Chapter 3. Installing Red Hat Linux

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File System Type: Using the pull down menu, select the appropriate file system type for this parti 

tion. For more information on file system types, see Section 3.18.5.1.

Allowable Drives: This field contains a list of the hard disks installed on your system. If a hard

disk's box is highlighted, then a desired partition can be created on that hard disk. If the box is

not checked, then the partition will never be created on that hard disk. By using different checkbox

settings, you can have Disk Druid place partitions as you see fit, or let Disk Druid decide where

partitions should go.

Size (Megs): Enter the size (in megabytes) of the partition. Note, this field starts with 100 MB;

unless changed, only a 100 MB partition will be created.

Additional Size Options: Choose whether to keep this partition at a fixed size, to allow it to "grow"

(fill up the available hard drive space) to a certain point, or to allow it to grow to fill any remaining

hard drive space available.

If you choose Fill all space up to (MB), you must give size constraints in the field to the right of

this option. This allows you to keep a certain amount of space free on your hard drive for future

use.

Force to be a primary partition: Select whether the partition you are creating should be one of the

first four partitions on the hard drive. If unselected, the partition created will be a logical partition.

See Section E.1.3, for more information.

Check for bad blocks: Checking for bad blocks can help prevent data loss by locating the bad

blocks on a drive and making a list of them to prevent using them in the future. If you wish to check

for bad blocks while formatting each file system, please make sure to select this option.

Selecting Check for bad blocks may dramatically increase your total installation time. Since most

newer hard drives are quite large in size, checking for bad blocks may take a long time; the length

of time depends on the size of your hard drive. If you choose to check for bad blocks, you can

monitor your progress on virtual console #6.

Ok: Select Ok once you are satisfied with the settings and wish to create the partition.

Cancel: Select Cancel if you do not want to create the partition.

3.18.5.1. File System Types

Red Hat Linux allows you to create different partition types, based on the file system they will use. The

following is a brief description of the different file systems available, and how they can be utilized.

ext2   An ext2 file system supports standard Unix file types (regular files, directories, symbolic

links, etc). It provides the ability to assign long file names, up to 255 characters. Versions prior to

Red Hat Linux 7.2 used ext2 file systems by default.

ext3   The ext3 file system is based on the ext2 file system and has one main advantage  

journaling. Using a journaling file system reduces time spent recovering a file system after a crash

as there is no need to fsck

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the file system. The ext3 file system will selected by default and is highly

recommended.

physical volume (LVM)   Creating one or more physical volume (LVM) partitions allows you to

create an LVM logical volume. For more information regarding LVM, refer to the Official Red Hat

Linux Customization Guide.

software RAID   Creating two or more software RAID partitions allows you to create a RAID

device. For more information regarding RAID, refer to the chapter RAID (Redundant Array of

Independent Disks) in the Official Red Hat Linux Customization Guide.

1. The fsck application is used to check the file system for metadata consistency and optionally repair one or

more Linux file systems.