Partition alignment prompt at install

[linuxnewb]

I've been trying to clean install Linux Lite3.0 in my external hard drive(Seagate2TB) but it keeps prompting me with this message:

The partition /dev/sdb1 assigned to / starts at an offset of 3584 bytes from the minimum alignment for this disk, which may lead to very poor performance.

Since you are formatting this partition, you should correct this problem now by realigning the partition, as it will be difficult to change later. To do this, go back to the main partitioning menu, delete the partition, and recreate it in the same position with the same settings. This will cause the partition to start at a point best suited for this disk.

I've created a new partition with Gparted in ext4. Reformatted to ext4 and it still gives me that warning... Any solutions?

[gold_finger]

Not sure why that's happening if you created the partition(s) in GParted.  Boot into live LL dvd/usb and follow instructions below to completely wipe-out the drive and start fresh.  Example below will be creating 3 partitions -- one Root, one Swap, and a separate partition for Home (where user data and some config files reside).  If you'd rather just have one large Root partition and a Swap partition that's fine -- make it as big as you want remembering to leave room for Swap.

The size of Root in example is more than enough to handle future expansion if you are using a separate Home partition -- no need to worry about it filling-up.

There are many opinions on Swap sizes, but general guideline is to make it at least as big as the amount of RAM you have if you plan to use hibernation.  If you don't use hibernation, then my own opinion is if you have less than 4GB of RAM, make swap 1 - 1 1/2 times RAM.  If you have 4 or more GB of RAM, just make swap 4GB.

(NOTE:  GParted sizes partitions using MiB's not MB's.  So to get nice even sizes I multiply the MB sizes by 1.024.  For example:  4GB RAM = 4000MB x 1.024 = 4096MiB.)



After booting into live LL, open GParted.

Go to Device -> Create partition table -> "msdos" -> Apply

Highlight unallocated space, click "New" button to create a Root partition
Free space preceding = leave whatever is pre-filled there
New size = 25600
Free space following = leave what gets auto-filled
Create as = Primary Partition
File system = ext4
Label = leave blank
Click "Add" button when done

Highlight unallocated space, click "New" button to create a Swap partition
Free space preceding = leave whatever is pre-filled there
New size = 4096
Free space following = leave what gets auto-filled
Create as = Primary Partition
File system = linux-swap
Label = leave blank
Click "Add" button when done

Highlight unallocated space, click "New" button to create a Home partition
Free space preceding = leave whatever is pre-filled there
New size = rest of available space (or less if you want)
Free space following = leave what gets auto-filled
Create as = Primary Partition
File system = ext4
Label = leave blank
Click "Add" button when done

Hit "Apply" button along top of GParted interface to finalize the changes.

Close GParted when done.



Start the installation and choose "Something else" option.  On partition selection page do the following.

Highlight the Root partition you made, then click the "Change" button (near bottom-left)
Use as = Ext4 file system
Size = leave as is
Mount Point = /
Format = check box to format
Click "Done". (If you get a message complaining that you changed the size of the partition -- even though you did not -- ignore it and click "Go Back" button. All will be fine.)

Highlight the Home partition you made, then click the "Change" button
Use as = Ext4 file system
Size = leave as is
Mount Point = /home
Format = check box to format
Click "Done". (If you get a message complaining that you changed the size of the partition -- even though you did not -- ignore it and click "Go Back" button. All will be fine.)

No need to do anything with Swap partition -- it will be automatically used by installer.

Near bottom of window, "Device for boot loader installation" should be set to "/dev/sdb".  I'm assuming that the external drive is /dev/sdb here.  If it is something else (eg. /dev/sdc, or sdd) change that "b" to whatever it should be.  Also note, there is no partition number after the "b" in "/dev/sdb".  That will aim grub's first stage of boot loader to the MBR of the drive making it bootable when you tell computer to boot from it.

Click "Finish" button to complete the installation

[linuxnewb]

Thank you so much, it worked. I always made a huge root partition and a swap but instead of writing 4096 I always wrote 4000, maybe that was the issue. Thanks again for helping me out.

[gold_finger]

Glad everything worked out.

[Wirezfree]

just an fyi...
To check/verify alignment do:

Code:

sudo blockdev --getalignoff /dev/sdXN

Where X is the device, and N is the partition number,


like:

Code:

sudo blockdev --getalignoff /dev/sda1

It should return a value of 0 (Zero)



dave@asus-mini-1:~$ sudo blockdev --getalignoff /dev/sda1
[sudo] password for dave:
0