Setting Up Partitions In GParted Mint/Debian?

[DavidS]

Hey guys... haven't been messing with Linux for a while and thought I'd try it again.
I tried the regular distro of Mint and had several issues. So I deleted it and now want
to install Mint 11 Debian, but I don't remember how to set up the partitions.

Can I get some help with step-by-step instructions on creating the proper partitions
within the GParted program within Linux Mint 11 (Debian) ?

I tried doing it, though I cannot seem to find a root selection or boot selection and
I have a 640 gb drive and wonder how much space to allocate to each partition.

You help will allow me to dive back into the Mint relm as I have lost my windows
partition on my HP computer and HP will not give me a disk. I have to buy it for
$189 and I said FOOEY on them!!

I will appreciate your help!!

[wayne128]

Hey guys... haven't been messing with Linux for a while and thought I'd try it again.
I tried the regular distro of Mint and had several issues. So I deleted it and now want
to install Mint 11 Debian, but I don't remember how to set up the partitions.

Can I get some help with step-by-step instructions on creating the proper partitions
within the GParted program within Linux Mint 11 (Debian) ?

I tried doing it, though I cannot seem to find a root selection or boot selection and
I have a 640 gb drive and wonder how much space to allocate to each partition.

You help will allow me to dive back into the Mint relm as I have lost my windows
partition on my HP computer and HP will not give me a disk. I have to buy it for
$189 and I said FOOEY on them!!

I will appreciate your help!!

If you have forgotten how to use gparted, you may google and read some instruction from internet
Here is one that is on partedmagic, hope it is enough to get you started
http://partedmagic.com/doku.php?id=using_gparted

here is another good tutorial
http://www.dedoimedo.com/computers/gparted.html

[DavidS]

If you have forgotten how to use gparted, you may google and read some instruction from internet
Here is one that is on partedmagic, hope it is enough to get you started
http://partedmagic.com/doku.php?id=using_gparted

here is another good tutorial
http://www.dedoimedo.com/computers/gparted.html

I did do a search on the topic and nothing helped me. So, therefore I posted this for help.

The Gparted in Mint/Debian doesn't match what those sites display.

This is version 0.8.1

There is no ROOT or BOOT selections listed. It is very limited and is set to super user statis.

I really have no clue, but I do want to get this set up as I believe it will be more stable.

[gaztelugatxe]

but I don't remember how to set up the partitions.

I cannot seem to find a root selection or boot selection and

Root and boot are completely different things. The partition labeled as "boot" in the screenshot of one of the tutorials above is the partition that contains the boot loader, while the root of the filesystem is where everything else is in a Linux installation.

With gparted you just have to make room in your 640Gb disk for the Linux partition or create the partition itself. And you can create a small swap partition also.

Afterwards, when installing Linux, you will choose that partition to be used as root (/) for your system.

Not a step-by-step guide, but I hope it helps you understanding what you have to do.

[DavidS]

but I don't remember how to set up the partitions.

I cannot seem to find a root selection or boot selection and

Root and boot are completely different things. The partition labeled as "boot" in the screenshot of one of the tutorials above is the partition that contains the boot loader, while the root of the filesystem is where everything else is in a Linux installation.

With gparted you just have to make room in your 640Gb disk for the Linux partition or create the partition itself. And you can create a small swap partition also.

Afterwards, when installing Linux, you will choose that partition to be used as root (/) for your system.

Not a step-by-step guide, but I hope it helps you understanding what you have to do.

Have you tried installing a copy of the Mint OS - DEBIAN version? All it gives you is some lacking version of gparted!
I have tried creating a primary partition and it would not install. I need to create ALL partitions for it to successfully
install. There are no other options in this distro, that *I* can see, anyway. This is NOT how I remember it to be in the
past. When Mandrake distro was around, (yes, I know it's Mandriva now, but no comparison) I purchased the distro
and they would send a manual on with the disk. I learned from it and it was pretty plain and simple. The way you are
describing it here sounds like a mess of do this and then do that but do this first before you do that cause that needs
to be done after you do this... and so forth... Crazy!

But I still appreciate any input! THANKS

[DavidS]

Is there NO ONE who can help me partition my drive so I can install Mint/Debian??

I mean, Mint IS the second highest downloaded Linux OS available!

Shouldn't there be people who know this stuff?

Man... I've got to say that Linux is NOT ready for mainstream and I highly doubt it ever will be.

Thanks so much to you all!

[hinto]

viewtopic.php?f=90&t=11872

[Roken]

It might be worth noting that 10.5 hours from original post to exasperation when waiting for a response in a volunteer forum is probably a little too short a time. People who visit here are worldwide, and the law of averages suggests that 1/3 have been asleep, 1/3 have been at work, and the remaining 1/3 aren't likely to be monitoring the forum for every minute of their spare time. It's generally a good idea not to expect a comprehensive response until the following day.

[DavidS]

http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=90&t=11872

Thanks! I'll check it out.

EDIT: Thanks but this does not instruct on how to use gparted to set up for Mint/Debian, though it is suggestions of how to improve your partitioning. I simply need a EXT4, Boot and root and I will be good to go. But in the latest gparted, it does not allow me to do this or at least I have no clue in how to make it work. I even downloaded the LIVE gparted from distrowatch and it gives me pretty much the same options. Very few.

I should clarify that it is "gparted" that I need the most help working with. It's not giving me what I need at the moment.

It might be worth noting that 10.5 hours from original post to exasperation when waiting for a response in a volunteer forum is probably a little too short a time. People who visit here are worldwide, and the law of averages suggests that 1/3 have been asleep, 1/3 have been at work, and the remaining 1/3 aren't likely to be monitoring the forum for every minute of their spare time. It's generally a good idea not to expect a comprehensive response until the following day.

Good point! I was a little anxious as I was running live and didn't want to get into it too far and have to wipe out my live setup.
But I did purchase a cheap COA off of ebay and installed win 7 ultimate. But I can always dual boot.

[Heeter]

1st partition: primary, /boot, ext4, 150MB
2nd partition: primary, swap, 2gigs
3rd partition: primary, / , ext4, 10gigs
4th partition: prmiary, /home ,ext4, rest of drive


That's my setup.


Heeter

[DavidS]

1st partition: primary, /boot, ext4, 150MB
2nd partition: primary, swap, 2gigs
3rd partition: primary, / , ext4, 10gigs
4th partition: prmiary, /home ,ext4, rest of drive


That's my setup.


Heeter

Why do you have a 10gig EXT4 and then one for the rest of the drive?

I didn't see boot or home in the drop down list. How do you select it?

Also, did you select the default MIB or cylinder?

Thanks!

[Fandangio]

I tried doing it, though I cannot seem to find a root selection or boot selection and
I have a 640 gb drive and wonder how much space to allocate to each partition

I think that you may be slightly confused about GParted's functionality. From memory you use gparted to create your partitions (with a 640GB drive I'd go 36 for root, 4 swap leaving 600 for home). For root and swap I'd use EXT4. You can resize later if required.

Once the partitions are applied you then go back to the installer to select which partition is assigned to root and home (you may need to refresh, I can't remember).

HTH!

[DavidS]

I tried doing it, though I cannot seem to find a root selection or boot selection and
I have a 640 gb drive and wonder how much space to allocate to each partition

I think that you may be slightly confused about GParted's functionality. From memory you use gparted to create your partitions (with a 640GB drive I'd go 36 for root, 4 swap leaving 600 for home). For root and swap I'd use EXT4. You can resize later if required.

Once the partitions are applied you then go back to the installer to select which partition is assigned to root and home (you may need to refresh, I can't remember).

HTH!

Ok Thanks!! I'll give it a shot! One guy on YouTube said to use double the size of memory for swap. I have 4 gigs ram and so I should use 8 gigs for swap. Seems like a lot, but that is the rule he goes by.

[DavidS]

Well, it doesn't seem to want to install for me.

Here is the way I ended up partitioning:
/dev/sda1 EXT4 /target 150mib
/dev/sda2 EXT4 swap 7.81gib
/dev/sda3 EXT4 /target/home 588.21gib


The first time I tried installing without formatting, thinking that the setup would do it.
The installation crashed.

The second attempt:
I formatted each and then went on to do the install.
Right now for the last 15 minutes, it has been sitting on "copying bin/cpio .

After I format each in EXT4, I lose the swap label on sda2. Why is this?

What am I doing wrong?

[DavidS]

Ok... well, I cannot get my drive partitioned. The dang thing keeps crashing on me!

Back to windows!

[Roken]

Have you confirmed that you haven't got a bad burn and verified the md5 checksum of your downloaded iso. Installation problems such as that are typical of a problem with the installation media.

[doktordave]

On my machine, I had to first create the partitions, restart, then do the install. This was on the older release. I haven't tried with the respin, but it could be the same. Of course, it may well be different for others. Always worth a try, though. I could not begin to imagine having to go back to win full time.

[hinto]

@DavidS
Gparted partitions, the installer (or editing fstab) sets mount points.
Read the doc about partitioning.
My personal partitions are:

swap 8 gb (since I run vm guests)
root 10 gb
home 230 (guessing at that, but the rest of the disk)

When you run the installer, I set:

root /
swap swap
home /home

If it's thefirst install, then you can choose to format the partitions on installation. Otherwise, you can optionally mount /home, but not format it.

-Hinto

[water spirit]

What I would do is from http://www.windows7hacker.com/index.php ... l-website/ you can download an iso of Windows and if you reinstall it use the Product Key that should be on your computer. Then use the live DVD of LMDE and gparted to delete all the existing partitions and then create a primary partition of about 40 gb for Windows, leave it unformated then install Windows into that partition. Then again use the live DVD and you will see that you will have 2 primary partitions sda1 and sda2 for Windows. Next use gparted and create an extended partition of maybe 30 or 40 gb, in this extended partition you may create 1 or more Logical partitions 10 gb is usually enough for / . But if you have more than 1 at this stage you can add more linux distro's in the future, then at the end of the extended partition create a logical partition for linux swap and format it to swap. Size is usually 2 x your ram. Then I use all the remaining space on the drive for a primary partition formated to ntfs this can be used as a data partition for Windows and linux. I find with this method I am able to reinstall Windows or the linux installs and all my data remains intact. Then when you install LMDE install it into the prepared logical / partition and install grub to sda (which is usually the default). You will have a home folder not a home partition. This method of partitioning may not be ideal for everyone but it works for me. If you do not want Windows ignore that information.

[bennachie]

You don't need a separate "/boot" partition, but, as another poster has noted, you do need to allow between 10GB and 15GB for "/", assuming that you are also going to have a large "/home" partition. The installer may well crash if the "/" partition is much less than ~4GB (you could install the OS directly into less space, but you won't be able to install from the LiveCD). You probably don't need to set the swap partition at double RAM when you have 4Gb or more of physical RAM. A more reasonable allocation might be an amount equal to your physical RAM plus 20%. That should give plenty space for safe hibernation.