Linux partitioning with fdisk

I start fdisk from the shell prompt:

# fdisk /dev/hdb

which indicates that I am using the second drive on my IDE controller. (See Section 2.1.) When I print the (empty) partition table, I just get configuration information.

Command (m for help): p Disk /dev/hdb: 64 heads, 63 sectors, 621 cylinders Units = cylinders of 4032 * 512 bytes

I knew that I had a 1.2Gb drive, but now I really know: 64 * 63 * 512 * 621 = 1281982464 bytes. I decide to reserve 128Mb of that space for swap, leaving 1153982464. If I use one of my primary partitions for swap, that means I have three left for ext2 partitions. Divided equally, that makes for 384Mb per partition. Now I get to work.

Command (m for help): n Command action e extended p primary partition (1-4) p Partition number (1-4): 1 First cylinder (1-621, default 1): Using default value 1 Last cylinder or +size or +sizeM or +sizeK (1-621, default 621): +384M

Next, I set up the partition I want to use for swap:

Command (m for help): n Command action e extended p primary partition (1-4) p Partition number (1-4): 2 First cylinder (197-621, default 197): Using default value 197 Last cylinder or +size or +sizeM or +sizeK (197-621, default 621): +128M

Now the partition table looks like this:

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System /dev/hdb1 1 196 395104 83 Linux /dev/hdb2 197 262 133056 83 Linux

I set up the remaining two partitions the same way I did the first. Finally, I make the first partition bootable:

Command (m for help): a Partition number (1-4): 1

And I make the second partition of type swap:

Command (m for help): t Partition number (1-4): 2 Hex code (type L to list codes): 82 Changed system type of partition 2 to 82 (Linux swap) Command (m for help): p

The end result:

Disk /dev/hdb: 64 heads, 63 sectors, 621 cylinders Units = cylinders of 4032 * 512 bytes Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System /dev/hdb1 * 1 196 395104+ 83 Linux /dev/hdb2 197 262 133056 82 Linux swap /dev/hdb3 263 458 395136 83 Linux /dev/hdb4 459 621 328608 83 Linux

Finally, I issue the write command (w) to write the table on the disk.
to format disk:

mkfs.ext3 (for ext3 file system)
mkfs.ext4 (for ext4 file system)
mkfs.swap (for swap file system)