Libranet 2.8 insallation

[Dswissmiss]

Hello,
I recently messed up a Debian installation which resulted in me having to reinstall windows, so I'm trying to be more careful this time. During the Libranet installation, I get prompted to choose the partitioning and layout method, and my choices are : Automatically partition and layout drives, either using the entire hard disk, or just free space, to use existing Linux partitions, or to manually do everything. I have an 80 gig hard drive, and set aside about 18 gigs to install linux on, but when I choose to automatically install Libranet on the free space I have, I only see the choice to use the full hard drisk. If i select that option, will Libranet eventually see that windows is installed on most of it, or should I manually partition and layout everything? If so, could someone give me the partition names and everything I need to use (/dev/hda1...and so on)?
In the worst case I'll just install a distro I am familiar with and use Libranet to format and install on the already existing linux partitions.

thank you
Dswissmiss

[Tyr_7BE]

Two options: manually partition, or run the risk of windows being wiped. Not really sure what it will do in the case of auto partition.

For a manual partition scheme, make sure that your / partition is either /dev/hda1, /dev/hda2, or /dev/hda3. These are your primary partitions, and Linux may or may not play nicely if it's on an extended partition.

My current partition scheme:

/dev/hda1 - Win2k - 15 gigs
/dev/hda2 - Linux - "/" mountpoint - 35 gigs
/dev/hda4 - Extended partition - 10 gigs - Consists of:
/dev/hda5 - 100 megs - Linux "/boot" mountpoint
/dev/hda6 - 900 megs - Linux swap
/dev/hda7 - 9 gigs - FAT32 - Media & storage for both OSes

Now what's vital out of this is the following:
"/" mounted on /dev/hda1, 2, or 3
"/boot" a decent size (some recommend 32 megs, others recommend around 100 megs. Something in this range should be fine).
Your swap space should be placed on another partition and should be at least double your amount of RAM, more if possible (I have 312 megs of RAM and 900 megs of swap, and things are pretty smooth).

That should give you a real nice partition scheme. Add whatever else you want (some like to make "/home" separate, but it's not needed and I quite frankly don't like that). If you're dual booting, I'd also recommend a media partition (FAT32 file system) for things like storage, passing files from Lin to Win, and general miscellaneous use. Makes life a lot easier when both OSes can see the same space.

[jetblackz]

I don't like Libranet's 3 limiting options one bit. It's vague. A newbie could very well wipe out his/her HD.

Also, L won't install unless you use L's fdisk/cfdisk to part. your HD. It knows if you did or didn't. I hate it.

If you must get Debian, get Knoppix one CD. The install is very straightforward. Go to my site for help.