simple instructions for partitioning

[bruno]

Since the graphical installer doesn't work on my machine for some strange reason, I want to use the text-installer. But it's very complicated for me, all these choices and possibilities about partitioning. I don't know what to do. The installation guide doesn't really help, because exactly this part (about partitioning) is rather confusing for an amateur like me. Can somebody point me to a simple step by step guide? Or just tell me what to do? I use a P3 600 MHz with 1,5 MB ram, and a 10 GB HDD. I just want to use the whole disk, and erase everything that was there before. VL Standard Gold 6.0 should be the only OS on this machine

[stretchedthin]

There are a couple tutorials on this link that may give you what you need.
http://www.opensourcebistro.com/Tutorial/VL60/01.Installation/page

Also, even if the gui-installer does not work for you.  You can still use the gparted feature.  Just boot to the gui installer and before you do anything else move your mouse cursor to the bottom left and a hidden menu will appear.  Select gparted from that menu and set up your partitions that way.  The tutorials are based on gparted.

[bruno]

Maybe if I have installed linux before on this machine, lets say Xubuntu, can I just use then the existing partitions? And I don't have to do any more partitioning? Xubuntu does all this by itself, and doesn't ask me anything. That would be a great solution for me.

[GrannyGeek]

Maybe if I have installed linux before on this machine, lets say Xubuntu, can I just use then the existing partitions? And I don't have to do any more partitioning? Xubuntu does all this by itself, and doesn't ask me anything. That would be a great solution for me.

Yes, you can reuse a previously existing Linux partition and a previously installed Linux swap partition. Just direct the VL installer to use the former Xubuntu partition when you get to the step after partitioning (which you can skip). VectorLinux will format the existing partition with whatever Linux file system you choose. You don't have to erase anything first. Of course, everything on that partition will vanish because of being reformatted.

I wouldn't want to have an installer automatically take over a partition without asking me.
--GrannyGeek

[no2thesame]

Hello bruno,
I have several older machines with similar specs to you (do you only have 150Mb RAM?) and prefer the text installer anyway.
For my initial installation of Vector I always partition the same way:
Using cfdisk :
1. "Delete" all the old partitions (select with arrow and press enter on Delete)
2. "Create" a swap partition twice the size of my RAM
3. Then "Create" a root partition of about 5Gb
4. "Create" a Home partition of the rest of the HD
5. Go back and select each partition and using "Type" select 82  for swap for the first, and 83, Linux, for the other two partitions.
6. Select the second partition and toggle the "Bootable" switch
At this stage cfdisk should be vaguely (from memory) like this:
hda1                    Primary   Linux swap             Swap      558 Mb
hda2       Boot       Primary   Linux                     /           4358
hda3                    Primary   Linux                     /home    4998

7. "Write" it to the disk
8. Reboot
9. As you install, you will be prompted to select hda1 as your Swap partition, hda2 as your Root partition and you will be asked if you want to select additional partitions so choose Home for hda3.
10. I user Reiser filesystem when formatting root and home

That is it.

The reason for having a separate Home partition is that when you install the next version of Vector, you will not have to reformat the Home partition and all your data is still there on the disk when you log into the new version.

Hope this helps

[hata_ph]

For basic linux installation you need 3 partition which is swap, / (for root) and /home (for personal data). But if you are low on space you can create the swap and / instead (merge / and /home together). For swap you need to remember to change the unit type to 82 (linux swap). I never need to set bootable to any of the partition as you need to do in windows installation. Partitioning in windows and linux is almost the same, the different is in linux you need to specific swap, / or some time /home. Feel free to play around with it as it is a good learning experience.