extended partition on manual installation

[excbuntu]

to install linux on my laptop (asus eee 1000HA), i downloaded ubuntu (easypeasy 1.0) and put it on a usb drive via unebootin. i booted to the usb drive and found that my laptop contains the maximum 4 primary partitions (according to this (http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=282018) guide):

sda1 = windows, 9gb
sda2 = blank, fat 67gb
sda3 = laptop recovery, fat, 5gb
sda4 = laptop recovery, unknown, 41mb

i wanted to install linux in a simliar fashion as described in the "Bulldog's Partitioning advice" in the aforementioned link. to do this, sda2 should be deleted and be an extended drive divided into 3 logical ext3 partitions:

sda5 = / 35gb
sda6 = /home 29
sda7 = swap 3

my problem is that ubuntu's manual (as opposed to the guided) partitioner does not give me an option to create an extended drive. i am able to delete the partition, but making a new partition on the resulting free space only gives me the options for another primary or logical. i'm not understanding something.

[taurus]

Since you already have 4 primary partitions, you need to convert one of those primaries into extended partition and then create logical partitions under that extended partition.

[excbuntu]

Since you already have 4 primary partitions, you need to convert one of those primaries into extended partition and then create logical partitions under that extended partition.

thanks for the quick reply, but my problem is that ubuntu's manual (as opposed to the guided) partitioner does not give me an option to create an extended drive. i am able to delete the partition, but making a new partition on the resulting free space only gives me the options for another primary or logical. i'm not understanding something.

[tommcd]

my problem is that ubuntu's manual (as opposed to the guided) partitioner does not give me an option to create an extended drive. i am able to delete the partition, but making a new partition on the resulting free space only gives me the options for another primary or logical. i'm not understanding something.

A logical partition is what you want. Your options are primary and logical. When you create a logical partition the result is that you get an extended partition with 1 (or more, if you create them) logical partitions inside the extended partition. For example, look at my fdisk -l :

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 1 2550 20482843+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2 2551 4080 12289725 83 Linux
/dev/sda3 4081 4207 1020127+ 82 Linux swap
/dev/sda4 4208 30401 210403305 5 Extended
/dev/sda5 4208 5737 12289693+ 83 Linux
/dev/sda6 5738 7267 12289693+ 83 Linux
/dev/sda7 7268 30401 185823823+ 83 Linux

/dev/sda4 is an extended partition which includes the logical partitions /dev/sda5-7.