source: BOOK/partitioning/common/creatingpartition.xml@ c5c09e6

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<sect1 id="ch-partitioning-creatingpartition">
  <?dbhtml filename="creatingpartition.html"?>

  <title>Creating a New Partition</title>

  <para os="a">Like most other operating systems, CLFS is usually installed
  on a dedicated partition. The recommended approach to building a CLFS
  system is to use an available empty partition or, if you have enough
  unpartitioned space, to create one. However, if you're building for a
  different architecture you can simply build everything in
  <quote>/mnt/clfs</quote> (or whatever directory you want to use) and
  transfer it to your target machine. If you do not plan to use a separate
  partition for building CLFS, you can skip the rest of this chapter and
  continue on to <xref linkend="chapter-getting-materials"/>.</para>

  <para os="b">A minimal system requires around 6 gigabytes (GB).
  This is enough to store all the source tarballs and compile the packages. The CLFS
  system itself will not take up this  much room. A large portion of this requirement
  is to provide sufficient free temporary storage. Compiling packages can require a
  lot of disk space which will be reclaimed after the package is installed. If the
  CLFS system is intended to be the primary Linux system,  additional software will
  probably be installed which will require additional space (2-10 GB). </para>

  <para os="c">Because there is not always enough Random Access Memory (RAM)
  available for compilation processes, it is a good idea to use a small disk
  partition as swap space. This is used by the kernel to store seldom-used
  data and leave more memory available for active processes. The swap
  partition for a CLFS system can be the same as the one used by the host
  system, in which case it is not necessary to create another one.</para>

  <para os="d">As the <systemitem class="username">root</systemitem> user,
  start a disk partitioning program such as <command>cfdisk</command>
  or <command>fdisk</command> with a command line option naming the hard
  disk on which the new partition will be created&mdash;for example
  <filename class="devicefile">/dev/sda</filename> for the primary
  Integrated Drive Electronics (IDE) or Serial ATA (SATA) disk. Create a Linux
  native partition and a swap partition, if needed. Please refer to
  <filename>cfdisk(8)</filename> or <filename>fdisk(8)</filename> if you
  do not yet know how to use the programs.</para>

  <para os="e">Remember the designation of the new partition (e.g.,
  <filename class="devicefile">sda5</filename>). This book will refer to
  this as the CLFS partition. Also, remember the designation of the swap
  partition. These names will be needed later for the
  <filename>/etc/fstab</filename> file.</para>

</sect1>