From 1ea73eea5ecc6a8ed901316049259aee737ee554 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Joey Hess Date: Fri, 7 Oct 2005 19:51:38 +0000 Subject: move manual to top-level directory, split out of debian-installer package --- ca/partitioning/partition/i386.xml | 94 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 94 insertions(+) create mode 100644 ca/partitioning/partition/i386.xml (limited to 'ca/partitioning/partition/i386.xml') diff --git a/ca/partitioning/partition/i386.xml b/ca/partitioning/partition/i386.xml new file mode 100644 index 000000000..c4d621477 --- /dev/null +++ b/ca/partitioning/partition/i386.xml @@ -0,0 +1,94 @@ + + + + + Partitioning for &arch-title; + + +If you have an existing other operating system such as DOS or Windows and +you want to preseve that operating system while installing Debian, you may +need to resize its partition to free up space for the Debian installation. +The installer supports resizing of both FAT and NTFS filesystems; when you +get to the installer's partitioning step, select the option to partition +manually and then simply select an existing partition and change its size. + + + +The PC BIOS generally adds additional constraints for disk +partitioning. There is a limit to how many primary and +logical partitions a drive can contain. Additionally, with pre +1994–98 BIOSes, there are limits to where on the drive the BIOS can boot +from. More information can be found in the +Linux Partition HOWTO and the +Phoenix BIOS FAQ, but +this section will include a brief overview to help you plan most situations. + + + +Primary partitions are the original partitioning scheme for PC +disks. However, there can only be four of them. To get past this +limitation, extended and logical partitions were invented. By +setting one of your primary partitions as an extended partition, you +can subdivide all the space allocated to that partition into logical +partitions. You can create up to 60 logical partitions per extended +partition; however, you can only have one extended partition per +drive. + + + +Linux limits the partitions per drive to 15 partitions for SCSI disks +(3 usable primary partitions, 12 logical partitions), and 63 +partitions on an IDE drive (3 usable primary partitions, 60 logical +partitions). However the normal &debian; system provides +only 20 devices for partitions, so you may not install on partitions +higher than 20 unless you first manually create devices for those +partitions. + + + +If you have a large IDE disk, and are using neither LBA addressing, +nor overlay drivers (sometimes provided by hard disk manufacturers), +then the boot partition (the partition containing your kernel image) +must be placed within the first 1024 cylinders of your hard drive +(usually around 524 megabytes, without BIOS translation). + + + +This restriction doesn't apply if you have a BIOS newer than around +1995–98 (depending on the manufacturer) that supports the Enhanced +Disk Drive Support Specification. Both Lilo, the Linux loader, and +Debian's alternative mbr must use the BIOS to read the +kernel from the disk into RAM. If the BIOS int 0x13 large disk access +extensions are found to be present, they will be utilized. Otherwise, +the legacy disk access interface is used as a fall-back, and it cannot +be used to address any location on the disk higher than the 1023rd +cylinder. Once Linux is booted, no matter what BIOS your computer +has, these restrictions no longer apply, since Linux does not use the +BIOS for disk access. + + + +If you have a large disk, you might have to use cylinder translation +techniques, which you can set from your BIOS setup program, such as +LBA (Logical Block Addressing) or CHS translation mode (Large). +More information about issues with large disks can be found in the +Large Disk HOWTO. If you +are using a cylinder translation scheme, and the BIOS does not support +the large disk access extensions, then your boot partition has to fit +within the translated representation of the +1024th cylinder. + + + +The recommended way of accomplishing this is to create a small (5–10MB +should suffice) partition at the beginning of the disk to be used as +the boot partition, and then create whatever other partitions you wish +to have, in the remaining area. This boot partition +must be mounted on /boot, +since that is the directory where the Linux kernel(s) will be stored. +This configuration will work on any system, regardless of whether LBA +or large disk CHS translation is used, and regardless of whether your +BIOS supports the large disk access extensions. + + + -- cgit v1.2.3