HDD knoppix without partitioning

**waynejkruse10** · 10-24-2003, 11:03 PM

is hdd knopix without partitioning posible and if it is how do u do it
wayne

**rickenbacherus** · 10-25-2003, 12:53 AM

Well yes and no. You have to make at least one partition. This is true os all OS's. But if you already have a single partition to install Knoppix to then yes I suppose you could avoid partitioning all together. It is preferrable to have a swap partition and a /home partition however. I realize this may not always be an option.

If you have to go to the trouble of partitioning tho then you might as well make three of them.

Post some drive specs if you want help partitioning.

**waynejkruse10** · 10-25-2003, 01:15 AM

i have a floppy drive, cd drive and 1 hard drive and i do not want to partition at all.
wayne

**Superstoned** · 10-25-2003, 01:34 AM

well, if the hd is empty and has a ext2/ext3 partition on it, you can install knoppix. but if windows is there, you can't install it on the same partition... like you cant install windows twice... why dont u want to make partitions? its easy and usefull!

**waynejkruse10** · 10-25-2003, 01:36 AM

do u need to format the hdd to make partitions
wayne

**rickenbacherus** · 10-25-2003, 03:27 AM

Yes - all partitions need to be formatted if you intend on using them. Fret not tho- Knoppix will see what partitions you have available and ask which ones to use. You select the format type and it does it for you. It is also extremely easy to partition them yourself.

Since you are booting from cd you can install Knoppix and be online at the same time. I would recommend that you fire up Knoppix, get onto irc and /j #knoppix. You will find the best live tech support available there. It is well worth your time.

If you need help w/ irc just say so. There are several people there able and willing to help. There is a partitioning how-to here. There is also qtparted which runs from the Knoppix cd.

If you have a single hard drive that you wish to install only Linux to start from scratch like this:

Boot Knoppix, open a root shell and do

dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/hda

This will zero your hard drive. It may take a while but you will see an 'out of disk' error when it finishes. You don't need to do this everytime you want to install something but it is a good idea to start fresh at least occasionally.

Then fire up either qtparted or cfdisk from the same root shell. Follow the directions in the howto I linked. But most importantly- don't worry. You aren't going to do anything that cannot be undone. Keep in ind that partitioning is nothing more than taking a disk and making smaller disks from it according to the sizes you want.

**waynejkruse10** · 10-25-2003, 06:34 AM

i dont want to format my hdd, because ive only done it once and that was with the help of a pro
wayne

**bongski55** · 10-25-2003, 11:33 AM

why not do a "poor man's install"? See the docs for instructions.

**waynejkruse10** · 10-25-2003, 11:38 PM

can i do a "poor mans install" without a partition
wayne

**rickenbacherus** · 10-26-2003, 05:13 AM

Originally Posted by waynejkruse10

i dont want to format my hdd, because ive only done it once and that was with the help of a pro
wayne

Are you afraid of saving files to your hard drive too? It isn't any different than formatting really. You're writing something to the surface of the disc either way. Partitioning just sounds scary until you do it a few times.

Have you even tried the knoppix-installer yet? It will do most all of it for you. Just try the defaults and let Linux do it. Worst case scenario is that you do it again. It takes only 20 minutes or less. If you have no other operating system on that hard drive then you have nothing to lose. You are not going to ruin the disc, you are not going to ruin your machine.