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+<div class="SECT1">
+<h1 class="SECT1"><a id="INSTALLATION-PARTITIONING" name="INSTALLATION-PARTITIONING">3.3
+Partitioning</a></h1>
+
+<p>After booting from your preferred media, you will need to partition your hard disk.
+The disk partition is where the Linux filesystem will be created and is where Slackware
+will be installed. At the very minimum we recommend creating two partitions; one for your
+root filesystem (<tt class="FILENAME">/</tt>) and one for swap space.</p>
+
+<p>After the root disk finishes loading, it will present you with a login prompt. Log in
+as root (there is no password). At the shell prompt, run either <tt
+class="COMMAND">cfdisk</tt>(8) or <tt class="COMMAND">fdisk</tt>(8). The <tt
+class="COMMAND">cfdisk</tt> program provides a more user-friendly interface than the
+regular <tt class="COMMAND">fdisk</tt> program, but does lack some features. We will
+briefly explain the <tt class="COMMAND">fdisk</tt> program below.</p>
+
+<p>Begin by running <tt class="COMMAND">fdisk</tt> for your hard disk. In Linux, the hard
+disks do not have drive letters, but are represented by a file. The first IDE hard disk
+(primary master) is <tt class="FILENAME">/dev/hda</tt>, the primary slave is <tt
+class="FILENAME">/dev/hdb</tt>, and so on. SCSI disks follow the same type system, but
+are in the form of <tt class="FILENAME">/dev/sd<var class="REPLACEABLE">X</var></tt>. You
+will need to start <tt class="COMMAND">fdisk</tt> and pass it your hard disk:</p>
+
+<table border="0" bgcolor="#E0E0E0" width="100%">
+<tr>
+<td>
+<pre class="SCREEN">
+<samp class="PROMPT">#</samp> <kbd class="USERINPUT">fdisk /dev/hda</kbd>
+</pre>
+</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+
+<p>Like all good Unix programs, <tt class="COMMAND">fdisk</tt> gives you a prompt
+(thought you were getting a menu, right?). The first thing you should do is examine your
+current partitions. We do that by typing <kbd class="USERINPUT">p</kbd> at the <tt
+class="COMMAND">fdisk</tt> prompt:</p>
+
+<table border="0" bgcolor="#E0E0E0" width="100%">
+<tr>
+<td>
+<pre class="SCREEN">
+Command (m for help): <kbd class="USERINPUT">p</kbd>
+</pre>
+</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+
+<p>This will display all sorts of information about your current partitions. Most people
+pick a free drive to install to and then remove any existing partitions on it to create
+room for the Linux partitions.</p>
+
+<div class="WARNING">
+<table class="WARNING" width="100%" border="0">
+<tr>
+<td width="25" align="CENTER" valign="TOP"><img src="./imagelib/admon/warning.png"
+hspace="5" alt="Warning" /></td>
+<td align="LEFT" valign="TOP">
+<p>IT IS VERY IMPORTANT THAT YOU BACK UP ANY INFORMATION YOU WANT TO SAVE BEFORE
+DESTROYING THE PARTITION IT LIVES ON.</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+</div>
+
+<p>There is no easy way to recover from deleting a partition, so always back up before
+playing with them.</p>
+
+<p>Looking at the table of partition information you should see a partition number, the
+size of the partition, and its type. There's more information, but don't worry about that
+for now. We are going to delete all of the partitions on this drive to create the Linux
+ones. We run the <kbd class="USERINPUT">d</kbd> command to delete those:</p>
+
+<table border="0" bgcolor="#E0E0E0" width="100%">
+<tr>
+<td>
+<pre class="SCREEN">
+Command (m for help): <kbd class="USERINPUT">d</kbd>
+Partition number (1-4): <kbd class="USERINPUT">1</kbd>
+</pre>
+</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+
+<p>This process should be continued for each of the partitions. After deleting the
+partitions we are ready to create the Linux ones. We have decided to create one partition
+for our root filesystem and one for swap. It is worth noting that Unix partitioning
+schemes are the subject of many flame wars, and that most users will tell you the best
+way to do it. At a minimum, you should create one partition for <tt
+class="FILENAME">/</tt> and one for swap. Over time, you'll develop a method that works
+well for you.</p>
+
+<p>I use two basic partition schemes. The first is for a desktop. I make 4 partitions,
+<tt class="FILENAME">/</tt>, <tt class="FILENAME">/home</tt>, <tt
+class="FILENAME">/usr/local</tt>, and swap. This lets me re-install or upgrade the entire
+installation under <tt class="FILENAME">/</tt> without wiping out my data files under
+/home or my custom compiled applications under <tt class="FILENAME">/usr/local</tt>. For
+servers, I often replace the <tt class="FILENAME">/usr/local</tt> partition with a <tt
+class="FILENAME">/var</tt> partition. Many different servers store information on that
+partition and having it kept separate from <tt class="FILENAME">/</tt> has certain
+performance benefits. For now, we're sticking with just two partitions: <tt
+class="FILENAME">/</tt> and swap.</p>
+
+<p>Now we create the partitions with the <kbd class="USERINPUT">n</kbd> command:</p>
+
+<table border="0" bgcolor="#E0E0E0" width="100%">
+<tr>
+<td>
+<pre class="SCREEN">
+Command (m for help): <kbd class="USERINPUT">n</kbd>
+Command action
+ e extended
+ p primary partition (1-4)
+<kbd class="USERINPUT">p</kbd>
+Partition number (1-4):<kbd class="USERINPUT">1</kbd>
+First cylinder (0-1060, default 0):<kbd class="USERINPUT">0</kbd>
+ Last cylinder or +size or +sizeM or +sizeK (0-1060, default 1060):<kbd
+class="USERINPUT">+64M</kbd>
+</pre>
+</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+
+<p>You need to make sure you create primary partitions. The first partition is going to
+be our swap partition. We tell fdisk to make partition number 1 a primary partition. We
+start it at cylinder 0 and for the ending cylinder we type +64M. This will give us a 64
+megabyte partition for swap. (The size of the swap partition you need actually depends on
+the amount of RAM you have. It is conventional wisdom that a swap space double the size
+of your RAM should be created.) Then we define primary partition number 2 starting at the
+first available cylinder and going all the way to the end of the drive.</p>
+
+<table border="0" bgcolor="#E0E0E0" width="100%">
+<tr>
+<td>
+<pre class="SCREEN">
+Command (m for help):<kbd class="USERINPUT">n</kbd>
+Command action
+ e extended
+ p primary partition (1-4)
+<kbd class="USERINPUT">p</kbd>
+Partition number (1-4):<kbd class="USERINPUT">2</kbd>
+First cylinder (124-1060, default 124):<kbd class="USERINPUT">124</kbd>
+Last cylinder or +size or +sizeM or +sizeK (124-1060, default 1060):<kbd
+class="USERINPUT">1060</kbd>
+</pre>
+</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+
+<p>We are almost done. We need to change the type of the first partition to type 82
+(Linux swap). Type <kbd class="USERINPUT">t</kbd> to change the type, select the first
+partition, and type <var class="LITERAL">82</var>. Before writing your changes to the
+disk, you should look at the new partition table one last time. Use the <kbd
+class="USERINPUT">p</kbd> in <tt class="COMMAND">fdisk</tt> to display the partition
+table. If everything looks good, type <kbd class="USERINPUT">w</kbd> to write your
+changes to the disk and quit <tt class="COMMAND">fdisk</tt>.</p>
+</div>
+
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