If you are uncomfortable with partitioning, or just want to know more details, see partitioning.

First you will be given the opportunity to automatically partition either an entire drive, or available free space on a drive. This is also called guided partitioning. If you do not want to autopartition, choose Manual from the menu.

# Supported partitioning options

The partitioner used in &d-i; is fairly versatile. It allows to create many different partitioning schemes, using various partition tables, file systems and advanced block devices.

Exactly which options are available depends mainly on the architecture, but also on other factors. For example, on systems with limited internal memory some options may not be available. Defaults may vary as well. The type of partition table used by default can for example be different for large capacity hard disks than for smaller hard disks. Some options can only be changed when installing at medium or low debconf priority; at higher priorities sensible defaults will be used.

The installer supports various forms of advanced partitioning and use of storage devices, which in many cases can be used in combination.

- Logical Volume Management (LVM)

- Software RAID

  Supported are RAID levels 0, 1, 4, 5, 6 and 10.

- Encryption

- Multipath (experimental)

  See our Wiki for information. Support for multipath is currently only available if enabled when the installer is booted.

The following file systems are supported.

- ext2r0, ext2, ext3, ext4

  The default file system selected in most cases is ext4.

- jfs (not available on all architectures)

- xfs (not available on all architectures)

- reiserfs (optional; not available on all architectures)

  Support for the Reiser file system is no longer available by default. When the installer is running at medium or low debconf priority it can be enabled by selecting the `partman-reiserfs` component. Only version 3 of the file system is supported.

- jffs2

  Used on some systems to read flash memory. It is not possible to create new jffs2 partitions.

- qnx4

  Existing partitions will be recognized and it is possible to assign mount points for them. It is not possible to create new qnx4 partitions.

- FAT16, FAT32

- NTFS (read-only)

  Existing NTFS partitions can be resized and it is possible to assign mount points for them. It is not possible to create new NTFS partitions.

The partitioner accepts units as power-of-ten (1 MB = 1000 kB = 1000000 B), as well as power-of-two (1 MiB = 1024 kiB = 1048576 B). Unit prefixes are supported until EB/EiB (exabyte/exbibyte).

## Guided Partitioning

If you choose guided partitioning, you may have three options: to create partitions directly on the hard disk (classic method), or to create them using Logical Volume Management (LVM), or to create them using encrypted LVM

The installer will encrypt the LVM volume group using a 256 bit AES key and makes use of the kernel's dm-crypt support.

.

The option to use (encrypted) LVM may not be available on all architectures.

When using LVM or encrypted LVM, the installer will create most partitions inside one big partition; the advantage of this method is that partitions inside this big partition can be resized relatively easily later. In the case of encrypted LVM the big partition will not be readable without knowing a special key phrase, thus providing extra security of your (personal) data.

When using encrypted LVM, the installer will also automatically erase the disk by writing random data to it. This further improves security (as it makes it impossible to tell which parts of the disk are in use and also makes sure that any traces of previous installations are erased), but may take some time depending on the size of your disk.

If you choose guided partitioning using LVM or encrypted LVM, some changes in the partition table will need to be written to the selected disk while LVM is being set up. These changes effectively erase all data that is currently on the selected hard disk and you will not be able to undo them later. However, the installer will ask you to confirm these changes before they are written to disk.

If you choose guided partitioning (either classic or using (encrypted) LVM) for a whole disk, you will first be asked to select the disk you want to use. Check that all your disks are listed and, if you have several disks, make sure you select the correct one. The order they are listed in may differ from what you are used to. The size of the disks may help to identify them.

Any data on the disk you select will eventually be lost, but you will always be asked to confirm any changes before they are written to the disk. If you have selected the classic method of partitioning, you will be able to undo any changes right until the end; when using (encrypted) LVM this is not possible.

Next, you will be able to choose from the schemes listed in the table below. All schemes have their pros and cons, some of which are discussed in partitioning. If you are unsure, choose the first one. Bear in mind that guided partitioning needs a certain minimal amount of free space to operate with. If you don't give it at least about 3GB of space (depends on chosen scheme), guided partitioning will fail. Also, on small disks you will probably not see all of the schemes mentioned below.

Partitioning scheme | Minimum space | Created partitions
All files in one partition | 8GB | `/`, swap
Separate /home partition | 9GB | `/`, `/home`, swap
Separate /home, /var and /tmp partitions | 12GB | `/`, `/home`, `/var`, `/tmp`, swap
Separate /srv and /var partitions; swap limited to 1GB (for server) | 8GB | `/`, `/srv`, `/var`, swap
Scheme especially for small disks | 3GB | `/`, swap

If you choose guided partitioning using (encrypted) LVM, the installer will also create a separate `/boot` partition. The other partitions, including the swap partition, will be created inside the LVM partition.

If you have booted in EFI mode then within the guided partitioning setup there will be an additional partition, formatted as a FAT32 bootable filesystem, for the EFI boot loader. This partition is known as an EFI System Partition (ESP). There is also an additional menu item in the formatting menu to manually set up a partition as an ESP.

After selecting a scheme, the next screen will show your new partition table, including information on whether and how partitions will be formatted and where they will be mounted.

The list of partitions might look like this:

      SCSI1 (0,0,0) (sda) - 6.4 GB WDC AC36400L
            #1 primary   16.4 MB  B f ext2       /boot
            #2 primary  551.0 MB      swap       swap
            #3 primary    5.8 GB      ntfs
               pri/log    8.2 MB      FREE SPACE

      SCSI2 (1,0,0) (sdb) - 80.0 GB ST380021A
            #1 primary   15.9 MB      ext3
            #2 primary  996.0 MB      fat16
            #3 primary    3.9 GB      xfs        /home
            #5 logical    6.0 GB    f ext4       /
            #6 logical    1.0 GB    f ext3       /var
            #7 logical  498.8 MB      ext3

This example shows two hard drives divided into several partitions; the first disk has some free space. Each partition line consists of the partition number, its type, size, optional flags, file system, and mountpoint (if any). Note: this particular setup cannot be created using guided partitioning but it does show possible variation that can be achieved using manual partitioning.

This concludes the guided partitioning. If you are satisfied with the generated partition table, you can choose Finish partitioning and write changes to disk from the menu to implement the new partition table (as described at the end of this section). If you are not happy, you can choose to Undo changes to partitions and run guided partitioning again, or modify the proposed changes as described below for manual partitioning.

## Manual Partitioning

A similar screen to the one shown just above will be displayed if you choose manual partitioning except that your existing partition table will be shown and without the mount points. How to manually set up your partition table and the usage of partitions by your new &debian; system will be covered in the remainder of this section.

If you select a pristine disk which has neither partitions nor free space on it, you will be asked if a new partition table should be created (this is needed so you can create new partitions). After this, a new line entitled FREE SPACE should appear in the table under the selected disk.

If you select some free space, you will have the opportunity to create a new partition. You will have to answer a quick series of questions about its size, type (primary or logical), and location (beginning or end of the free space). After this, you will be presented with a detailed overview of your new partition. The main setting is Use as:, which determines if the partition will have a file system on it, or be used for swap, software RAID, LVM, an encrypted file system, or not be used at all. Other settings include mountpoint, mount options, and bootable flag; which settings are shown depends on how the partition is to be used. If you don't like the preselected defaults, feel free to change them to your liking. E.g. by selecting the option Use as:, you can choose a different filesystem for this partition, including options to use the partition for swap, software RAID, LVM, or not use it at all. When you are satisfied with your new partition, select Done setting up the partition and you will return to `partman`'s main screen.

If you decide you want to change something about your partition, simply select the partition, which will bring you to the partition configuration menu. This is the same screen as is used when creating a new partition, so you can change the same settings. One thing that may not be very obvious at a first glance is that you can resize the partition by selecting the item displaying the size of the partition. Filesystems known to work are at least fat16, fat32, ext2, ext3 and swap. This menu also allows you to delete a partition.

Be sure to create at least two partitions: one for the root filesystem (which must be mounted as `/`) and one for swap. If you forget to mount the root filesystem, `partman` won't let you continue until you correct this issue.

If you boot in EFI mode but forget to select and format an EFI System Partition, `partman` will detect this and will not let you continue until you allocate one.

Capabilities of `partman` can be extended with installer modules, but are dependent on your system's architecture. So if you can't see all promised goodies, check if you have loaded all required modules (e.g. `partman-ext3`, `partman-xfs`, or `partman-lvm`).

After you are satisfied with partitioning, select Finish partitioning and write changes to disk from the partitioning menu. You will be presented with a summary of changes made to the disks and asked to confirm that the filesystems should be created as requested.