lfs-book/chapter02/creatingpartition.xml

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<sect1 id="space-creatingpartition">
  <?dbhtml filename="creatingpartition.html"?>

  <title>Creating a New Partition</title>

  <para>Like most other operating systems, LFS is usually installed on a
  dedicated partition. The recommended approach to building an LFS system
  is to use an available empty partition or, if you have enough unpartitioned
  space, to create one. However, an LFS system (in fact even multiple LFS
  systems) may also be installed on a partition already occupied by another
  operating system and the different systems will co-exist peacefully. The
  document <ulink url="&hints-root;lfs_next_to_existing_systems.txt"/>
  explains how to implement this, whereas this book discusses the method of
  using a fresh partition for the installation.</para>

  <para>A minimal system requires a partition of around 1.3 gigabytes (GB).
  This is enough to store all the source tarballs and compile the packages.
  However, if the LFS system is intended to be the primary Linux system,
  additional software will probably be installed which will require additional
  space (2-3 GB). The LFS system itself will not take up this much room.
  A large portion of this requirement is to provide sufficient free temporary
  storage. Compiling packages can require a lot of disk space which will be
  reclaimed after the package is installed.</para>

  <para>Because there is not always enough Random Access Memory (RAM) available
  for compilation processes, it is a good idea to use a small disk partition as
  <systemitem class="filesystem">swap</systemitem> space. This is used by the
  kernel to store seldom-used data and leave more memory available for active
  processes. The <systemitem class="filesystem">swap</systemitem> partition for
  an LFS system can be the same as the one used by the host system, in which
  case it is not necessary to create another one.</para>

  <para>Start a disk partitioning program such as <command>cfdisk</command>
  or <command>fdisk</command> with a command line option naming the hard
  disk on which the new partition will be created&mdash;for example
  <filename class="devicefile">/dev/hda</filename> for the primary Integrated
  Drive Electronics (IDE) disk. Create a Linux native partition and a
  <systemitem class="filesystem">swap</systemitem> partition, if needed. Please
  refer to <filename>cfdisk(8)</filename> or <filename>fdisk(8)</filename> if
  you do not yet know how to use the programs.</para>

  <para>Remember the designation of the new partition (e.g., <filename
  class="devicefile">hda5</filename>). This book will refer to this as
  the LFS partition. Also remember the designation of the <systemitem
  class="filesystem">swap</systemitem> partition. These names will be
  needed later for the <filename>/etc/fstab</filename> file.</para>

</sect1>