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#1 2010-12-23 00:05:01

eldubsports
Member
Registered: 2010-10-30
Posts: 11

partitioning question [Resolved]

I hope this is a simple/silly question, But I'm running into some issues partitioning my drive for dual boot with Windows 7. Unfortunately, my new job requires me to use Windows so I've decided to go down the dual boot option rather than using virtualbox (due to system requirements of some of the software packages i'll be using). But anyways,

Here is what I did, in chronological order.

1. Installed Windows 7 on /dev/sda1/
2. Loaded Arch Linux Live CD (2010.05)
3. Booted to the Live CD, and began /arch/setup
4. Loaded ethernet, set the date and time, selected packages
5. Ran cfdisk using the "Manually Partition Hard Drives" option such that the cfdisk configuration looks as follows:


Name    Flags     Part Type    FS Type           [Label]         Size (MB)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
sda1       BOOT        Primary    Hidden HPFS/NTFS            435580.7*
sda2                        Primary     Linux                                 98.71*
sda3                        Primary     Linux                                 149996.21*
sda4                        Primary     Linux                                 164478.29*

The plan is to use sda2 for /boot, sda3 for /, and sda4 for /home and not use swap (I shouldn't need it).

After using cfdisk to create the new partitions, and select the FS type, as outlined in the Beginners guide, I proceeded to Step 3 of Hard drive preparation, "Manually Configure Block Devics, filesystems and mountpoints".

My understanding is that now that I've created the partitions, I must specify which partition will be /boot, /, /home, etc.

However, when I select this option, I get the following output:

I've detected you already have blockdevice definitions in place: /dev/sda raw no_label no_fs /dev/sda1 raw no_label no_fs /dev/sda2 raw no_label no_fs /dev/sda3 raw no_label no_fs /dev/sda4 raw no_label no_fs /dev/sdb raw no_label no_fs /dev/sdb1 raw no_label no_fs
Do you want to use these as a starting point? Make sure your disk(s) are partitioned correctly so your definitions can be applied on the disk. Pick 'no' when in doubt to start from scratch.

Assuming that I did partition them correctly, I selected yes to proceed. I select Partition Access Method as dev (directly by /dev/*) at which point I'm brought directly to "Manage filesystems which looks as shown below:

/dev/sda                 raw->no_fs
/dev/sda1               raw->no_fs
/dev/sda2               raw->no_fs
/dev/sda3               raw->no_fs
/dev/sda4               raw->no_fs
/dev/sdb                 raw->no_fs
/dev/sdb1               raw->no_fs
DONE                   _

If I select, say, /dev/sda2, which will be the /boot partition, I'm given the following message:

Do you want to have this filesystem (re)created ? If not, make sure there already is a filesystem!

I opened up a new terminal, ran fdisk -l and saw that there was indeed a /dev/sda2 which indeed is partitioned as 83, or ext3. So I hit yes. And then I get this:

Automatically picked the filesystem. It's the only option for blockdevices

At which point I can select /boot, but then nothing happens. I'm then returned to the manage filesystems page which looks exactly as it did above.



Basically my question for you guys is, what am I doing wrong? It seems to me like cfdisk is making the partitions correctly but the installer isnt able to give the partitions labels for some reason. I also tried opening a terminal and making the partitions manually via mkfs -t ext3 but that yielded the same issue as above.

Any suggestions are much appreciated. Happy Holidays.

Last edited by eldubsports (2010-12-23 23:56:48)

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#2 2010-12-23 02:25:02

rayjgu3
Member
From: Chicago IL usa
Registered: 2004-07-04
Posts: 695

Re: partitioning question [Resolved]

If I select, say, /dev/sda2, which will be the /boot partition, I'm given the following message:

Do you want to have this filesystem (re)created ? If not, make sure there already is a filesystem!

I opened up a new terminal, ran fdisk -l and saw that there was indeed a /dev/sda2 which indeed is partitioned as 83

say yes to the filesystem (re)created ...
cfdisk only creates the patition
after which you tell it the mount point & filesystem (ext2, ext3,reiser or whatever)
you dont need to manually configure block devices unless your really sure of what your doing

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#3 2010-12-23 02:44:50

eldubsports
Member
Registered: 2010-10-30
Posts: 11

Re: partitioning question [Resolved]

Right, that's what I thought. The problem is when I do say yes, it doesn't ask me what type of filesystem to make them. Instead it says,

Automatically picked the filesystem. It's the only option for blockdevices

I'm a little perplexed as to why it is "picking" the filesystem for me.

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#4 2010-12-23 07:44:03

Mr Green
Forum Fellow
From: U.K.
Registered: 2003-12-21
Posts: 5,893
Website

Re: partitioning question [Resolved]

Only a suggestion but could you not set up drive using cfdisk on livecd create your filesystems then reboot into livecd and try arch/setup again

Then you should only need to set mount points.


Mr Green

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#5 2010-12-23 23:56:27

eldubsports
Member
Registered: 2010-10-30
Posts: 11

Re: partitioning question [Resolved]

I was able to resolve this issue by deleting the partitions, rebooting, and using a Live CD rather than a Live USB Stick. For some reason not having that sdb partition show up resolved the issue (or I had a bad image on the USB Stick).

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