Linux Partitions

Legolas

Registered
I'm trying to install Yellow Dog Linux (i've got the CD all ready, and all that stuff), but I'm stuck on the partitions... I am currently running just a 40GB in my iMac. Its partitioned for both OS9 and OS X, right out of the box. How can I create another partition so I can safely install Linux? I don't want to reformat my HD or anything quite so extreme... can it be done?
 
The docs for YDL are not to clear onthe whole partitioning setup. For example I wanted to install it on my iBook which was running OS X with 2 partitions. I wanted to leave OS X partition alone and use the 2nd partition for YDL install. Since the docs make it sound like YDL installer will delete everything and reformat whole drive - I backed up everything and began process. The installer recognized my same 2 partitions and all I had to do was install the boot loader - I think its something like a 10mb partition or something. Anyway - the jest of the story - my HD remained completelyintact - other than a brand new install of YDL on the 2nd partition.

To be safe - make a backup - then push that GO btn in YDL.....it'll work out fine....

One thing you might want to do in OS X before running YDL installer... type DF inthe terminal and right down the dev numbers you see. Make sure you know WHICH dev (aka partition) you want to install on - other wise you may install over something you might not want to delete.
 
so it installs on the second partition... i belive at the moment i have 2, one with OS X and one with 9... but will i lose OS 9?
 
I installed YDL on my old UMAX S900 clone-war era pmac.

I would strongly suggest installing YDL on a different
drive. You have an iMac, and I'm not positive about
booting linux off a firewire HD (without some possible
tweaking?), so check to make sure.

I'm also not sure if you can have different types of
partitions (HFS/HFS+/NFS/UFS/swap) on the same drive.
Hell, I can't remember.

It was a while ago, but I just remember it sounding
like a pain to do ppc linux and MacOS on the same drive.
Was a piece of cake, no worries, with a dedicated HD.

In any event, you will have to reformat a HD.
 
You will lose whatever is on the partition you choose to install YDL onto. If I am not mistaken - YDL needs to update the FS (filesystem) on the partition and therefore basically wipes that partition clean before installing.

In my case I had Mac OS X and OS 9 on a single partition so I was able to lose whatever was on my 2nd partition with no problems.
 
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