I just bought a dell laptop with a single large (500GB) disk.

I find getting dell service is easier if I have windows installed
so I reinstalled windows from its original configuration of claiming all
the space to "just" 30GB.

However this uses three partitions

1. A dell partition (I believe with diagnostics)
2. The main windows 7 partition (c
3. A recovery partition (made by windows)

I imagine I could arrange to have the recovery partition an extended
partition, but I am a windows novice so prefer to leave all of
windows as it was (except for having vastly reducing the size of #2).

I am now ready to install linux (and grub).
Can I have all of linux on extended partitions? Something like

4. Extended
5. linux / (a logical partition inside the extended partition)
6. linux swap (another logical partition)
7. linux lvm2 partition (another logical partition)
8. linux small vfat partition (logical)

I am mainly concerned about #5. Googling reveals that you can boot
from a logical partition but the authors seem to recommend against
it (without saying why in detail).

Finally, can I install grub on the mbr *after* having installed windows 7?
With old windows systems this was bad; with vista it worked.

thanks,
allan

On Mon, 07 Jun 2010 22:10:06 -0400, Allan Gottlieb wrote:

> I am now ready to install linux (and grub).
> Can I have all of linux on extended partitions? Something like
>
> 4. Extended
> 5. linux / (a logical partition inside the extended partition)
> 6. linux swap (another logical partition)
> 7. linux lvm2 partition (another logical partition)
> 8. linux small vfat partition (logical)
>
> I am mainly concerned about #5. Googling reveals that you can boot
> from a logical partition but the authors seem to recommend against
> it (without saying why in detail).

Yes. My Linux only computers have no primary partitions, everything is on
logical partitions and has worked that way for many years without a
single issue.


--
Neil Bothwick

WinErr 012: Window closed - Do not look inside

At Tue, 08 Jun 2010 10:52:14 +0100 Neil Bothwick <neil@digimed.co.uk> wrote:

> On Mon, 07 Jun 2010 22:10:06 -0400, Allan Gottlieb wrote:
>
>> I am now ready to install linux (and grub).
>> Can I have all of linux on extended partitions? Something like
>>
>> 4. Extended
>> 5. linux / (a logical partition inside the extended partition)
>> 6. linux swap (another logical partition)
>> 7. linux lvm2 partition (another logical partition)
>> 8. linux small vfat partition (logical)
>>
>> I am mainly concerned about #5. Googling reveals that you can boot
>> from a logical partition but the authors seem to recommend against
>> it (without saying why in detail).
>
> Yes. My Linux only computers have no primary partitions, everything is on
> logical partitions and has worked that way for many years without a
> single issue.

Thank you. That is just the endorsement I needed to go ahead.

allan

On Tuesday 08 June 2010 12:47:37 Allan Gottlieb wrote:
> At Tue, 08 Jun 2010 10:52:14 +0100 Neil Bothwick <neil@digimed.co.uk> wrote:
> > On Mon, 07 Jun 2010 22:10:06 -0400, Allan Gottlieb wrote:
> >> I am now ready to install linux (and grub).
> >> Can I have all of linux on extended partitions? Something like
> >>
> >> 4. Extended
> >> 5. linux / (a logical partition inside the extended partition)
> >> 6. linux swap (another logical partition)
> >> 7. linux lvm2 partition (another logical partition)
> >> 8. linux small vfat partition (logical)
> >>
> >> I am mainly concerned about #5. Googling reveals that you can boot
> >> from a logical partition but the authors seem to recommend against
> >> it (without saying why in detail).
> >
> > Yes. My Linux only computers have no primary partitions, everything is on
> > logical partitions and has worked that way for many years without a
> > single issue.
>
> Thank you. That is just the endorsement I needed to go ahead.

The first partition has FreeDOS I think and a couple of recovery tools.

The second partition *should* have a backup of the MSWindows OS _and_ the boot
files. If you less about with it you will probably find that your MSWindows
OS does not boot anymore.

The third partition should have the MSWindows OS.

A quick check for finding a file called BCD and perhaps BCD_backup will show
you which is the boot partition.


If you are still under warranty you may want to install GRUB in your Linux
/boot partition not in the MBR and then copy an image of the boot partition
record from the Linux /boot partition to a file in your MSWindows OS
partition. I have detailed how to chainload Linux from MSWindows in this
thread:

http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.linux.gentoo.user/226452/focus=226560

HTH.
--
Regards,
Mick

At Sat, 12 Jun 2010 09:05:43 +0100 Mick <michaelkintzios@gmail.com> wrote:

> On Tuesday 08 June 2010 12:47:37 Allan Gottlieb wrote:
>> At Tue, 08 Jun 2010 10:52:14 +0100 Neil Bothwick <neil@digimed.co.uk> wrote:
>> > On Mon, 07 Jun 2010 22:10:06 -0400, Allan Gottlieb wrote:
>> >> I am now ready to install linux (and grub).
>> >> Can I have all of linux on extended partitions? Something like
>> >>
>> >> 4. Extended
>> >> 5. linux / (a logical partition inside the extended partition)
>> >> 6. linux swap (another logical partition)
>> >> 7. linux lvm2 partition (another logical partition)
>> >> 8. linux small vfat partition (logical)
>> >>
>> >> I am mainly concerned about #5. Googling reveals that you can boot
>> >> from a logical partition but the authors seem to recommend against
>> >> it (without saying why in detail).
>> >
>> > Yes. My Linux only computers have no primary partitions, everything is on
>> > logical partitions and has worked that way for many years without a
>> > single issue.
>>
>> Thank you. That is just the endorsement I needed to go ahead.
>
> The first partition has FreeDOS I think and a couple of recovery tools.
>
> The second partition *should* have a backup of the MSWindows OS _and_ the boot
> files. If you less about with it you will probably find that your MSWindows
> OS does not boot anymore.
>
> The third partition should have the MSWindows OS.
>
> A quick check for finding a file called BCD and perhaps BCD_backup will show
> you which is the boot partition.
>
>
> If you are still under warranty you may want to install GRUB in your Linux
> /boot partition not in the MBR and then copy an image of the boot partition
> record from the Linux /boot partition to a file in your MSWindows OS
> partition. I have detailed how to chainload Linux from MSWindows in this
> thread:
>
> http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.linux.gentoo.user/226452/focus=226560
>
> HTH.

Thanks. Currently I am successfully chainloading windows from grub
loaded in the MBR. My only problem is with the network under linux, but
that is another thread.

thanks again,
allan