[conspire] Setting Up Partitions for LFS

[Mark Srebnik]

Greetings,

Just installed Debian on my little Fujitsu U810 mini-convertible tabletPC...

Dual booting with Win XPT and Debian now...

Did the desktop install, so it's setup with Gnome....working OK overall...

However, the next step in my education is to try installing LFS....thought this would be a good way to get more aggravation and hopefully a better understanding of how linux distros work... 
Want to  start from Debian Etch that I just installed.

LFS book says to create a LFS partition to use for installation. So, in looking at my partitions I have some questions that I hope someone can please advise me on...

Here's partition info for my current drive that I see in terminal:

Code:

MarksU810:/home/archimark# mount
/dev/hda2 on / type ext3 (rw,errors=remount-ro)
tmpfs on /lib/init/rw type tmpfs (rw,nosuid,mode=0755)
proc on /proc type proc (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev)
sysfs on /sys type sysfs (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev)
procbususb on /proc/bus/usb type usbfs (rw)
udev on /dev type tmpfs (rw,mode=0755)
tmpfs on /dev/shm type tmpfs (rw,nosuid,nodev)
devpts on /dev/pts type devpts (rw,noexec,nosuid,gid=5,mode=620)
/dev/hda9 on /home type ext3 (rw)
/dev/hda8 on /tmp type ext3 (rw)
/dev/hda5 on /usr type ext3 (rw)
/dev/hda6 on /var type ext3 (rw)

MarksU810:/home/archimark# df
Filesystem           1K-blocks      Used Available Use% Mounted on
/dev/hda2               264443    104306    146482  42% /
tmpfs                   513468         0    513468   0% /lib/init/rw
udev                     10240        68     10172   1% /dev
tmpfs                   513468         0    513468   0% /dev/shm
/dev/hda9             17884120    260700  16714948   2% /home
/dev/hda8               381138     10310    351150   3% /tmp
/dev/hda5              4806904   1719352   2843368  38% /usr
/dev/hda6              2885780    408516   2330676  15% /var
MarksU810:/home/archimark# fdisk /dev/hda

The number of cylinders for this disk is set to 12161.
There is nothing wrong with that, but this is larger than 1024,
and could in certain setups cause problems with:
1) software that runs at boot time (e.g., old versions of LILO)
2) booting and partitioning software from other OSs
   (e.g., DOS FDISK, OS/2 FDISK)


Command (m for help): p

Disk /dev/hda: 100.0 GB, 100030242816 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 12161 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/hda1   *           1        8513    68380641    b  W95 FAT32
/dev/hda2            8514        8547      273105   83  Linux
/dev/hda3            8548       12161    29029455    5  Extended
/dev/hda5            8548        9155     4883728+  83  Linux
/dev/hda6            9156        9520     2931831   83  Linux
/dev/hda7            9521        9850     2650693+  82  Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/hda8            9851        9899      393561   83  Linux
/dev/hda9            9900       12161    18169483+  83  Linux


Questions

1) Don't remember creating hda3, the extended partition. Do I need this one?
Seems like a lot of space for it...

2) The numbering sequence for my existing partitions (ex: hda9 is for /home) seems a bit jumbled...does that matter?

If so, is there an easy way to renumber them to make more sense?

3) LFS instructions say to create a separate partition of about 5GB using ext2 filesystem.

Since I've already created my other partitions using ext3 filsystem, wondering whether the new LFS partition can use the swap partition I've already created?

Also, to create this partition, would the easiest way be to delete or resize the existing extended partition mentioned above in question 1 or ???

Hope this makes sense....

Thanks for any and all help!

Mark
_________________
Silicone Valley Linux & LFS Noob
Zaurus SL-C3200/Debian Etch (TitchyLinux)
Fujitsu U810/XPT/andLinux/Debian Etch/LFS (Hopefully Soon...)
Nokia N810 (Debian soon...)