I'm pretty confused on how to work with partitions on the slackware installer. I have done partitioning before usins Suse and windows. Does slackware also have the resize functionality like the one in Suse?

Suse uses Yast which allows you to resize. To install Slack you use fdisk to set up partitions, but you cannot resize with it. If doing a dual boot where you must resize the Win partition, use Suse. Start the install and resize, then exit Suse. Then do the slack install as you normally would. However, Suse uses Grub as the bootloader and, at least in my case and a couple others I have seen, the Lilo bootloader then won't run. Solution is to use a Win98 boot floppy, run fdisk /mbr before the Slack install, to restore the mbr. Then Lilo will run.

Use 'fdisk' or 'cfdisk' to create your initial partitions. Once Slackware is installed, you can use a package called 'parted' (from the 'extra' packages) to resize partitions. Alternatively, if you have the Slackware Live CD, you can boot off that & use 'parted' to resize your old partitions.

Note that resizing partitions is not something you should do lightly. In my experience, it is far better to delete the old partitions & create new ones than to resize your old ones.

I also tried to delete a partition using the Slack installer but it is different from what I have used before. It does not convert deleted partitions to a single raw partition after which I could redefine partition sizes. If I delete a partition using Slack installer, the sizes of the deleted ones remain the same. I'm confused.

You should write changes to the partition table to see the effect. As well, you can run cfdisk rather than fdisk after booting with Slackware CD1. It has more convenient interface.

If you delete a partition at the end of the partition list, the available free space at the end of the drive does grow. If you delete a partition from the middle of the partition list, the following partitions are not relocated.

In Slackware, it is best to create the partitions in the order you want them to appear on the disk. I just delete all the I need to make the desired free space, and then recreate them as needed. It takes just a few seconds per partition using cfdisk.

Partitions are not reordered as they are in some other partition tools such as used in Fedora.

Bob

Hi,

You can use;

While in cfdisk, just move the cursor bar to the desired partition to delete then move the cursor (right or left arrow key) to the (D)elete function. You will notice that the free space will increase. You can then create new partition(s) with the available space. If you wipe the space then just create your partition(s). In Linux you can have upto 4 primary partitions. You can create an extended partition for one of the primary partitions. Within this extended space you can create multiple logical parttions.

Once you have created the desired partions you will need to (W)rite the partition table to the hard disk. This will update the partition table.

As a new install or creating another partition, I like to reboot the system to get the partition table that was just written. After the boot I then format my partition(s) using the mke2fs command. I test my drives thoroughly.

You can man mke2fs to get your desired switches. To format the swap you can use the mkswap command, see man mkswap.

I always do this with the filesystem and the swap. I know the setup gives you the option but I still like to follow my methods.

This is the partition setup that I would like to have:

A windows partition with XP installed = 15GB
Linux where slack will be installed = 15GB
A partition where i'll put most downloads and installed games = 30GB
A partition to put MP3s and vids that and also files to share via torrent = 15GB

5GB left out of 80GB.

What is the use of a logical/extension drive? I have used a swap partition and boot in Suse. It is different in Slack.

To allow more than 4 partitions on a drive.

It is possible to have only 4 primary partitions

To answer your resizing question, if you have a recent KNOPPIX CD you can use QTParted to resize (and probably do other partitioning chores, too.) a Windows partition. It works just like Partition Magic and won't make changes until you click the commit button.

We use it all the time at our InstallFests with never a problem. Just make sure it's not an old copy of KNOPPIX as older Parted programs had problems and watch out for hidden recovery and diagnostic partitions. You want to leave those alone.

Dennisk

Thanks a lot guys. Any suggestions/comments/recommendations on the partition plan that I have over there? I don't want to do it again if ever I did it wrong.

Yeah, I would say think about whether you might want to install *BSD some day or not. *BSD likes to be installed in a primary partition like *bloze likes to be first. If you think you'll have 5G left over, how about:

/dev/hda1 NTFS *bloze
/dev/hda2 *BSD
/dev/hda3 /home for linux (you were planning on 15G Slack, in my opinion that is HUGE. How about splitting it up? You could get 3 nice size distros in 15G, maybe more. If you make a 3G user and 3-4G linux distros...)
/dev/hda4 extended
/dev/hda5 swap for linuces
/dev/hda6 linux 1
/dev/hda7 linux 2
/dev/hda8 linux 3
/dev/hda9 gameland
/dev/hda10 musicland

Also I would say that since you aren't going to be able to share games and downloads between linux and *blows, just make your primary Win partition big enough to contain that. Separate partition for MP3s also probably doesn't make sense since linux can read NTFS. Then you would have something like the above but not including hda9 and 10........

Hi,

First the use of a extended partition allows you to have multiple partitions on your device. As stated in my previous post you can have only 4 primary partitions on a device. If you use one of the assignments as a extended partition, the extended partition can then have numerous logical partitions within the extended. The space allocation for each would be allocated by the user for needs of each.
This scheme is just a suggestion and could be adjusted as you see fit. The fat32 file type will alow read/writes for linux and winxp. You could use a journaled for these but as a new user things will go better for you at the start using this partition type. Since winxp and linux would allow read/writes without conflicts to these devices.

The swap partition could be smaller, depends on your memory and system usage.


As for the difference between suse and slackware use of partitions, there is none. The swap is the same and what you call boot is the / filesystem. Yes, there is a directory called /boot and within the directory you will find your kernel
and system information. And this is the directory that you will place the kernels that will chose at IPL.

HTH!

edit: Note, I assumed you were looking from a windows user standpoint with the parttion(s) scheme allotment you requested.
If you are migrating away from windows then define the file types as desired for efficient linux operations.

Hey Gary, how do you get stuff to line up neatly. My spacing always gets stripped in my posts.

Hi,

I use firefox and never have a problem with the screen format. I stay away from tabs. White space with the space bar will always be the same. Mixing tabs has created problems in the past.

HTH!