Partitioning in anaconda

[Sam Varshavchik]

Frode writes:

> HD, 1st partition is WinXP). I use manual setup of partitions, as I have
> always done, planning to use the following approximate scheme:
>      sda1 - primary - ntfs - 45 GB - winXP
>      sda2 - primary - ext2 - 200 MB - /boot
>      sda5 - extended - ext4 - 7 GB - /home
>      sda6 - extended - swap - 2 GB - [swap]
>      sda7 - extended - ext4 - 20 GB - /
>
> It seems that anaconda overrides my choice of not ticking the 'create
> primary partition' box in the 'add partition' dialog, making all three
> first partitions created primary. This means that both /boot and either
> /home or / would be primary partitions.
>
> Questions:
>   - 'Olde' knowledge says that only one primary partition can be visible
> to the system at one time. Is this not longer true?

It was never true. You could always divide a disk into up to four primary  
partitions, one of which can be an extended partition that's further  
subdivided into logical partitions.

The only restriction was in the default DOS/Win bootloader. One of the  
primary partitions is marked as the active partition, and the default  
DOS/Win bootloader boots from whichever partition is marked active. And  
whichever O/S gets booted always has access to all disk partitions.

If grub gets installed as the bootloader, it completely ignores the active  
partition flag, and uses its own menu system and configuration file to let  
you select which partition and operating system it boots.


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