Can I get bootcamp to use existing free space on physical disk?
More people have problems with BootCamp trying to partition manually than any other way. This is what I would do:


Boot into recovery mode.
Get into disk utility
Delete the partition you created for Windows
Expand your Mac partition all the way into the available space
Now (assuming you already have the BootCamp media created) Run the BootCamp.app and follow the prompts
Part of the process will present you with a graphical representation of your disk and allow you to set as much space as you want for both the Mac and Windows partition.


The thing you have to learn (or un-learn as the case may be) coming from Linux or Windows is that the first thing you should do is nothing. Let the App and/or Operating System do it's thing the way it wants to. Which means things like, "just plug it in," "follow the prompts in the app," or as a last resort read the (usually brief) instructions in the app or on Apple's support web site.

I've been supporting Macs and PCs for 20+ years and it is a whole different mindset. Yes you can tinker, it's just a different method. What you did is not wrong, it just adds unnecessary complications making it necessary to then work around Apple's work-around that they build into BootCamp so you would not have to do all the partitioning manually.