Guest Conju Posted October 30, 2008 Report Share Posted October 30, 2008 Hi, I did some reading and some searches, and didn't find what I was looking for. I know enough about linux to be dangerous, but my system and docs are all backed up so I'm prepared to lose them. Specs: Mac partition 160gb Windows 40GB (Currently Not working). 40GB free. rEFIt is installed. Using MandrivaOne 2009. (the one currently available) i popped in my mandriva one CD and booted into mandriva. Then selected install option, resized my windows partition (which I reallly don't care about) to 40gb. Now its not working. Whatever. Problem I'm running into is in creating a partition and formatting it in ext3. I just get a failed error message every time I try to format. Ideas? Thanks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tyme Posted October 30, 2008 Report Share Posted October 30, 2008 (edited) Problem I'm running into is in creating a partition and formatting it in ext3. I just get a failed error message every time I try to format.Create the partition and reboot before you format it. Then, in refit there is a tool to sync the MBR partition table - I don't currently remember what it's called or the exact commands to make the sync occur, but you need to use this tool. Once things are all synced up, you should be able to format and install on the newly created partition. If you need more details, let me know. I have an MBP at home that I can test-install on and help with the exact steps (after I'm off work in 7 hours :) ) Edited October 30, 2008 by tyme Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Conju Posted October 30, 2008 Report Share Posted October 30, 2008 (edited) I've tried doing that and rEFIt says it won't touch it (that was the programs words). As for creating drives, let me make sure I understand this. I need at least one swap partition (2gig ok?) and then i can use the rest for my linux install if i want, right? EDIT: I tried to recreate the partition from Mandriva one without formatting it and I get the error: error writing mbr to sda5 (i think). Edited October 30, 2008 by Conju Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tyme Posted October 30, 2008 Report Share Posted October 30, 2008 don't create a swap. IIRC, there's some oddness that occurs with mac and more than 3 partitions. how much ram do you have? you'll probably be OK without a swap. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Conju Posted October 30, 2008 Report Share Posted October 30, 2008 I tried without and it didn't work either. Its a black macbook pro 250gb HD 2gb Ram 2.4 Core 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tyme Posted October 30, 2008 Report Share Posted October 30, 2008 do you mean a black macbook? IIRC, there aren't any black pro's ;) download the gparted live cd and try to do the partitioning/formatted with that: http://gparted.sourceforge.net/download.php alternatively, use OS X's Disk Utility (Applications -> Utilies) to create the partition (format it HFS if required, then reformat it during install). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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