multi partition terminal fdisk ( commands )

 Example:

I start fdisk from the shell prompt:


# fdisk /dev/hdb

which indicates that I am using the second drive on my IDE controller. (See Section 2.1.) When I print the (empty) partition table, I just get configuration information.


Command (m for help): p

Disk /dev/hdb: 64 heads, 63 sectors, 621 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 4032 * 512 bytes

I knew that I had a 1.2Gb drive, but now I really know: 64 * 63 * 512 * 621 = 1281982464 bytes. I decide to reserve 128Mb of that space for swap, leaving 1153982464. If I use one of my primary partitions for swap, that means I have three left for ext2 partitions. Divided equally, that makes for 384Mb per partition. Now I get to work.


Command (m for help): n
Command action
   e   extended
   p   primary partition (1-4)
p
Partition number (1-4): 1
First cylinder (1-621, default 1):<RETURN>
Using default value 1
Last cylinder or +size or +sizeM or +sizeK (1-621, default 621): +384M

Next, I set up the partition I want to use for swap:


Command (m for help): n
Command action
   e   extended
   p   primary partition (1-4)
p
Partition number (1-4): 2
First cylinder (197-621, default 197):<RETURN>
Using default value 197
Last cylinder or +size or +sizeM or +sizeK (197-621, default 621): +128M

Now the partition table looks like this:


   Device Boot    Start       End    Blocks   Id  System
/dev/hdb1             1       196    395104   83  Linux
/dev/hdb2           197       262    133056   83  Linux

I set up the remaining two partitions the same way I did the first. Finally, I make the first partition bootable:


Command (m for help): a
Partition number (1-4): 1

And I make the second partition of type swap:


Command (m for help): t
Partition number (1-4): 2
Hex code (type L to list codes): 82
Changed system type of partition 2 to 82 (Linux swap)
Command (m for help): p

The end result:


Disk /dev/hdb: 64 heads, 63 sectors, 621 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 4032 * 512 bytes

   Device Boot    Start       End    Blocks   Id  System
/dev/hdb1   *         1       196    395104+  83  Linux
/dev/hdb2           197       262    133056   82  Linux swap
/dev/hdb3           263       458    395136   83  Linux
/dev/hdb4           459       621    328608   83  Linux

Finally, I issue the write command (w) to write the table on the disk.