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<sect2 arch="ia64"><title>Partitioning for &arch-title;</title>
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The <command>partman</command> disk partitioner is the default
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partitioning tool for the installer.
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It manages the set of partitions and their mount points to ensure
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that the disks and filesystems is properly configured for a successful
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installation. It actually uses the <command>parted</command> to
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do the on-disk partitioning.
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<title>EFI Recognized Formats</title>
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The IA64 EFI firmware supports two partition table (or disk label)
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formats, GPT and MS-DOS. MS-DOS, the format typically used on i386
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PCs, is no longer recommended for IA64 systems. Although
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the installer also provides the <command>cfdisk</command>,
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you should only use the <ulink url="parted.txt">
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<command>parted</command></ulink> because only it can manage both GPT
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and MS-DOS tables correctly.
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The automatic partitioning recipes for <command>partman</command>
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allocate an EFI partition as the first partition on the disk.
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You can also set up the partition under the <guimenuitem>Guided
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partitioning</guimenuitem> from the main menu in a manner similar to
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setting up a <emphasis>swap</emphasis> partition.
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The <command>partman</command> partitioner will handle most disk
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For those rare cases where it is necessary to manually set up a disk,
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you can use the shell as described above and run the
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<command>parted</command> utility directly using its command line interface.
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Assuming that you want to erase your whole disk and create a GPT table
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and some partitions, then something similar to the following command
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sequence could be used:
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<informalexample><screen>
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mkpartfs primary fat 0 50
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mkpartfs primary linux-swap 51 1000
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mkpartfs primary ext2 1001 3000
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</screen></informalexample>
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This creates a new partition table, and three partitions to be used as
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an EFI boot partition, swap space, and a root file system. Finally it
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sets the boot flag on the EFI partition. Partitions are specified in
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Megabytes, with start and end offsets from the beginning of the disk.
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So, for example, above we created a 1999MB ext2 file system starting
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at offset 1001MB from the start of the disk. Note that formatting swap
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space with <command>parted</command> can take a few minutes to
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complete, as it scans the partition for bad blocks.
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<sect2 arch="ia64"><title>Boot Loader Partition Requirements</title>
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ELILO, the ia64 boot loader, requires a partition containing a FAT
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file system with the <userinput>boot</userinput> flag set.
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The partition must be big enough to hold the boot loader and any
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kernels or RAMdisks you may wish to boot. A minimum size would be
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about 20MB, but if you expect to run with multiple kernels, then
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128MB might be a better size.
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The EFI Boot Manager and the EFI Shell fully support the GPT table
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so the boot partition does not necessarily have to be the first
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partition or even on the same disk.
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This is convenient if you should forget to allocate the partition and
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only find out after you have formatted the other partitions on your disk(s).
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The <command>partman</command> partitioner checks for an EFI partition
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at the same time it checks for a properly set up <emphasis>root</emphasis>
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This gives you an opportunity to correct the disk layout before the
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package install begins.
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The easiest way to correct this omission is to shrink the last partition
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of the disk to make enough free space for adding an EFI partition.
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It is strongly recommended that you allocate the EFI boot partition
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on the same disk as the <emphasis>root</emphasis> filesystem.
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<sect2 arch="ia64"><title>EFI Diagnostic Partitions</title>
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The EFI firmware is significantly more sophisticated than the usual
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BIOS seen on most x86 PCs.
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Some system vendors take advantage of the ability of the EFI to
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access files and run programs from a hard disk filesystem to store diagnostics
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and EFI based system management utilities on the hard disk.
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This is a separate FAT format filesystem on the system disk.
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Consult the system documentation and accessories that come with the
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The easiest time to set up a diagnostics partition is at the same time you
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set up the EFI boot partition.