how can I reformat completely and install dsl?Forum: HD Install Topic: how can I reformat completely and install dsl? started by: tefflox Posted by tefflox on July 07 2006,00:18
Hello, I've been using partition magic 8 in windows and mostly it works fine, but I tried something daring (foolish at my skill-level) and set partition magic to delete the windows primary partition, reformat to primary ext2. Now windows won't load, and I can't install dsl. What can I do? thx..
Posted by brianw on July 07 2006,00:26
If you can't boot the livecd and install then you could download the startup disk and start the cdrom that way then install. If you can boot from the CD then you can run fdisk to partition any way you would like.
Posted by tefflox on July 07 2006,00:34
okay.. i thought that it doesn't come with a partitioning tool since the start page says the partition must already exist. any tips on using fdisk to make linux ext2 and the swap partitions the only ones? thx again : -)
Posted by brianw on July 07 2006,11:43
startup with the live cd and open a terminalrun fdisk (or you can try cfdisk) by "sudo fdisk" if you are familiar with the dos fdisk then I think it is similar. If you have already trashed things anyway just delete all partitions and start over. You will want to create a primary partition first then an extended partition then a logical partition. It does not really matter which you use for swap or linux except you will want to know to allocate the sizes. If you want to have a place for data so it doesn't get wiped out when you reinstall or upgrade then I would recommend adding a second logical partition for that. Here is the output from my system: brian@armada:/etc$ sudo fdisk -l Disk /dev/hda: 5403 MB, 5403525120 bytes 240 heads, 63 sectors/track, 698 cylinders Units = cylinders of 15120 * 512 = 7741440 bytes Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System /dev/hda1 * 1 130 982768+ b Win95 FAT32 /dev/hda2 131 698 4294080 5 Extended /dev/hda5 131 148 136079+ 82 Linux swap /dev/hda6 149 278 982799+ 83 Linux /dev/hda7 279 698 3175199+ 83 Linux don't forget to set the types 82 for swap 83 for linux (the extended will of course be automatic when you create the extended partition). I installed dsl to hda6 and I setup my fstab to mount /dev/hda7 on /home this way my data stays even if I change hda6 (reinstall/upgrade/install another linux/etc...). At one point I had Ubunto installed as well and the same /home directory for both. in my grub startup I make sure I have nofstab so my fstab file does not get over written (the fstab will still be used it just does not get rebuilt each time). DSL does not take that much room so if you have drive space you can make partitions for other things like opt and var if you would like. The only real consideration for the DSL partition is how much you want to add later. If you plan to use only mydsl and/or run with the standard dsl install then one partition is more than fine. I think the dsl install will automatically format the linux files system but you will need to run: sudo mkswap /dev/hda? (?=whatever partition you have chossen for swap) to make the swap partition usable. After you run the install and start from the hard drive dsl will detect the swap and use it. If you choose to create other partitions and use them then you would also need to run: sudo mkfs /dev/hda? to format them to ext2 (not sure how to do ext3 would have to look into it) Posted by Thulemanden on July 12 2006,21:00
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