Partitioning your HD using cfdisk

For normal use we recommend ext3 file system, it is the default file system for Joatha and well maintained.

Open a konsole/xterm, get root and start cfdisk: (if you are on HD-install you'll have to enter your root password)

su
cfdisk /dev/hda

The user interface

On the first screen cfdisk lists the current partition table with the names and some data about each partition. On the screen bottom there are some command buttons. To change between partitions, use the up and down arrow keys. To change between commands, use the left and right arrow keys

Delete a partition

To delete a partition, highlight it with the up and down keys, select the

Delete

command with the left and right arrow keys, and press

Enter

.

Create a new partition

To create a new partition, use the command:

New

(select it with the left and right arrow keys), and press enter. You must decide between a primary and a logical partition. If you want a logical partition, the program will automatically make an extended partition for you. Then you must choose the size of the partition (in MB). If you can't enter a value in MB, return to the main screen with the Esc key, and select MB with the command

Units

Type of a partition

To set the type of a partition for Linux swap or Linux, highlight the actual partition, and use the command:

Type

.

You'll get a list of different types. Press space, and you'll get even more. Find what type you need, and enter the number at the prompt. (Linux swap is Type 82, Linux filesystems should get type 83)

Make a partition bootable

There is no need to make an bootable partition for Linux but some other OS need that. Highlight the partition and select the command:

Bootable

Write the result to disk

When you are done you can write your changes using the Write command. The partition table will be written to disk. (if you get an error concerning dos, you can ignore it) As this will destroy all data on partitions you have deleted or changed, you should therefore be very sure that you want to do this before you actually press the key

Return

Quit

To exit the program, select the Quit command. After leaving cfdisk and before starting the formatting or the installation, you should reboot your box so Joatha can reread the new partition table.

Formatting partitions (after partitioning with cfdisk)

Basics

A partition must have a filesystem. Linux knows different filesystems to use. There is ReiserFs, Ext3, and for experienced users XFS and JFS. Ext2 is handy as a storage format since a windows driver is available for data-swapping.

For normal use we recommend the ext3 file system, it is the default file system for Joatha and is well maintained.

Formatting

After closing down cfdisk we return to console. For formatting you need to be root. For formatting the root- and/or home partition, in this example hdb1, we enter: (if you are on HD-install you'll have to enter your root password here)

su
mkfs -t ext3 /dev/hdb1

There will be a question, that you answer with yes if you are sure, that you have chosen the right partition.

When the command is done, you will get notice, that ext3 formatting was successfully written to disk. If you don't get that, something probably went wrong with partitioning in cfdisk, or hdb1 is not a linux partition. In this case you can check with

fdisk -l /dev/hdb

If something is wrong and maybe partition again.

If formatting was a success, do the same procedure for a home partition, if you want a separate one.

Last we format the swap partition, in this example hdb3:

mkswap /dev/hdb3

after that a:

swapon /dev/hdb3

Then we check, if swap is recognized, by entering in console:

swapon -s

the newly mounted swap should be recognized now, in our case as:

Filename	Type	Size	Used	Priority
/dev/hdb3	partition	995988	248632	-1

If swap is recognized correctly, we enter

swapoff -a

and reboot.

You are now ready to start installation.