User`s guide

Configuring the Virtual Machine 222
Creating a New Partition in Linux
In most Linux systems, you can use the fdisk utility to create a new partition and perform
other disk management operations.
Note: To perform disk management operations using fdisk, you must have the root
privileges.
As a tool with a text interface, fdisk requires typing the commands in the fdisk command
line. The main fdisk commands are listed below:
Options Description
m
Displays all available commands for fdisk.
p
Displays the list of existing partitions on your hda drive. Unpartitioned
space is not listed.
n
Creates a new partition.
q
Exits fdisk without saving your changes.
l
Lists partition types.
w
Writes changes to the partition table.
To create a new partition:
1 Start a terminal.
2 Start fdisk:
# /sbin/fdisk /dev/hda
/dev/hda stands for the hard drive you want to partition.
3 In fdisk, to create a new partition, type the following command:
n
 When prompted to specify the Partition type, type p to create a primary partition or e to
create an extended one. There may be up to four primary partitions. If you want to create
more than four partitions, extend the last partition, and it will become a container for
other logical partitions.
 When prompted for the Number, in most cases, type 3 because a typical Linux virtual
machine has two partitions by default.
 When prompted for the Start cylinder, type a starting cylinder number or press Return to
use the first cylinder available.
 When prompted for the Last cylinder, press Return to allocate all the available space or
specify the size of a new partition in cylinders if you do not want to use all the available
space.
By default, fdisk creates a partition with a System ID of 83. If you are unsure of the
partition’s System ID, use the
l
command to check it.
4 Use the
w
command to write the changes to the partition table.