[ILUG] Partitioning newbies

[Ferren MacIntyre]

'Why', he asked, 'would you want a pre-installed Linux when I can send you
2 CDs with Mandrake PPC 8.0 on them?'

Anything's worth a try, thought I.

So.  I have a 10 GB LaCie Pocket drive, and a 30 GB ditto, sitting by my
iMac.  Nothing in existence will repartition these.  The 10 is an auxiliary
brain, which carrries mss and reprint collections back and forth between
home and office, and is gainfully employed.  The 30 now has a copy of my
internal drive, which may yet prove useful.

The 10-GB internal drive is partitioned into 4 MacOS, 1 A/UX swap space, 4
A/UX for Linux, a relic from the days of LinuxPPC.

The Mandrake readme says:

------------------------------------------
You will need [to] free up some addtitional space on your existing hard
drive.... This free partition should not be formatted but left as "Apple
Free"....  You can also download a MacOS version of the Linux PPC disk
partitioning tool, pdisk, from:

          pdisk-ppc-macos.hqx

Below is a screen shot of pdisk on an iMac, setup with a 2.3GB partition
for MacOS (hda5), a 1MB bootstrap partition on hda6, and hda7, 8, and 9
used for Linux "/", swap and "/home"

1: Apple_partition.map Apple		64
2: Apple_Driver_ATM*Macintosh	54
3: Apple-Driver_ATM*Macintosh	74
4: Apple_Patches Patch Partition	512
5: Apple_HFS MacOS		2.3G
6: Apple_Bootstrap bootstrap		1.0M
7: Apple_UNIX_SVR2 Linux Native	579M
8: Apple_UNIX_SVR2 swap		179M
9: Apple_UNIX_SVR2 LinuxNative	647M
--------------------------------------------

pdisk, when asked to examine what is already lying around, replies:

Name of device: /dev/hda
pdisk: can't open file '/dev/hda'

Apple's Drive Setup doesn't know about Apple Free, and I've gotten along
for years without partitions for maps, drivers, and patches. Patches?  I
suppose a partition for OF bootstrap might be a good idea, but I have no
idea of how to find OF or move it.  (Why, Oh why, did someone think it
useful to insert all of this C-stuff between OF's Forth and MacForth?  Why
can't I have a single continuous system, as in the days of MMSForth?
*Sigh!*  C was no doubt an improvement on DEC assembler, but good grief!)

Anybody have a clue about the best approach to partitioning?


Cheers,

--Ferren

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Dr Ferren MacIntyre       |   The Mews, Carnacrow
MRI, Nat. Uni. Ireland     |   HEADFORD, Co. Galway
Galway, Ireland               |   Ireland
+353 91 52 4411 x3202   |  +353 93 35 0 27
http://www.geocities.com/ferrenmaci/
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