Before you get started, you need to first understand that partitioning is the most dangerous part of installing a system.
Please pay extra attention to what you are doing; do not be afraid to ask for assistance here, because mistakes tend to be permanent.

Partition/Destination Schema

Before you begin to partition a device, you must first have an idea on how you intend to structure your installation.
This partition structuring is called the Destination Schema by KiWI.

The three most common layouts in which a device can be partitioned are discussed by this documentation:

1. Single Partition
The "Single Partition" has the boot, root, and home locations stored on a single partition.


2. Dual Partition
The "Dual Partition" has the boot location stored on its own partition while the root and home locations are stored on a single partition.


3. Tri Partition
The "Tri Partition" has three locations (boot, root, and home) stored on separate partitions.

Turtle Kevux has 5 common destination schemas:

1. Classic Schema
The classic schema is for those users who prefer the old way of doing things.
This schema uses the Tri Partition layout.
On Kevux, the root partition is slowly being removed in favor of a floating root partition.
The root partition will ultimately become the home partition or boot partition, so expect the classic schema to lose support in the long run.
All binaries and files are extracted onto their appropriate partitions.


2. Simple Schema
This is the keep-it-simple approach.
This schema uses the Single Partition layout.
This is the easiest to use, but it can be problematic if you want to do some advanced things such as encrypting your home partition.
All binaries and files are extracted onto the partition.


3. Squash Schema
The squash and squish schemas are the two new ways of doing things and will be receiving long-term support.
This schema uses the Single Partition layout.
All binaries and files are compressed and loaded during each boot.
Unlike the squish schema, the squash schema is generally ideal for live, temporary systems.
Unless advanced configuration is used, all data is lost between reboots using the squash schema.


4. Squish Schema
The squash and squish schemas are the two new ways of doing things and will be receiving long-term support.
This schema uses the Single Partition layout.
All binaries and some files are compressed and loaded during each boot.
Squash schema will preserve both the etc and the home directories between reboots and is therefore the recommended choice.
Once floating rootfs, package management, and subroots are implemented in Kevux, squish will be the ideal schema.


5. Encrypted Schema
The encrypted schema is an advanced configuration designed to protect your files from theft.
This schema uses the Dual Partition layout.
The first partition is the boot partition that provides the necessary tools to boot and decrypt the encrypted partition.
The encrypted partition itself can follow the simple, squash, or squish schema.
This is primarily useful for protecting data on portable devices such as notebooks (laptops).

Determining the Device

Once you have an idea of the type of schema you will use, you need to find the proper device on which to install your system.
Mistaking one device for another is where most users make mistakes and permanently lose data.
If you do not know enough about the basics of Linux devices or understand what a device is, this is the part where you should ask for help.

3 Most Common Devices:

1. Hard Disks, USB Disks, (/dev/sda1, /dev/sdb2, etc.)
Hard disk devices are the devices with which most people interact.
For most users, this is what you are looking for.
The naming schema of the devices is based on the order in which they are connected to the machine.
For example, a device of sda (pay close attention to the trailing a) represents the first hard disk, USB hard drive, or USB memory stick that the computer sees.
A device of sda1 (pay close attention to the trailing 1) represents the first partition on the first hard disk, USB hard drive, or USB memory stick that the computer sees.
Determining which device is the one you need (a, b, c, etc.) is the technical part with which you may need to seek help.

2. CD-ROM Drives, DVD-ROM Drives (/dev/sr0, /dev/cdrom1, etc.)
CD-ROM devices and other spinning disks are generally read-only.
For this reason, they are not presented as a choice on the disk partitioner provided in Kevux.
The devices come with two names: a technical one (/dev/sr0) and a more user-friendly one (/dev/cdrom0).
There is no distinction among DVD drives, CD-ROM drives, Blu-ray drives, or any other spinning device (A DVD drive might have the name /dev/cdrom0).
A device of cdrom0 (or sr0) (pay close attention to the trailing 0) represents the first CD-ROM drive, DVD drive, or Blu-ray drive the computer sees.
This can be safely ignored by all but advanced users.
Advanced users will have to partition non-read-only spinning disk devices via the command line program called parted.

3. Flash Memory (not USB sticks) (/dev/mmc0, /dev/mmc1p2, etc.)
Flash memory is the least known common partition device.
These devices are generally small storage devices embedded onto motherboards.
These are not presented as a choice on the disk partitioner provided in Kevux.
Installing to flash is most commonly used with an OLPC XO or a clone of the OLPC XO (also known as netbooks).
For a device of mmc0p1 (pay close attention to the trailing 0p1), the first device seen by the kernel is the 0 and the trailing p1 represents partition 1 (or first partition) for that device.
This can be safely ignored by all but advanced users.
Advanced users will have to partition non-read-only spinning disk devices via the command line program called parted.

Partitioning the Device

Assuming that you know which device you can safely partition, the next step is to format that device.
This tutorial will only assume that you will be using the entire device.
This is the part where a mistake can cause permanent loss of existing data.
If you wish to partition a device while keeping existing data present, seeking support is strongly advised.

Partitioning Steps:

1. Create Partition Table
Image 2.1

The partition table can be seen as the table of contents for a particular device.
It explains to the computer how to look for and find specific partitions on the device as well as what they are called.
The recommended format to use is GPT. (Do not use MS-DOS format unless you wish to support legacy operating systems.)

Look under the devices menu for Create Partition Table.
Once selected, a new window should pop up.
Make sure the Advanced section is expanded and then select GPT as the partition table type.

2. Create Partitions
Image 2.2

This step is to create the individual partitions on the device.
The number of partitions created is directly dependent on the Destination Schema you have chosen to use.
You should also seek support for determining the size of each partition as well as which File System to use.
The recommended file systems are ext3 or ext4 (for large devices); when in doubt, choose ext4.
Select the unallocated space and create a New partition.
Once selected, a new window should pop up.
Within this new window, you need to set the New size (in megabytes), File System, and Label.
The general rule of thumb is to create partitions from left to right.
What this means is that the Free space preceding should always be 1.

3. Save Partition Changes
Depending on the Destination Schema you chose, your screenshots should look similar to one of the following images.

Image 2.3

For the single layout, you should only see a single partition that mirrors the settings you chose during the Create Partition step.
Image 2.4

For the dual layout, you should only see two partitions that mirror the settings you chose during the Create Partition step.
Image 2.5

For the tri layout, you should only see three partitions that mirror the settings you chose during the Create Partition step.
For safety purposes, the partition layout changes are not saved until you Apply all operations.
Once you feel safe to continue, select Apply all operations under the Edit menu.

4. Finished Partitioning
If all went well and no errors were reported during this process, then you are finished with the partitioning process and are ready to continue to the Configuring Page.

Should a problem arise during the Apply all operations process, immediately seek assistance unless you know what you are doing.
If you do not know where to ask, try looking for a local Linux Users Group in your area.