-27 03:36:56

If you can't put the /boot partition at the start, don't worry about creating one at all.
If you are new to all of this, I suggest you practice installing on a virtual machine in Windows first. The last thing you want is to lose your primary OS installation.
Anyway, I was under the impression that cfdisk does show NTFS partitions. What exactly do you see there? Please tell us the size of your physical disk and the size of all your partitions.

cesura · 2010-01-27 03:49:35

For someone coming from windows, I suggest something like gparted live, where you can burn it to a cd and edit your partitions easily with a GUI and everything. It is only around 100mb, and I think ubuntu 9.10 even comes with it on the livecd.

http://gparted.sourceforge.net/livecd.php

anonymous_user · 2010-01-27 04:02:16

If you know the size of your Windows partition, you could check which of the partitions listed matches that size.

Kurushimi · 2010-01-27 04:10:06

My disk is 298 GB. I have my Windows on 240 GB and recovery on 9 GB. have my boot partition at 125 MB and the swap partition at 1.2 Gigs. I have the Arch home partition taking up the rest of it. I just noticed that I forgot to create the root partition on that list. I can't do it because the comptuer says that the maximum number of partitions has already been reached.

And when I start the computer and run the installation and get to the configure block devices, filesystems and mountpoints part I see

sda1 raw->no_fs
sda2 raw->no_fs
sda3 raw->no_fs
....
sda6 raw->no_fs

The sizes aren't listed there.

Last edited by Kurushimi (2010-01-27 04:15:00)

sand_man · 2010-01-27 05:41:54

Yeah you can only have 4 primary partitions. I 2nd itsbrad212's idea with gparted.
But once you are in the install, if you switch to another tty and login then run 'cfdisk /dev/sda' you should see the info you are after. You will find one of those partitions is actually your NTFS one so just ignore it on the install. Remember when organising partitions for a Linux install, the bare minimum you need is a / partition. The rest are optional. Like I said before, maybe try installing in a virtual machine first so that you can get used to the installer.

Primoz · 2010-01-27 09:12:38

You don't need to have a swap partition. And 1.2 GB for swap is a bit to much...
Instead of swap partition you can create a swapfile as described in this how to: http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/HOW … _swap_file
Hope that helps.

sHyLoCk · 2010-01-27 09:19:55

Well if he uses suspend to disk he may need it. i use 2gigs for swap. Obviously creating swap file is also an alternative.

mythus · 2010-01-27 12:00:34

Greetings,

Do you remember the order you made the partitions in? If not either Ctrl Alt F2 to open a new TTY and run cfdisk to get your partition info or reboot back into windows and open your partition manager tool and get the information and remember to write down, what is in first partition, what is in second partition, and so on... If using the cfdisk method you hit Ctrl Alt F1 to go back to your installation screen.

Please note that first partition = SDA1, second = SDA2, third = SDA3, and 4th = SDA6.

You said you already crated a arch /home partition? That is not so until you have mounted and created the file system so no worries there. Just make SDA6 (assuming that is the large arch partition) your root / partition. You don't have to create a /home partition. Which ever is the windows partition, just ignore it/them in this step. The installer itself doesn't recognize NTFS as a file system in this process so it won't show it listed as one, but it is there.

Hope this helps, and good luck to you!

Arch Linux

#1 2010-01-27 03:24:32

Having difficulty installing arch linux

#2 2010-01-27 03:36:56

Re: Having difficulty installing arch linux

#3 2010-01-27 03:49:35

Re: Having difficulty installing arch linux

#4 2010-01-27 04:02:16

Re: Having difficulty installing arch linux

#5 2010-01-27 04:10:06

Re: Having difficulty installing arch linux

#6 2010-01-27 05:41:54

Re: Having difficulty installing arch linux

#7 2010-01-27 09:12:38

Re: Having difficulty installing arch linux

#8 2010-01-27 09:19:55

Re: Having difficulty installing arch linux

#9 2010-01-27 12:00:34

Re: Having difficulty installing arch linux

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