Arch Linux

plasticeraser

Member

Registered: 2010-11-04

Posts: 1

Multiboot help.

Currently I am dual booting Windows 7 and Ubuntu 10.10 on my laptop. I would like to replace Ubuntu with Arch, unfortunately when I tried earlier I received, a cfdisk error that said "cfdisk error: Partition ends in the final partial cylinder". So I can't just delete the Ubuntu Partitions. Is there a way of Installing Arch without formatting the entire drive? Since I'm at college I really don't want to format anything and possibly losing anything.

hume's doona

Member

Registered: 2009-12-11

Posts: 206

Re: Multiboot help.

try and delete the ubuntu partition with gparted off a *buntu or other live cd

edward.taylor89

Member

From: UK

Registered: 2010-10-21

Posts: 34

Re: Multiboot help.

Do you have enough free space to make another partition or more in which you could install Arch?

---

'The perfect blossom is a rare thing. You could spend your life looking for one, and it would not be a wasted life.'

sand_man

Member

From: Australia

Registered: 2008-06-10

Posts: 2,164

Re: Multiboot help.

If you have your /home on a separate partition then reinstalling will be simple but being Ubuntu I bet you chose the default "put everything in /" option.

---

vadmium

Member

Registered: 2010-11-02

Posts: 63

Re: Multiboot help.

I did a trick by doing a bind mount so that my Arch root filesystem is actually a subdirectory of the real "root" partition. It involved adding a mkinitcpio hook, and probably manually doing a "mount --bind" during installation. Let me know if you want the details.

Otherwise, I'd suggest trying a different partition program, such as "fdisk". I think I've found in the past that different partition programs have different ideas of how partition tables should work.

cirkit

Member

From: San Francisco

Registered: 2008-01-29

Posts: 80

Website

Re: Multiboot help.

I would like to replace Ubuntu with Arch, unfortunately when I tried earlier I received, a cfdisk error that said "cfdisk error: Partition ends in the final partial cylinder". So I can't just delete the Ubuntu Partitions.

So you /do/ want to remove Ubuntu completely.

Since I'm at college I really don't want to format anything and possibly losing anything.

Maybe I'm not following, but it looks like you want to format (delete) your Ubuntu partitions, but then again you don't want to format anything. You can't just install Arch on top of your Ubuntu partitions and think it will just overwrite Ubuntu by putting Arch in the existing partitions. That'll just create a huge mess.

If your existing /home is on a separate partition, you can just use fdisk (instead of cfdisk) to delete Ubuntu's / partition so that Arch can use that instead. You should just use an installation medium to do the install process, it really is just a matter or removing your existing distro's / and telling Arch to install to that partition while still preserving your Windows 7 partition(s) and existing /home.