ArcaOS Disk Setup Options
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This is the worst possible disk setup. The entire disk is partitioned using one large partition and the operating system is installed into the one large partition along with all programs and all data. There is no separation of the various system components. Reliability is diminished. Safety and security are compromised. This is also the slowest booting configuration. This setup does not require a boot manager. |
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This setup is slightly better. It provides a small bootable partition for the operating system,
with the remaining part of the disk for programs and data. This keeps the operating system
separate from the programs and data so that it can be customized, reinstalled, and updated
without affecting the installed programs and data. This setup does not require a boot manager.
Due to the larger overhead with JFS, HPFS is recommended for disk sizes less than about 10 GB.
The small HPFS boot partition allows this configuration boot slightly faster since HPFS boots
faster than JFS.
UNIXROOT=D: |
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This setup is even better. It provides a small bootable partition for the operating system,
but it also separates programs from data. This has all the benefits of the previous setup
but adds the separation of the programs from the data. This setup does not require a boot manager.
Due to the larger overhead with JFS, HPFS is recommended for disk sizes less than about 10 GB.
UNIXROOT=D: |
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This setup is the best. It provides all the benefits of the previous setup but adds a
separately bootable maintenance partition. The maintenance partition can be use to recover
your system in the event the main partition becomes unbootable.
This setup requires a boot manager. AiR-BOOT
is recommended because it is fast, flexible, and does not require a partition and does
not place any files or any data in any partition.
Due to the larger overhead with JFS, HPFS is recommended for disk sizes less than about 10 GB.
The maintenance boot partition is considered expendable. It can be formatted, reinstalled, updated, tested, etc. without affecting any of the rest of the system. The "C" partition was chosen for the maintenance partition as it provides protection against badly written software that wrongly assumes that "C" is the boot volume so that these errant programs won't corrupt the working boot volume. UNIXROOT=E: |
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Another Possibility. This is the same as the last setup but adds Linux to the mix.
Create the Linux swap and Linux boot partitions using MiniLVM and then install
Linux into them. You can also separate the Linux boot from the Linux data by making
another partion similar to what was done for ArcaOS.
This setup requires a boot manager. AiR-BOOT is recommended because it is fast, flexible, and does not require a partition and does not place any files or any data in any partition. For Linux, AiR-BOOT will start GRUB which should be installed into the Linux boot partition. UNIXROOT=E: |
Other notes:
- Always create at least one primary partition. Do not attempt to install ArcaOS on a system with no primary partition. While this may appear to work, strange problems can occur with some software.
- When creating partitions, bootable volumes must be the compatibility type.
- The ordering and sizes of the partitions are flexible and the examples shown above are examples only. ArcaOS can be installed to any volume anywhere on the disk and does not need to be first in the partition list. For example, the Linux partitions could come first, with the ArcaOS partitions after that on the disk.
- If you create a system dump partition, there are certain requirements. Please check the requirements for dump partitions here: https://www.arcanoae.com/wiki/how-to-get-a-trap-dump/
- Unless you have a small disk (smaller than 500GB), always partition and setup the disk with OS/2 tools. Bad Things can happen on larger disks partitioned and/or setup by other operating systems. This means that if you get a system from the vendor with Windows on it, you should wipe the disk, and repartition it with OS/2 tools. Then you can reinstall Windows if you want to keep it. Shrinking the Windows partion, and/or trying to use space on a disk setup by Windows usually won't work well. It may initially appear to work but you will usually encounter problems eventually.
- GPT disks work well with ArcaOS but are 10% to 20% slower than MBR disks due to the GPT filter emulation. If you can, avoid using GPT disks with ArcaOS where performance is important.