I am trying to install openSUSE11.1. I would like to create 3 primary partitions and 1 extended partition with two logical partitions. I was able to do this easily until openSUSE11.0, but with openSUSE11.1 the installation menu has changed and it does not let me choose any more between primary and extended partitions. I go to “Create Custom Partitions” and “Expert Partitioning”. The setup tool lets me add partitions but it does not give me the choice between primary or extended. I can create 4 primary partitions, but if I try to create another one it tells me that no more partitions can be created. What can I do?
The system I’m installing is a RAID server with a ARECA ARC1220 RAID card with 8 1TB harddisks. I’m installing openSUSE11.1 onto the RAID.
Thanks!
Does that raid controller present the array as a single device?
What kind of disk label are you using? I noticed with 11.1, if the label is msdos, then when you go to add the partition, the first choice is whether to create primary or extended.
If the label is gpt, then all partitions are primary, and there can be more than 4 I created 5 without issue. I don’t know what the maximum number is unfortunately.
One thing is I got a warning that suggested if I clicked ‘yes’ it would change back from gpt to msdos (this is not ideal, especially if you want partitions to be > 2GB). Did you see a similar warning?
You can change the disk label (aka partition table type) under the expert tab in the yast partitioner.
I think the label is gpt. Strangely, it let me create only 4 primary partitions. I might have got that warning, too. I finally went ahead and installed the OS with only 4 primary partitions.
Gianluca
parted can tell you what the disk label is, here’s one of mine:
parted <device>
print
quit
Using /dev/sda
Welcome to GNU Parted! Type ‘help’ to view a list of commands.
(parted) print
Model: ATA WDC WD1600AAJS-0 (scsi)
Disk /dev/sda: 160GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: msdos
Number Start End Size Type File system Flags
1 32.3kB 107MB 107MB primary ext3 boot, , , , raid, , , , , type=fd, ,
2 107MB 160GB 160GB primary , , , , raid, , , , , type=fd, ,
(parted) quit
A correction to my previous post: the limit for msdos is 2TB not 2GB.
I just tried again in a virtual machine. You can create 3 primary partitions. Partion #4 is the extended, and uses the rest of the disk space (in my example), then 5 and 6 are logical partitions within the extended partition:
http://img230.imageshack.us/img230/5673/installyy2.th.jpg](http://img230.imageshack.us/img230/5673/installyy2.jpg)
Ignore the mount points, I just let the installer pick them for me.
“gpt” refers to the “GUID Partition Table” which is part of the EFI standard. Good info here GUID Partition Table and here (since many if not most users also have Windows on the machine Using GPT Drives