Linux – GNU Parted and Small Spaces Between Partitions

linuxpartedpartitionslackware

I wanted to install Slackware on my MacBook Pro (6,2). Because MBP's use GPT instead of MBR, I need to use parted prior to running the installer. I wanted to use LVM, but I cannot even get that far. When creating a partition, I get small bits of space between partitions, commonly 0.28MB. I have tried switching units to mb, then b, in order to get it really fine-grained and make sure it was just sloppy math using units like gb and mb. When I align I neatly fit the partitions in bytes (b), I get the following error:

(parted) print free
Model: 
Disk /dev/sda: 320072933376B
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
      Number   Start        End           Size           File System
Name  2        209735680B   50209734655B  49999998976B   hfs+ OSX  
(parted) mkpart primary ext2 50209734656 50209837056
Warning: The resulting partition is not properly aligned for the best
performance. Ignore / Cancel?

(I would make that a code block, but it looks uglier and more illegiable than before.) So, is there supposed to be space? Judging all the installs from more automated installations, like Fedora and/or Ubuntu, there is never free space. So am I missing something here?

Best Answer

The easiest way to install Linux on OS X is to run the Boot Camp Assistant to resize your hard drive, and then use a Linux disk instead of Windows once your system reboots. I have not used Slackware, but generally the Linux installer will then allow you to repartition the FAT32 partition that OS X made for Windows, and you can choose swap and ext4 (or whatever). When installing your Linux bootloader (grub/lilo) don't install to the MBR but rather to the first Linux partition.

Once you have Linux installed, check out rEFIt to get a slick EFI bootloader (you still need grub/lilo to load in the correct Linux kernel, rEFIt will not boot Linux on its own).

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