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Disk Preparation

 Linux will run with SCSI or IDE disk drives (or both).

The first step of installing Linux is to prepare several disk partitions. A partition is a continuous region of the disk set aside to contain a filesystem. In order to run Linux, you should provide at least two disk partitions. They are:

Since Linux is based upon a virtual memory system, any memory requirements beyond your actual physical RAM are swapped out to a disk-based swapfile. This allows you to run programs that need more memory that you actually have, albeit at a performance cost.

In general the swap partition should be at least twice as large as your system memory capacity (in bytes).

The primary linux partition will contain all the directories and files required by the operating system as well as all users of the system. This partition should be large enough for the OS and any additional programs and data you expect to use.

Advanced Linux-ers usually subdivide the linux root volume into several sub-partitions, however beginners don't need to worry about such things just yet....

 

~~~ Gotcha's ~~~

 

Regarding AFFS partitions: RedHat m68k Linux will not install correctly if any of your AFFS partitions have the DirCache option enabled. (I read somewhere that DirCache is only useful with floppy-disks.) Anyway, double-check all of your existing partitions, and keep in mind that changing any partition option will destroy all data on that partition.

 

The afdisk program that comes with the Linux installer also has a problem with AFFS DirCache partitions..

 

While creating IDE disk partitions on my A4000 (with 3.0 ROMs), I had to specify a maxtransfer value of 0xfffe or the filesystem would become corrupt, and crash the system. This problem does not seem to be present in 3.1 ROMs.

 

I won't explain all the gory details, but there are several methods to prepare your hard disk(s) for Linux:

  AmigaDos HDToolBox program.

The AmigaDos HDToolBox program has been available since 2.04 or so

  afdisk program provided by the RedHat installer.

The RedHat installers afdisk works fine as long as you don't have any DirCache partitions. Its not quite as friendly as fdisk (on intel) since it doesn't keep track of where previous partitions end, and requires you to specify disk cylinders directly, instead of simply entering lengths in Kb or Mb.

  If you alter a drives partition table with afdisk, you must reboot and restart the RedHat m68k Linux installation script.

   Disk preparation programs from AmiNet, or bundled with your disk controller.

You may have varying degrees of success with these programs. Send me a note if you find one that does, or does not work.

 

If you do not have sufficient contiguous free space on your current drive you must (in order of risk/difficulty):

  1. Add an additional disk drive (easiest for some folks).
  2. Free up (delete, or re-use) existing partitions (cheaper, but with some risk).
  3. Wipe your disk and reallocate all the partitions from scratch. (make sure you backup !!).

 

Hints:

  To increase system performance, place swap on a different physical disk drive than your primary linux disk(s) if possible.

This also lets you determine swap usage at-a-glance if you have a disk activity LED on your swap volume.

  Try to keep at least one plain-ol Amiga AFFS partition around so you can easily exchange files with AmigaDos.

  You do not need to format the Linux disk volumes under AmigaDos because Linux will do it during the install process.

Screenshot of my HDToolBox mainscreen:

 

Here are screenshots of my swap partition settings.

 Key points for swap partition:

 

Here are screenshots of my primary linux partition settings.

 Key points for linux partition:

And here is sample output from afdisk and df on my current RedHat m68k Linux setup:

  

Disk /dev/sda: 1 heads, 888 sectors, 2336 cylinders, RDB: 0
Logical Cylinders from 2 to 2335, 512  bytes/Cylinder 

   Device  Boot Mount   Begin      End     Size   Pri  BBlks    System
/dev/sda1    *    *         2      810   359196   -10     0  0x41465301 = AFS\1[unknown]
/dev/sda2                 811     2335   677100     0     0  0x4C4E5800 = LNX\0Linux native

Disk /dev/sdb: 1 heads, 182 sectors, 3684 cylinders, RDB: 0
Logical Cylinders from 2 to 3683, 512  bytes/Cylinder 

   Device  Boot Mount   Begin      End     Size   Pri  BBlks    System
/dev/sdb1    *    *         2     3160   287469   -20     0  0x444F5303 = DOS\3Amiga FFS Int.
/dev/sdb2                3161     3683    47593     0     0  0x53575000 = SWP\0Linux swap

Disk /dev/sdc: 1 heads, 666 sectors, 1250 cylinders, RDB: 0
Logical Cylinders from 2 to 1249, 512  bytes/Cylinder 

   Device  Boot Mount   Begin      End     Size   Pri  BBlks    System
/dev/sdc1    *    *         2      310   102897   -30     0  0x444F5303 = DOS\3Amiga FFS Int.
/dev/sdc2                 311     1249   312687     0     0  0x4C4E5800 = LNX\0Linux native

Output from Linux df command:

     Filesystem         1024-blocks  Used Available Capacity Mounted on
     /dev/sdc2             302702   14939   272129      5%   /
     /dev/sdb1             287468  250971    36497     87%   /dh1
     /dev/sdc1             102896      29   102867      0%   /dh2
     /dev/sda2             655436  211593   409988     34%   /usr

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