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<!-- retain these comments for translator revision tracking -->
<!-- $Id$ -->
<sect3 id="partman">
<title>Partitioning Your Disks</title>
<para>
Now it is time to partition your disks. If you are uncomfortable with
partitioning, or just want to know more details, see <xref
linkend="partitioning"/>.
</para><para>
First you will be given the opportunity to automatically partition
either an entire drive, or available free space on a drive. This is
also called <quote>guided</quote> partitioning. If you do not want to
autopartition, choose <guimenuitem>Manual</guimenuitem> from the menu.
</para><para>
If you choose guided partitioning, you may have three options: to create
partitions directly on the hard disk (classic method), or to create them
using Logical Volume Management (LVM), or to create them using encrypted
LVM. Note: the options to use (encrypted) LVM may not be available on all
architectures.
</para><para>
When using LVM or encrypted LVM, the installer will create most
partitions inside one big partition; the advantage of this method is that
partitions inside this big partition can be resized relatively easily later.
In the case of encrypted LVM the big partition will not be readable without
knowing a special key phrase, thus providing extra security of your
(personal) data.
</para>
<note><para>
If you choose guided partitioning using LVM or encrypted LVM, some changes
in the partition table will need to be written to the selected disk while
LVM is being set up. These changes effectively erase all data that is
currently on the selected hard disk and you will not be able to undo them
later. However, the installer will ask you to confirm these changes before
they are written to disk.
</para></note>
<para>
If you choose guided partitioning (either classic or using (encrypted)
LVM) for a whole disk, you will first be asked to select the disk you want
to use. Check that all your disks are listed and, if you have several disks,
make sure you select the correct one. The order they are listed in may
differ from what you are used too. The size of the disks may help to identify
them.
</para><para>
Any data on the disk you select will eventually be lost, but you will always
be asked to confirm any changes before they are written to the disk.
If you have selected the classic method of partitioning, you will be able to
undo any changes right until the end; when using (encrypted) LVM this is not
possible.
</para><para>
Next, you will be able to choose from the schemes listed in the table below.
All schemes have their pros and cons,
some of which are discussed in <xref linkend="partitioning"/>. If you are
unsure, choose the first one. Bear in mind that guided partitioning
needs a certain minimal amount of free space to operate with. If you don't
give it at least about 1GB of space (depends on chosen scheme), guided
partitioning will fail.
</para>
<informaltable>
<tgroup cols="3">
<thead>
<row>
<entry>Partitioning scheme</entry>
<entry>Minimum space</entry>
<entry>Created partitions</entry>
</row>
</thead>
<tbody>
<row>
<entry>All files in one partition</entry>
<entry>600MB</entry>
<entry><filename>/</filename>, swap</entry>
</row><row>
<entry>Separate /home partition</entry>
<entry>500MB</entry>
<entry>
<filename>/</filename>, <filename>/home</filename>, swap
</entry>
</row><row>
<entry>Separate /home, /usr, /var and /tmp partitions</entry>
<entry>1GB</entry>
<entry>
<filename>/</filename>, <filename>/home</filename>,
<filename>/usr</filename>, <filename>/var</filename>,
<filename>/tmp</filename>, swap
</entry>
</row>
</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>
<para>
If you choose guided partitioning using (encrypted) LVM, the installer will also create
a separate <filename>/boot</filename> partition. The other partitions, except
for the swap partition, will be created inside the LVM partition.
</para><para arch="ia64">
If you choose guided partitioning for your IA64 system, there
will be an additional partition, formatted as a FAT16 bootable filesystem,
for the EFI boot loader.
There is also an additional menu item in the formatting menu to manually
set up a partition as an EFI boot partition.
</para><para arch="alpha">
If you choose guided partitioning for your Alpha system, an
additional, unformatted partition will be allocated at the beginning of
your disk to reserve this space for the aboot boot loader.
</para><para>
After selecting a scheme, the next screen will show your new partition
table, including information on whether and how partitions will be
formatted and where they will be mounted.
</para><para>
The list of partitions might look like this:
<informalexample><screen>
IDE1 master (hda) - 6.4 GB WDC AC36400L
#1 primary 16.4 MB B f ext2 /boot
#2 primary 551.0 MB swap swap
#3 primary 5.8 GB ntfs
pri/log 8.2 MB FREE SPACE
IDE1 slave (hdb) - 80.0 GB ST380021A
#1 primary 15.9 MB ext3
#2 primary 996.0 MB fat16
#3 primary 3.9 GB xfs /home
#5 logical 6.0 GB f ext3 /
#6 logical 1.0 GB f ext3 /var
#7 logical 498.8 MB ext3
#8 logical 551.5 MB swap swap
#9 logical 65.8 GB ext2
</screen></informalexample>
This example shows two IDE harddrives divided into several partitions;
the first disk has some free space. Each partition line consists of the
partition number, its type, size, optional flags, file system, and
mountpoint (if any). Note: this particular setup cannot be created using
guided partitioning but it does show possible variation that can be achieved
using manual partitioning.
</para><para>
This concludes the guided partitioning. If you are satisfied with the
generated partition table, you can choose <guimenuitem>Finish
partitioning and write changes to disk</guimenuitem> from the menu to
implement the new partition table (as described at the end of this
section). If you are not happy, you can choose to <guimenuitem>Undo
changes to partitions</guimenuitem> and run guided partitioning again, or
modify the proposed changes as described below for manual partitioning.
</para><para>
A similar screen to the one shown just above will be displayed if you
choose manual partitioning except that your existing partition table will
be shown and without the mount points. How to manually setup your partition
table and the usage of partitions by your new Debian system will be covered
in the remainder of this section.
</para><para>
If you select a pristine disk which has neither partitions
nor free space on it, you will be offered to create a new partition
table (this is needed so you can create new partitions). After this
a new line entitled <quote>FREE SPACE</quote> should appear under the
selected disk.
</para><para>
If you select some free space, you will be offered to create new
partition. You will have to answer a quick series of questions about
its size, type (primary or logical), and location (beginning or end of
the free space). After this, you will be presented with detailed
overview of your new partition. There are options like mountpoint,
mount options, bootable flag, or way of usage. If you don't like the
preselected defaults, feel free to change them to your liking. E.g. by
selecting the option <guimenuitem>Use as:</guimenuitem>, you can
choose different filesystem for this partition including the
possibility to use the partition for swap, software RAID, LVM, or not
use it at all. Other nice feature is the possibility to copy data from
existing partition onto this one.
When you are satisfied with your new partition, select
<guimenuitem>Done setting up the partition</guimenuitem> and you will be
thrown back to <command>partman</command>'s main screen.
</para><para>
If you decide you want to change something about your partition,
simply select the partition, which will bring you to the partition
configuration menu. Because this is the same screen like when creating
a new partition, you can change the same set of options. One thing
which might not be very obvious at a first glance is that you can
resize the partition by selecting the item displaying the size of the
partition. Filesystems known to work are at least fat16, fat32, ext2,
ext3 and swap. This menu also allows you to delete a partition.
</para><para>
Be sure to create at least two partitions: one for the
<emphasis>root</emphasis> filesystem (which must be mounted as
<filename>/</filename>) and one for <emphasis>swap</emphasis>. If you
forget to mount the root filesystem, <command>partman</command> won't
let you continue until you correct this issue.
</para><para arch="ia64">
If you forget to select and format an EFI boot partition,
<command>partman</command> will detect this and will not let you continue
until you allocate one.
</para><para>
Capabilities of <command>partman</command> can be extended with installer
modules, but are dependent on your system's architecture. So if you can't
see all promised goodies, check if you have loaded all required modules
(e.g. <filename>partman-ext3</filename>, <filename>partman-xfs</filename>,
or <filename>partman-lvm</filename>).
</para><para>
After you are satisfied with partitioning, select <guimenuitem>Finish
partitioning and write changes to disk</guimenuitem> from the partitioning
menu. You will be presented with a summary of changes made to the disks
and asked to confirm that the filesystems should be created as requested.
</para>
</sect3>
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