Hello,
On Thu, Jul 28, 2005 at 03:28:42PM -0700, Steve Langasek wrote:
> > I guess, for the problem I am interested with, I must drop the d-i
> > partitioning step (partman) and do it manually with fdisk. Can someone
> > tell me how to proceed? My 2 days experience in the Debian Alpha-Linux
> > business isn't enough to figure it out alone!
>
> I'm afraid partman isn't something that the installer currently allows you
> to bypass.
When I installed the last time using d-i, I went to a shell to create
the partitions (actually LVM and logical volumes) by hand, proceeding
to mount it.
I suggest that you try to got to a shell (hit Alt-<right arrow>) and
use fdisk. From the SRM manual:
1. Start fdisk on the disk you're configuring
2. Choose to make a BSD disklabel - option 'b' (newer versions of
fdisk will detect existing BSD disklabels and automatically enter
disklabel mode)
3. You'll notice some things: Partitions are letters instead of
numbers, from a-h Partition 'c' covers the whole of the disk. This
is the convention, don't touch it. While you can see it, note down
the disk parameters as you'll use them more often than with the
DOS-disklabel approach
DOS-disklabel approach, except that the partitions are referred to
by letter instead of number. That is, 'n' to make a new partition
followed by the partition letter followed by the starting block
followed by the end block
5. Setting partition type is slightly different, because the
numbering scheme is different (1 is swap, 8 is ext2).
6. When you are finished, write ('w') and quit ('q') as normal.
There are some important catches that you must be aware of when
partitioning using a BSD disklabel:
* Partition 'a' should start about 1M into the disk: don't start it
at sector 1, try starting at sector 10 (for example). This leaves
plenty of space for writing the boot block (see below)
* There is a bug in some versions of fdisk which makes the disk look
one sector bigger than it actually is. The listing when you create
the BSD disklabel is correct. The last sector of partition 'c' is
correct. The default last sector when creating a new partition is
1 sector too big
* Always adjust for this extra sector. This bug exists in the
version of fdisk shipped with Red Hat 6.0. Not making an
adjustment for this problem almost always leads to "Access beyond
end of device" errors from the Linux kernel.
After partitioning the disk as you like it, return to the installer
(Alt-<left arrow>) and I think you can tell d-i to leave the partitioning
as-is. If it is not seen properly, throw in a few syncs or a reboot of the
installer.
Greetings
Helge
--
Dr. Helge Kreutzmann, Dipl.-Phys. Helge.Kreutzmann@itp.uni-hannover.de
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