4. Needed Software

For Arch we need the latest base installation CD (ISO file) of Arch for our cpu’s architecture x86_64 or i686.

Download the ISO file from the Arch Mirrors.

Go to the folder: 

.../0.8/iso/...

And download one of them:

----> .../i686/archlinux-2008.06-core-i686.iso
----> .../x86_64/archlinux-2008.06-core-x86_64.iso

(from now on our architectures will be named x86 and amd64)

Moreover we need:
- A Linux Live-CD with graphical interface and the probability to install some packets from there. A very good is Ubuntu live-CD. Download it from Ubuntu Mirrors.

5. Starting with BIOS

It is good to have the latest BIOS for your motherboard as well as extra disk controllers installed. Be sure that BIOS recognizes the full capacity of your hard disks. If not this may lead to data corruption. So, be careful.

Moreover disable all RAID modes and set your disk controllers in SIMPLE mode.

Finally especially for motherboard’s BIOS be careful:

• not to have changed the physical order of the disk controllers and their channels.
• not to have messed SATA and IDE. Always set SATA as SATA and IDE as IDE. These things occur usually in Intel’s cphipsets ICH-XXX.
• to have disabled on board graphics card if you use another extra one.
• to have disabled on board audio card if you use another extra one.
• do not disable any of the other devices even if you don’t use it.
• if you have “strang” keyboard or mouse set thet at PS/2 mode (mouse may be at USB also)

6. Partitioning

Now it’s time to decide how our system’s partitions will be organized.

But first let’s discuss some “myths” that have to do with partitions:

a. A HDD must not have over one primary partition.

Wrong.

This is a myth from the time of useless and old time DOS-9x-Me.

Primary partitions are being accessed faster than logical drivers when the are in extended partitions. Therefore it is highly advised in all our hard disk drives to make only extended partitions ONLY if we need in a HDD over four partitions.

b. We may have as many active partitions as we want in our system.

Wrong.

Experience shows that if we have too many active partitions in a computer this would cause only problems to any OS installed.

Therefore it is highly advised in a computer to have only one active partition which should be primary and would be placed in the beginning of the first physical drive of the first channel of the first disk controller.

Now let’s explain how hard disk and partitions are being labeled under Linux.

• linux counts disk positions and not disks themselves which means that if a position exists but it doesn’t have a drive on it, it stills occupies a drive letter.
• IDE drives have the prefix h (hda, hdb, hdc, etc.)
• SATA and SCSI drives have the prefix s (sda, sdb, sdc etc.)
• partitions are labeled with the small letters of the English alphabet from a and so on.
  (hdg, sdd, sdh, hde etc.)
• the system keeps independent numeration for the IDE partitions and independent numeration for the SATA and SCSI partitions
• for each one of the two independent numerations (IDE <-> SATA and SCSI)
  the following are being numerated from a
  ----> the positions of motherboard’s chipset
  ----> the positions of extra disk controllers
  ----> the positions of other extra PCI controllers starting from the top PCI slot and going down
• partitions are numerated from 1 and so on. The extended partition is also being numerated (if it exists) even if it doesn’t hold any data (hda1, sde3, hdg4, sdc4 etc.)
   
• a drive symbolization is composed like this: <prefix>d<possition-letter>

• a partition symbolization is composed like this: <prefix>d<position-letter><partition-number>

• under Linux in order to name a drive or a partition we use the prefix /dev/ along the above symbolizations

            (e.g. drive names -> /dev/sda /dev/hdg e.g.) 

            (e.g. partition names -> /dev/hdc5 /dev/sdd7 e.g.)

• instead of using letters (such as C D etc.) partitions and drivers occupy directories beneath root directory “/” (e.x. “/boot” “/home” “/var” “/mnt/stuff”) Some of those directories have specific usage.
   

Below we can see which partitions we can use as long as the filesystems.

- "/"
OBLIGATORY
MINIMUM SIZE-> 16GB
FILESYSTEM TYPES-> ext3 reiserfs
RECCOMENDED FILESYSTEM -> ext3
WE WILL USE ext3
This is the basic partition of each linux installation. It can be common among two installations or linux distributions. Moreover if our system doesn’t have a “/boot” partition (see below) it is one of the possible places for the loader to be installed.
 
- swap
OBLIGATORY
SIZE -> 3GB
FILESYSTEM TYPES -> swap
RECCOMENDED FILESYSTEM -> swap
WE WILL USE swap
This partition has a usage similar to Windows’ pagefile. It can be common among many installations or linux distributions.

- "/boot"
GOOD TO EXIST
SIZE -> 120MB
FILESYSTEM TYPES -> ext3
RECCOMENDED FILESYSTEM -> ext3
WE WILL USE ext3
This is the partition were all the necessary for the boot process are being kept (the kernels, loader’s configuration, even if the loader itseld). It can be common among many linux distributions.

 - "/mnt/repos"
GOOD TO EXIST
MINIMUM SIZE-> 8GB
FILESYSTEM TYPES -> reiserfs
RECCOMENDED FILESYSTEM -> reiserfs
WE WILL USE reiserfs
This is a good partition to be made. In there all program packets and repository lists will be kept. For each architecture is obligatory to have a different subdirectory. Moreover in here we can place a local repository if this is needed.

 - "/var"
ΠΡΟΑΙΡΕΤΙΚΟ
MINIMUM SIZE-> 8GB
FILESYSTEM TYPES -> reiserfs
RECCOMENDED FILESYSTEM -> reiserfs
WE WON’T MAKE IT
This is a partition were temporary files and folders are being kept.

- "/home"
GOOD TO EXIST
MINIMUM SIZE-> 4GB
FILESYSTEM TYPES -> ext3 reiserfs xfs
WE WILL USE ext3
This is the partition where all our personal configuration and data are being kept. It is similar to “Documents & Settings” folder of Windows but here it is correctly build. It can be common among many installations and distributions as far as a different user is being used in each one of them.
Supposing that we have much free space where we will place big files such as movies, videos etc. we will also create the following partition.

- "/mnt/data"
ΠΡΟΑΙΡΕΤΙΚΟ
SIZE -> 100GB
FILESYSTEM TYPES -> xfs
RECCOMENDED FILESYSTEM -> xfs
WE WILL USE xfs
We ssuppose that our system has 4 different SATA channels (four SATA places: sda till sdd) and 4 IDE channels (4 IDE places: had till hdd). All our hard disks are SATA (let’s suppose that we have one disk) and all our IDE devices are just optical drives. Finally we suppose that in our system there is no Windows NT-Class installation.

Therefore in our example we will create something like this:

/dev/sda1	/boot		ext3		noatime
/dev/sda2	/		ext3		noatime
/dev/sda3	swap		swap		defaults
/dev/sda5	/mnt/repos	reiserfs	notail,noatime
/dev/sda6	/home		ext3		noatime
/dev/sda7	/mnt/data	xfs		noatime,logbufs=8

In each line we find info about a partition. There are four columns:

- 1st -> partition’s name
- 2nd -> mounted directory
- 3rd -> filesystem
- 4th -> options relevant to supported encoding, user privileges, etc.

No matter what your partitions would be remember the following
- for each filesystem always use only the above options (ex. for xfs use only noatime,logbugs=8)

- for the swap partition the only thing that changes is the partition number:

/dev/sda3	none		swap		sw

 
When you have decided how to partition your hard disks write down this info because you will use it later.