# fdisk vs cfdisk

## dave

Would it really alter the personality of a gentoo install to use cfdisk instead of fdisk?  cfdisk does the same thing, uses the same terminology, but does it in an easy-to-use manner.  There are no wizards, no point and click (ok, ok, it's cursor and enter   :Smile:  )... I seriously doubt that adding cfdisk would add very much space to the already wonderfully spartan install.  

What would be the problem with adding cfdisk as a 2nd option?

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## Guest

i have to say that i do agree with you. i found it a little bit hard to partition my disk with fdisk, but after a long time it went... 

cfdisk is a lot easier... i can't hurt ta add that into gentoo as a second choose.

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## PaperCrane

I third this motion   :Smile: 

cfdisk is a great alternitive to fdisk, it is after all what slackware uses, and I'm sure Gentoo is getting a lot of Slackware refugees (like me)

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## tgnb

i personally also prefer cfdisk any day of the week

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## Cyris

ditto, chalk up my vote for cfdisk.  I spent a good hour trying to partition my disk out last night with fdisk.  Finally got it, but it would have only taken me 5 minutes with cfdisk.

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## Josh Slocum

Yeah, cfdisk is easier.  But the first couple installs I did of Linux back in '97 only had fdisk.  It really only took about 2 minutes using fdisk.  I've really been enjoying installing/configuring gentoo.  So many of the distro's now are made for M$ refugees, it's nice to have this one that treats me like a grownup.

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## PaperCrane

I hardly calling including cfdisk on the CD treating someone like a child. It's simply a more intuitive tool for most people. The MS way would simply to partition the disk for them.

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## Josh Slocum

Hey, didn't mean to get your panties in a bunch there.  It's just that, IMHO, if fdisk is really a problem for some people, maybe they should be using Mandrake or something.  And I do agree that cfdisk is nice.  Never said otherwise.

As far as M$ doing the partitioning for you, I'm not so up to date on them.  I thought it was pretty slick when I pointed FreeBSD at a partition I had set aside and it auto-configured the sizes of the slices.[/b]

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## tvon

 *Josh Slocum wrote:*   

> Hey, didn't mean to get your panties in a bunch there.  It's just that, IMHO, if fdisk is really a problem for some people, maybe they should be using Mandrake or something.  And I do agree that cfdisk is nice.  Never said otherwise.

 

While I'm all for minor conviences, and I mean no offense to people who want cfdisk, I tend to agree with Josh here.  fdisk is a few key strokes......you find the partition numbers you need, shoot out some sizes and your set.... not a big deal

*shrug*

 *Josh Slocum wrote:*   

> As far as M$ doing the partitioning for you, I'm not so up to date on them.  I thought it was pretty slick when I pointed FreeBSD at a partition I had set aside and it auto-configured the sizes of the slices.

 

ugh, that really irritated me after about a month though  :Smile: 

I dont know why everyone wants such a small /var, I mean alot of people put httpd docs there, and databases go there.....mail spools go there (though get moved)....so why is /var the smallest partition on my auto-partitioned fBSD box?  Well, I suppose it should be the smallest, but why SO small?  Its tiny (forget how big at the moment, I'm not near the box).

*shrug*

-T

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## PaperCrane

 *Josh Slocum wrote:*   

> Hey, didn't mean to get your panties in a bunch there.

 

I'm not offended, I'm just saying cfdisk is a very good tool that should be on the install CD. 

 *Josh Slocum wrote:*   

> if fdisk is really a problem for some people, maybe they should be using Mandrake or something. 

 

No people who do not want to take the time to compile a system from scratch should use Mandrake. Those you want too use an intutive partitioning tool should have cfdisk, it's not like it's going to add much to the install cd.

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## bakey

I would like to see cfdisk put on the CD but with a local web server you can do a wget http://someserver/cfdisk and get to cfdisk just fine. Remeber to chmod 755 the file after you wget the file. That's a nice thing about gentoo you can still run whatever you want if you can get to a web server.

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## xbradx

i also agree cfdisk would be a good idea. i can use fdisk if i have to, but it always makes me a little less nervous when i can see in a nice little list what exactly i'm about to do.

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## MacMasta

Yeah, I vote for adding cfdisk - it's not so large as to be prohibitive, is it?

~Mac~

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## funsize

Waaaaay back when I installed a Gentoo 1.0rc5 system, cfdisk was on the boot CD, and was the default...I'm not sure if fdisk was even on the CD.

I don't know why they changed it...I've been doing some research online, and not only is it more intuitive, I've found a number of sites that say they prefer the way it handles things like writing partition tables.

So, I guess my question is:

Why aren't we using cfdisk ANYMORE?

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## Guest

mmm....how bout add support for raid on install or lose the mkraid add raid hotswapin your raid features listed since they are of no practicle use

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## friedmud

Chalk another vote up for cfdisk

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## FINITE

I aggree 100% with using a different fdisk program. The one included sucks and it took me about 20minutes to get my drive partitioned correctly. Other than this and the RSYNC problem it was smooth sailing to the point I was able to get to anyways before the RSYNC problem was evident.

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