Appendix B: GParted
This appendix provides the procedure for repartitioning your disk drive to make room
for the OpenSolaris software. The goal of this task is to create a
free primary partition which is required for the OpenSolaris software to install successfully.
Partitioning the hard drive into smaller fdisk partitions is a necessary step to
set up a multiboot environment. Each operating system is installed on its own
fdisk partition.
To Repartition Your Disk
- Power on the laptop.
- Determine the current partition size by completing the following steps:
- Choose Control Panel from the Start menu.
The Control Panel is displayed.
- Double-click the Administrative Tools icon.
The Administrative Tools window is displayed.
- Double-click the Computer Management icon.
The Computer Management window is displayed.
- Finally, double-click the Disk Management icon.
The current disk partition size is displayed. Note down this information. You can use
this information to confirm the data reported by GParted in a later step
of this procedure.
- If you have not already done so, burn the System Rescue CD.
See SourceForge and use the instructions at www. sysresccd.org.
- Set the CD/DVD-Rom drive to be the first boot device, and reboot the
system.
The Welcome to SystemRescueCd screen is displayed.
- Press the Enter key to boot the CD.
After the boot is complete, a list of commands for the different utilities,
modes, and documentation appears.
- To start the GParted partitioning utility, type the following command:
root@sysresccd /root % startx
A large window opens, including a number of icons on the right
hand side of the window.
- Click on the third icon from the top to open the Gparted
Graphical User Interface.
All the available disks are displayed.
- Select the disk to be resized.
- Click the Resize/Move button located on the menu bar.
The Resize Partition dialog box is displayed.
- To set the desired partition size, position the cursor at the edge of
the green box, hold down the left mouse button and drag the
box to the desired size.
The fields below the box indicate the exact size of the desired partition.
The recommended partition size for the Slim Installer is 10 GB. For additional
information, see Managing Disks.
- To save this setting, click the Resize/Move button within the dialog box.
The Resize Partition dialog box is closed.
- To begin creating the new partition, select the disk you want to partition.
Position the cursor on the selected disk and right-click the mouse. Then, click
on New from the popup menu.
- Choose Linux-swap from the Filesystem dropdown menu and click the Add button. Click
Close to close this window.
Note - Linux-swap is the same partition ID that Solaris uses. During the Slim Installation,
in the Disk partitioning step, you will be able to change this Linux-swap
partition to a Solaris partition.
- Click on the Apply button to confirm and apply the pending operations.
- After the Progress bar reaches 100% and the "Operations Completed Successfully" message appears,
click OK.
The Progress dialog box is closed.
- To exit GParted, choose Exit from the File menu.
The main screen of the Gparted utility is displayed.
- Open a terminal window to exit the Gparted utility and reboot the system.
To open a terminal window, click on the fourth icon from the
top. To reboot Windows, type the following command:
root@sysresccd /root % reboot
Troubleshooting
If Windows does not boot, restore the operating system by loading the g4u
CD and typing the following command:
g4u > slurpdisk IP address imagename.gz wdo
Where IP address is the IP address of the FTP server where you saved
the image, imagename.gz is the name of the backup file, and wdo is
the disk you want to restore.
At the prompt, type the password for the install user account.
Windows is restored to the whole disk and the partition you created with
GParted is overwritten.
After You Finish
If Windows booted successfully, click the Installation tab for further instructions about how
to install the OpenSolaris software on the new partition.