Fedora 12: the first OS I don't know how to install

The way I usually do my Linux installs is to set up 5 partitions: one primary for Windows, one primary for shared user data between Win/Lin, and three extended partitions (/, /home, and swap).

What I can't figure out during the Fedora 12 install process is how to partition my hard drive the way I want it, because there seems to be no way to create extended partitions as far as I can see. The closest thing I have been able to figure out is to create a LVM, which APPEARS to allow me to create multiple logical partitions within a single partition record entry, but placing /, /home and swap within that LVM results in the Fedora installer telling me that the bootable drive has to be on a primary partition.

I probably could use GParted on my Ubuntu LiveUSB to partition my hard drive exactly as I want it before installing Fedora, but before I take the easy way out I thought I'd at least try to find out what I'm doing wrong. Help appreciated, and thanks.

 

If you let handle Fedora the partitioning, then it will create one primary partition for /boot and one partition for LVM, in which it will setup /, /home and swap. But it lets you do it your way too, if you select to manually arrange the partitions.

 

As mentioned above RHEL derivatives use LVM during setup. If you want to poke around and set some up yourself, you will learn a bit and possibly have a reference point for future installations on servers with large disks and/or RAID arrays. If you don't just let it ride, it does a fine job.

 

A bit of digging around seems to indicate that the Fedora partitioner is, in fact, incapable of manually creating extended partitions at all.

Looks like I'll just go ahead and try some other distros I've downloaded as well first. =/

 

When I re-installed Mint I selected "Logical" for /, swap & /Home and it automatically placed them all within an extended partition upon install.