Click to See Complete Forum and Search --> : SuSe8.1 and partitioning during installation


Sinus
01-15-2003, 02:55 AM
Dual booting 98SE & SuSe8.1.
98SE has its own 20 gig HD and the same applies for SuSe.
During the installation, at the point of partitioning it has been alittle frustrating.
SuSe keeps automatically selecting partitions for me and those partitions aren't what I used with other distributions.
What SuSe does/gives me:
ext.2 /boot = 11.9 MB
reiserfs / = 18.9 GB
What I'm would like to do and have done sucessfully with other distributions:
swap = 500 MB
/ = 500 MB
/usr = 6-7 GB
/home 12-13 GB

Granted, I realize I'm not entirely familiar with SuSe's partitioning gui like I was with Mandrake 8.1. It looks very different and that might be playing with me abit since I'm trying to adjust to what goes where.
But then again, it least to me, mandrakes maually/custom partitioning was so much easier to do then compared to SuSe's.

Each time I try to custom choose my partitions, select the appropriate HD to partition for SuSe(hdb).
SuSe for some reason beyond me doesn't accept them.
SuSe keeps reselecting the above partitions.
So after my many failed attempts I let SuSe have her way. She is currently installed and running and I'm pleased with it. However, I do intend to reinstall once I learn how to do my preferred partitions. This is important to me. I've never experienced this problem before.
I've never heard of a boot partition before and having a root partition that size is incredibly impractical. If a boot partition has to do with the 1024 cylinder scenario, I thought linux has overcome that issue long time ago.
I've been to SuSe's support database and did a search here as well to no avail.
Need help to manually customize my preferred partitons. with SuSe8.1.
Thanks

x
01-15-2003, 05:00 AM
Isn't this "user-friendlyness" just too much...
So many trying to be user-friendly the Micro$oft-way, doing things automatically because they know better than you...

Anyway, if SuSe doesn't allow you to do your own partitioning, how about partitioning before the installation?
And a tip: fdisk is a great partitioning program!
Text only, no fancy colours and things, no pointing & clicking - but it does the work. And you have full control, it lets you be the boss.
Don't let it scare you off at first sight, start it with
# fdisk /dev/hda (or hdb if that's the one)
hit 'm' for menu.
Take half an hour to mess around, then exit with 'q' (don't save changes).

Before you do that, type
# fdisk -l
write down the partition scheme. If you accidentally change anything in fdisk, you can rewrite the partition scheme manually with fdisk.