> Hey...what are the steps there?
> 
> I'm also pretty new to repartitioning...if you could just expand a 
> little, I'd be forever in debt. ;)

Okay, so basically you just need to figure out how to make your
Mac partition smaller, so that there will be room on the disk
for UNIX partitions. Most partitioning programs (with the notable
exception of Apple HD SC Setup--thumbs down on it) can change
the sizes of Mac partitions--the only nontrivial thing about
that is that you have to tell the filesystem data structures
that they now have less space to work with. Most programs do this
automatically when you change the size of a Mac partition, so you
won't need to worry about it.

The problem with this is that the Mac filesystem can get like
a piece of swiss cheese--bits of files all over and holes all
over. So even though the Finder says you have 300 megs free,
that 300 megs may be spread out over your disk, and there may
not be very much free at the end of the partition, where the
partitioning program will take the space away. The way to fix
this is to run a program that rearranges your files so that
they're clumped together at the start of the partition. Most
programs which tout their ability to "defragment" Mac volumes
can do this--although you may have to enable a special
option. After you have as much space as you need to take off
free at the end of the partition, you can use the partitioning
software to reduce the size.


Appendix:
(Partitioning software)
	best:	FWB Hard Disk Toolkit (HDT)
		Personal edition US$60, or full edition US$155
		Notes:	You can pretty much do anything with this
			package; it's powerful, easy to use, and
			won't restrict you from doing whatever you
			want to. It has extensive formatting and bad
			block handling. The full edition can do RAID
			and encryption, and lots of low-level stuff.
	second:	Alliance Power Tools
		Free:	
		ftp://jagubox.gsfc.nasa.gov/pub/mac/APS273.sit.hqx
		ftp://dunkin.Princeton.EDU//pub/jagubox/mac/APS273.sit.hqx
		Notes:	This is good, for a free program. It's a bit
			pushy: it thinks it knows better than you what
			partitions you need. Don't let it fool you:
			all that eschatology crap is unnecessary.
	third:	Silverlining
		Proprietary software from LaCie, you can swipe it from
		someone who has it.
		Notes:	Very bad interface, but you can still get stuff
			done. Includes a rudimentary defragmenter (see
			below) so this may be the best bet if you don't
			have one already. Overall, though, I've been
			much happier since I switched to HDT!
	worst:	Apple HD SC Setup
		Comes on the Disk Tools OS distribution disk
		Notes:	Very bad--can't do even a tenth of the things
			any decent partitioner should. I'm not certain
			on this, but I think it messes up when you
			try to reduce the size of a Mac partition--
			and I've personally experienced loss of data
			from it. If you must use it, there is a hack
			someplace on the net that allows you to use it
			with non-Apple drives, and another hack that
			allows you to create multiple Mac partitions
			on the same device--something that all of the
			other programs come being able to do.

(Defragmenting software)
	best:	Norton Speed Disk
		Comes with Norton Utilities, US$100
		Notes:	I like this program a lot. I've never lost
			data with it--it's programmed very defensively.
			Plus, along with it you get a very good set
			of backup, disk editing, and file system check
			utilities. Version 3.0 had problems; make sure
			you get 3.1, or else go back to 2.0, which
			also was rock-solid. I, personally, use 2.0...
	second:	MacTools Optimizer
		Comes with MacTools, US$119
		Notes:	This is a decent program. MacTools and Norton
			Utilities pretty much serve the same purpose.
	third:	SilverLining
		(see above)
		Notes:
			If you want to go real cheapie, the folks at
			LaCie included a rudimentary disk defragmenter
			in their partitioning package. It works for
			its intended purpose, but that's all I can say.


Hope I've helped! I'd like to see a section on this in the FAQ; it's
confusing considering that Apple put such a dumb program in with their
OS.
--
____  -Ben Cottrell (home page http://www.csua.berkeley.edu/~benco/)
\  / Geek 3.0: GCS(M) dpu s:+ a15 C++++ UB++++ P++ L- E+ W++ N++ K+ w-- O++
 \/ M+ !V PS++ ?PE Y+ PGP-- t+ 5? X? R tv-- b+++ DI-- D- G+ e h! r% !y+(**)