Partitioning Your System

If you chose Automatic Partitioning, please skip ahead to the Section called Network Configuration.

If you chose Manually partition with fdisk, please skip ahead to the Section called Partitioning with fdisk.

At this point, you must tell the installation program where to install Red Hat Linux. This is done by defining mount points for one or more disk partitions in which Red Hat Linux will be installed. You may also need to create and/or delete partitions at this time (refer to Figure 4-6).

NoteNote
 

If you have not yet planned how you will set up your partitions, refer to the partitioning appendix in the Official Red Hat Linux Reference Guide. At a bare minimum, you will need an appropriately-sized root partition, and a swap partition of at least 32 MB.

Figure 4-6. Partitioning with Disk Druid

The partitioning tool used in Red Hat Linux 7.1 is Disk Druid. With the exception of certain esoteric situations, Disk Druid can handle the partitioning requirements for a typical Red Hat Linux installation.

Partition Fields

Each line in the Partitions section represents a disk partition. Each line in this section has five different fields:

Recommended Partitioning Scheme

Unless you have a reason for doing otherwise, we recommend that you create the following partitions:

Problems When Adding a Partition

If you attempt to add a partition and Disk Druid cannot handle your request, you will see a dialog box listing partitions that are currently unallocated, along with the reason they could not be allocated. Unallocated partition(s) are also displayed on Disk Druid's main screen (though you may have to scroll through the Partitions section to see them).

As you scroll through the Partitions section, you might see an Unallocated Requested Partition message in red text, followed by one or more partitions. A common reason for this is a lack of sufficient free space for the partition. In any case, the reason the partition remains unallocated will be displayed after the partition's requested mount point.

To fix an unallocated requested partition, you must move the partition to another drive which has the available space, resize the partition to fit on the current drive, or delete the partition entirely. Make changes using the Edit button or by double-clicking on the partition.

Drive Summaries

Each line in the Drive Summaries section represents a hard disk on your system. Each line has the following fields:

The Drive Summaries section is displayed only to indicate your computer's disk configuration. It is not meant to be used as a means of specifying the target hard drive for a given partition; to do that, use the Allowable Drives field in the Section called Adding Partitions.

Disk Druid's Buttons

These buttons control Disk Druid's actions. They are used to add and delete partitions, and to change partition attributes. Buttons on this screen are also used to accept the changes you have made, or to exit Disk Druid. For further explanation, take a look at each button in order.

Adding Partitions

To add a new partition, select the Add button. A dialog box will appear.

NoteNote
 

You will need to dedicate at least one partition to Red Hat Linux, and optionally more. This is discussed more completely in An Introduction to Disk Partitions in the Official Red Hat Linux Reference Guide.

Editing Partitions

To edit a partition, select the Edit button or double-click on the existing partition.

NoteNote
 

If the partition already existed on your hard disk, you will only be able to change the partition's mount point. If you want to make any other changes, you will need to delete the partition and recreate it.

Deleting a Partition

To delete a partition, highlight it in the Partitions section and click the Delete button. You will be asked to confirm the deletion.

Skip to the Section called Formatting Partitions for further installation instructions.