Partitioning For Linux/Slackware and some other questions

[Spleeze]

I know there are some very good linux guys here so I think this should be a very easy question. How should I partition my disk for linux?

6 gig disk broke down like this:
2 gig for winxp
1 gig for a "Storage" partition, I wanna make it pat32 so linux and windows can both reliably read/write to it
the rest for linux swap whatever...

What is the best way to do this, using either cfdisk or fdisk? I read a guide, but got confused when he begain to talk about creating an extended partition to hold other partitions. So I was hoping someone could come up with a simple way for me to accomplish this. Its going on my old Thinkpad 570 and I dont really need a huge OS or anything so I was leaning towards Slack...

Also I have a few questions about installing. I have dled both discs and done the md5sum checks and both passed. However, I sometimes get "package cannot be read" errors while installing. I've burned these things at 4x with nero and alcohol 120, getting better results from alcohol, but not perfect. Oh and the cool thing is I get different packages missing when I try again with the same disc!! WHY OH LORD WHY!

Also is linux like the king of inconsistency or is my laptop? Every time I try to install I do things the SAME way, and get a different error every time. Lilo doesnt want to install to mbr, different package missing every time. GRRR I'm about ready to throw in my towel and then I regain control. HELP!

 

[Crusty]

The best way to do this is to install WinXP first. Create it's partition, and then once it's installed using the Windows Disk Manager just create your 1gb FAT32 partition.

Then start the install of slack. I am not familiar with the Slack install, but if you need to create your partitions manually then I would just use fdisk and create two more partitions. Make one small(for paging) and make sure to select the partition type as Linux Swap. Then use the rest of the space to create you / partition. This way, you only have 4 partitions and do not need an extended partition.

As far as the install issues, that sounds like a hardware problem, instead of a software problem or a bad cd.

 

[Spleeze]

Thats what I would think too... But I cant do much in the way of using a different CD-rom drive, since this is a laptop and all.... WinXP installs fine, and is already on there, No errors copying any files during that install...

Thing is, can I make that 1 gig fat32 partition house my /home directory? So i can store all my stuff inthere and get to it from linux and from windows? then i'd have the rest installed as 256meg swap partition and about a 3 gig partition for the rest of "linux"

I need to know more about the difference between what a whether to make the partitions logical, extended, primary, or what any of that means... I installed once with everything as primary, but is that good? Also I really would like to make /home hang out on that 1 gig fat32 partition. Ideas appreciated

 

[n0cmonkey]

Try a different distro. Not sure why you would be having that issue.

Do something like this:
2GB Windows
1GB storage
2.5GB /
.5GB swap (adjust as needed)

You don't want your /home to be fat32. The permissions issues alone would drive me insane. Plus, there is no journalling or anything. But you can mount it under your home directory. I mount my USB pen drive under ~/usb.

If you are only going to have 4 partitions, make them all primary. It's the maximum you can do with "lesser" OSes (BSD :evil: ).