Partitioning on the Linux command line (CLI)

Partitioning information in the official Alpine Linux User’s Handbook

  • For this guide we only consider two types of install: BIOS to ‘msdos’-type partition table (disklabel) and UEFI to gpt partition table.
  • While other options are possible, we are trying to avoid too many options. Many options is not only confusing but it is a lot more to document and keep up to date.

Using parted

Easiest of the command line options, but requires adding a package on Alpine and others (some distros include parted by default, others do not).

  • Setup network required for installation of needed packages

  • Install the partitioner and a tool to help identify the correct device to use

    apk add parted lsblk

  • List block devices to see the disks currently available

    parted -l

    Would show something like:

    Model: ATA CT1000BX100SSD1 (scsi)
Disk /dev/sda: 1000GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: msdos
Disk Flags:

Number  Start  End  Size  Type  File system  Flags

Model: CHIPSBNK v3.3.9.6 (scsi)
Disk /dev/sdb: 2096MB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: msdos
Disk Flags:

Number  Start  End     Size    Type     File system  Flags
 2      154kB  1628kB  1475kB  primary               boot, esp

  • Alternatively, using lsblk

    lsblk -o NAME,KNAME,PATH,FSTYPE,FSAVAIL,FSROOTS,LABEL

    Would show something like:

    NAME   KNAME PATH       FSTYPE   FSAVAIL FSROOTS LABEL
loop0  loop0 /dev/loop0 squashfs       0 /  
sda    sda   /dev/sda
sdb    sdb   /dev/sdb   iso9660        0 /       alpine-std 3.15.4 x86_64
└─sdb2 sdb2  /dev/sdb2  vfat  
sr0    sr0   /dev/sr0

  • The iso9660 is the CD image we ‘burned’ to usb in this case, so /dev/sdb is the install media. That means /dev/sda is the internal hard drive to which we wish to install. If we had boot from an actual CD-ROM we would see the iso9660 on /dev/sr0 and there would be little chance of confusion with the hard drive.

  • This leads to a parted session, on x86_64, such as

    parted /dev/sda
mkpart primary fat32 1 1G
toggle 1 esp
quit

  • On Raspberry Pi we must do this stage on another system, as discussed in the articles on the topic.

  • List the resulting block devices

    lsblk -o NAME,KNAME,PATH,FSTYPE,FSAVAIL,FSROOTS,LABEL

    Giving something like

      NAME   KNAME PATH       FSTYPE   FSAVAIL FSROOTS LABEL
loop0  loop0 /dev/loop0 squashfs       0 /  
sda    sda   /dev/sda  
└─sda1 sda1  /dev/sda1  vfat  
sdb    sdb   /dev/sdb   iso9660        0 /       alpine-std 3.15.4 x86_64
└─sdb2 sdb2  /dev/sdb2  vfat  
sr0    sr0   /dev/sr0

Using fdisk

Available on many distributions as part of the core install. Not suitable for setting up a UEFI install when using the fdisk version baked into the boot media in Alpine (it is a very limited version of fdisk).

TBD

Using sfdisk

Also requires adding a package, but can be automated more easily than parted or fdisk.

See Also