Gentoo Linux AMD64 Handbook

Preparing the Disks
Example 4.13. An example partition configuration shown by parted
(parted) print
Model: SCSI Block Device
Disk /dev/sda: 21.5GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: msdos
Number Start End Size Type File system Flags
1 512B 2148MB 2148MB primary ext4
2 2148MB 3222MB 1074MB primary linux-swap(v1)
3 3222MB 21.5GB 18.3GB primary lvm
Optional: Setting the GPT Label
Most disks on x86/amd64 are prepared using an msdos label. However, if you plan on creating huge
partitions (2 TB and more), you must use a gpt label (the GUID Partition Type) for your disk. Using
parted, this can be accomplished with mklabel gpt:
Warning
Changing the partition type will remove all partitions from your disk. All data on the disk
will be lost.
Example 4.14. Setting the GPT label
(parted) mklabel gpt
Removing all Partitions
If this isn't done yet (for instance through the mklabel operation earlier, or because the disk is a freshly
formatted one), we will first remove all existing partitions from the disk. Type rm where
is the partition you want to remove.
Example 4.15. Removing a partition from the disk
(parted) rm 2
Do the same for all other partitions that you don't need. However, make sure you do not make any
mistakes here - parted executes the changes immediate (unlike fdisk which stages them, allowing a
user to "undo" his changes before saving or exiting fdisk).
Creating the Partitions
Now let's create the partitions we mentioned earlier. Creating partitions with parted isn't very difficult
- all we need to do is inform parted about the following settings:
• The partition type to use. This usually is primary in case you are not going to have more than 4
partitions (with the msdos partition label). Otherwise, you will need to make your fourth partition
an extended one which hosts the rest of the disk, and create logical partitions inside it. If you use a
gpt-labeled partition, then there is no limit on the number of primary partitions.
• The file system type to use. The parted application supports most common file systems and knows
which kind of partition ID it needs to use for these partitions. This does not mean that parted will
create a file system on the partition (you can with the mkpartfs command, but we'll use the regular
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