fdisk won't work?! HELP!

[CooKies37]

help! i am now in the middle of installing the gentoo in my laptop which already hav winxp....i want to dualboot it...

here is my laptop:
40GB harddisk
15GB NTFS for Winxp
15GB FAT32 for my personal DATA
10 unpartition space (which i keep for gentoo)

but when i am in the fdisk step of the manual:

when i type: fdisk /dev/hda
it return:

unable to open /dev/hda

i have tried /dev/hda1 to /hda8....also cannot!!! why? what's wrong with it? what am i going to do? pls help!!! THANKS 1st..

[budman7]

Have you tried just "fdisk"?
Personally I prefer "cfdisk"

When you type cfdisk, a menu will come up asking you which hard drive to use, select the appropriate hard drive, and away you go.

[CooKies37]

thanks budman7!!! it works...as i can find all the partition in my harddisk...but i wonder how i got to setup the partition: boot, swap and others using that? since i can't found that cfdisk in manual...

please give me some guide...thanks!!!

[budman7]

Actually cfdisk isn't in the Gentoo manual, at least that I know of.
I just got used to using it from working with other source-based distros.

And if you look at the buttons on the bottom of cfdisk, all is explained.

[CooKies37]

HELP...now i am in the progress of installing gentoo...

after i copy some files...don't know what things i have type...i accidentally enter into this:

>

it shows only ">"
and no matter what i type also no use...what is this? how to get back to
"#" this?? PLS help...

[budman7]

> is a new one on me. I would just reboot, and follow the hand VERY, VERY , VERY closely.

I can't stress that enough, that you should follw the handbook VERY closely.

Did I mention that you should follow the handbook.

Gentoo has no installer except you and the handbook. Even experts still refer to the handbook, so they know what commands to enter.