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List: jaxlug-list
Subject: Re: [JaxLUG] Partitioning/Formatting newbie question.
From: Tim Holloway <timh () mousetech ! com>
Date: 2003-10-30 0:43:16
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RedHat 7x did a HORRIBLE partitioning job, especially if you select the
server install option. One of its worst offenses was creating a systme
where /tmp was in a partition way too small.
Here's a little background: Among the many kludgy things that the IBM
PC/MS-DOS architecture foisted on an unwary works was a partitioning
scheme that had to be shoehorned into backwards compatability with more
limited editions. Remember the 30MB, 520MB, 4GB, 80GB disk size hacks?
Them sort of things.
Anyway, the master disk partition table only has room for 4 partitions.
So they hacked them into secondary partitions where the primary
partition record pointed to a secondary partition record. Linux shows
secondary partitions bay numbering them starting with 5. Thus,
/dev/hda5 is the first secondary partition (or /dev/sda5 for SCSI).
fdisk can print the partition assignments using the "p" command. fdisk
actually manipulates copies of the partition entries in RAM, so you
delete and redefine partitions until you're blue in the face with no
harm done to the disk. However, be sure (do one last "p") before you
"w" (write) that you've got what you want, because "w" will write
whatever arrangements you've got out to the actual partition tables and
quit fdisk. And when it writes out the new definitions, the old
partition maps are effectively destroyed.
You don't REALLY *have* to reboot after doing an fdisk. Though if
you've redefined partitions containing files that you or the OS are
going to be using (the kernel and modules already loaded don't count),
I won't vouch for the results. But that's because you've effectively
trashed their filesystems anyway.
A lot of people prefer alternatives to fdisk, especially cfdisk. I'm
not as fluent in them, however, so I end up falling back to what I
know. Disk Druid, alas, is, as far as I can tell, the ONE RedHat app
that doesn't become an installed part of your OS, and is only available
when doing an install. :(
Tim
Chris Greene wrote:
> I typed it in yahoo and it didn't format too well huh? It's most likely a
> mess besides that anyhow :D
>
> By looking at fdisk and dh I get this:
>
> /dev/hda1 = /boot
> /dev/hda2 = /usr
> /dev/hda3 = /home
> /dev/hda4 =
> /dev/hda5 = /var
> /dev/hda6 = /tmp
> /dev/hda7 = /
>
> Does that make any sense? 'df -h' does not list a hda4 so I'm thinking it's
> just the extended partition.
>
> /var + /tmp + / + the 5 gigs of free space I set aside would equal close to
> 6.8 gigs.
>
> *****************
>
> if not, then using fdisk delete the partition by:
> # fdisk /dev/hda
> d this option deletes a partition
> 4 this selects partition 4
> w this option writes the changes to disk and exits
>
> then reboot just for grins :)
>
> *****************
>
> This is what I tried. When it rebooted it said "kernel panick" and it
> couldn't mount /var /tmp / .........
>
> I think I'm going to skip this for now and come back to it at a later time.
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: jaxlug-list-admin@jaxlug.org
> [mailto:jaxlug-list-admin@jaxlug.org]On Behalf Of
> rmckennon2@netscape.net
> Sent: Tuesday, October 28, 2003 7:06 PM
> To: jaxlug-list@jaxlug.org
> Subject: RE: [JaxLUG] Partitioning/Formatting newbie question.
>
>
> wow, what a mess (please, don't be offended)
>
> question #1: partition 4, which is labeled /dev/hda4 is you final primary
> partition (you can only have 4 primary partitions) says it is a 6.8GB
> windows partition. Is it?
>
> if not, then using fdisk delete the partition by:
> # fdisk /dev/hda
> d this option deletes a partition
> 4 this selects partition 4
> w this option writes the changes to disk and exits
>
> then reboot just for grins :)
>
> # fdisk /dev/hda
> p prints the current partition table
> n for a new partition
> p for a primary partition
> 4 for partition #4 (again)
> for starting cylinder # you should take the default (should be 1564)
> for the ending cylinder/size #, the default should be the end of the disk
> 2434, take that.
> w writes the changes to disk and exits
>
> then you should be able to create a directory and mount the new partition to
> that directory.
>
> Hope this helps,
>
> Rob.
>
>
> Chris Greene <bombpop@attbi.com> wrote:
>
>
>>I usually try to figure things out by myself by
>>experimenting and searching the web, but I have not
>>found much on this so I figure I will ask the masters.
>>I installed RH 7.3 last night, deleted ALL partitions
>>and left 5 gigs of free space available. What I want
>>to do is learn how to make a new partition out of this
>>space and how to format it. I think I'll be OK once I
>>get the partition created, but I'm not sure how to do
>>it. I tried 'cfdisk /dev/hda' at first, but it only
>>list the following:
>>
>>Name Flags Part Type FS Type
>>Size (MB)
>>/dev/hda1 Boot Primary Linux
>>258.86
>>/dev/hda2 Primary Linux
>>8001.13
>>/dev/hda3 Primary Linux
>>4000.57
>>/dev/hda4 Primary Win95 Extended (LBA)
>>6832.34
>>
>>I don't know if this will help or not, but here is a
>>print out of the labels:
>>
>> ---Starting--- ----Ending---- Start
>>Number of
>># Flags Head Sect Cyl ID Head Sect Cyl Sector
>>Sectors
>>-- ----- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- -------
>>---------
>>1 0x80 1 1 0 0x83 254 63 32 63
>>530082
>>2 0x00 0 1 33 0x83 254 63 1023 530145
>>16386300
>>3 0x00 254 63 1023 0x83 254 63 1023 16916445
>>8193150
>>4 0x00 254 63 1023 0x0F 254 63 1023 25109595
>>13992615
>>
>>At this point I don't know how to view free space. It
>>says to press 'New' to make a new partition out of
>>free space, but 'New' is not an option. When I press
>>'n' for New partition, it says that the partition is
>>already in use.
>>
>>I also ran 'fdisk -l /dev/hda' and received the
>>following:
>>
>> Device Boot Start End Blocks Id
>>System
>>/dev/hda1 * 1 33 265041 83
>>Linux
>>/dev/hda2 34 1053 8193150 83
>>Linux
>>/dev/hda3 1054 1563 4096575 83
>>Linux
>>/dev/hda4 1564 2434 6996307+ f
>>Win95 Ext'd (LBA)
>>/dev/hda5 1564 1628 522081 83
>>Linux
>>/dev/hda6 1629 1693 522081 83
>>Linux
>>/dev/hda7 1694 1742 393561 83
>>Linux
>>/dev/hda8 1743 1754 96358+ 82
>>Linux swap
>>
>>I tried to do some experimenting, but just destroy my
>>tables which causes me to reinstall which takes about
>>2hrs on my poor little p166 with 4 speed cdrom. So
>>I'm asking here so I don't have to go through that
>>again. I'm just doing this to learn how to partition
>>free space and format it; I know I could easily do
>>this with disk druid during the install. I deleted
>>ALL paritions during the install, and then set up the
>>linux paritions. Why does it say 'Win95 Ext'd (LBA)'?
>>Does it look like the free space is at Start=1755 to
>>End=2434? Any ideas or resources that you can point
>>me to on the internet would be appreciated.
>>
>>
>>
>>_______________________________________________
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>>
>
>
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