How to set the partition for / in LMDE install?

[Quasimodo]

I decided to migrate my Aspire One netbook from Linux Mint 12 to LMDE. Burned the DVD for linuxmint-201204-mate-cinnamon-dvd-32bit, booted to the DVD, selected "Install Mint", set the language, time zone and keyboard layout. Next step was "Select where you want to install Linux Mint". I have a 16GB(ish) SDD as sda, partitioned as 13350MB sda1 for / and 2040MB sda2 for swap, and a 16GB(ish) SD card, partitioned as 14.83GB for /home. I selected sda1 and clicked on "Forward", but got the error message "Please select a root (/) partition before proceeding". The only other possibility was "Edit Partitions", which opened up GParted. I selected sda, then sda1, but the "Partition" menu didn't give me the possibility to mount the partition as / (or anything else). How do I get out of this hole, please? I'd be happy with a text-based installer, a la Debian or Ubuntu Alternate CD...

Thanks in advance for any help

Ian

[zerozero]

[moved here]
if i get it correctly you want to install lmde setting / and /home in different hdd, right?
i'm afraid the current installer doesn't has that flexibility

[Quasimodo]

Yes, but the problem was a bit more fundamental than that... Fortunately I found out how to set sda1 as the root partition at this page:

Code: Select all

http://helpsite.org/linux-mint-debian-edition/

Once I've got it set up with /home under /root, I know how to migrate /home to a separate partition - done that before

It's a shame the installer can't support using more than one disk drive, though...

Thanks

Ian

[zerozero]

ohh sorry i missed it

you mean this part of the installation? it's not very intuitive it's true.

[frsu]

Is there a clear instruction how to install LMDE on unallocated space next to Win7?

With an Ubuntu installer this is very easy, but in LMDE you have to prepare partitions and do something with root settings. Difficult job when you do not have some experience with GParted.

Looked at some video's about this, but is still very tricky if you (me) are afraid to loose your (my) Win 7 installation.

Very disappointing for me as the Live USB is working very fine.

[Quasimodo]

In fact I decided to keep the "real" /home on the resident 16GB SSD of my Aspire One, but to put a separate /home/visible directory on the additional 16GB SSD in the storage expansion slot; the Documents, Downloads, ... directories in /home/ian are replaced by symlinks to the corresponding directories in /home/visible/ian. In addition, I've put the default directories for Thunderbird (storing my mail folders) and Firefox (storing all my Firefox settings and cache) in /home/visible/ian/thunderbird and /home/visible/ian/firefox, with profiles.ini in the hidden directories in /home/ian pointing to the directories in /home/visible/ian. That will preserve the stuff I want to keep if I change distro again but keep it separate from the distro-specific files in /home/ian (and reduce the amount of space I use on the resident 16GB SSD.