RE: fstab/mount filesystem nomenclature
-----Original Message-----
From: Pigeon [mailto:jah.pigeon@ukonline.co.uk]
Sent: Monday, February 10, 2003 9:52 AM
To: debian-user@lists.debian.org
Subject: Re: fstab/mount filesystem nomenclature
On Sun, Feb 09, 2003 at 10:05:59PM -0500, David Turetsky wrote:
> > > [tables edited out]
> >
> > Well, the /etc/fstab and fdisk -l look good to me - are you sure
that
> > you have actually formatted /dev/hde5? Can you read it under
windoze,
> > or do you get "Invalid media type" when you type DIR at the DOS
prompt?
> >
> > Pigeon
>
>
> Nah, I have files and directories there under Windows XP, no problem.
Well, I'm pretty much out of ideas now. You obviously do have vfat
support in your kernel, your mount error message would have said so if
you didn't. Wild thought: you haven't somehow managed to format hde5
as ntfs but mark it as vfat in the partition table? I doubt XP would
handle that without complaining, but I've never used it so I can't be
certain.
> One thought. I partitioned the first drive (hde, 160GB Western Digital
> using WD software.
Another wild thought here... wonder if your WD partitioning software
installed EZ-Drive? And maybe Linux doesn't like EZ-Drive? Again, I've
never tried the combination, but it's not impossible.
> The second drive (hdf, also 160GB... after all, you
> can never have enough storage) had to be formatted using the native MS
> partition utility in Windows XP. It truncated the second partition on
> the second drive so that I only have a total of 120GB available. I
> wonder if somewhere therein isn't the source of the difficulties in
> recognizing that partition under linux
I'd have thought it more likely that Linux would allow you to create a
third partition to use the remaining 40Gb.
> Another consideration. I could get a copy of Partition Magic 6 (I now
> have v5) and try to repartition that drive (I believe it can be done
> using PM without losing the data) and see whether that fixes matters
>
> Or... if I copied off the data in Windows (or linux), could I then
> repartition hdf... say in linux to suit myself, presumably gaining the
> entire 160GB, or giving some of it to Windows and using the upper part
> for linux... or some variation thereof
For mixed Windoze/Linux drives it's best to create the Windoze
partitions first with the Windoze fdisk, then create any Linux
partitions afterwards in Linux. Linux partitioning tools are smart
enough to work out how the Microfots software thinks the disk is
organised and be compatible with that, but not vice versa.
> A significant postscript:
>
> Without knowingly having taken any action, I can now fully read BOTH
> partitions on /hdf (both ntfs format)
>
> I can read (as before) /hde1 (ntfs format), but still cannot read
/hde5,
> a fat32 partition
>
> What mischievousness have I been up to? Well I installed and then
> uninstalled Samba using apt-get (thinking it might support
heterogenous
> access to the internet). Another fleeting change is that my listings
on
> xterm were in powder blue and green. Suddenly they're gone. I thought
> that was 'ls', but it's not happening now
For machines that operate on pure logic, computers can seem remarkably
illogical sometimes. Maybe bad vibes from your XP installation are
infecting your Linux installation and making it act like Microsoft
software? :-) Sorry, I haven't got a clue what happened there. Anyone
else
care to suggest something?
Pigeon
cfdisk -P /hde and cfdisk -P /hdf both just result in rendering /hda
(rather nicely). Somewhere in the infos I've been warned that linux
version of fdisk is somewhat buggy (probably in 'info fdisk')
A closing note in the debian v3r1 distribution of 'info cfdisk'
indicates that it does not currently support multiple disks
I will buy a copy of Partition Magic 8 and from Windows XP use it to
repartition /hdf and use the extra storage (40GB !!!) for linux
xterm renders 'ls' in colors except when I log on using 'su'
On the theory that the good should not be the enemy of the bad, I will
fumble along with the limitation in reading just the ntfs partition on
/hde. I will however see what Partition Magic thinks about that drive.
Perhaps there will be some hints there
Or a Attorney General Ashcroft said in a speech earlier today, talking
about his granddaddy, "He kept sawing more off the end of the plank and
it still kept coming up short!" [exclamation added]
The utility from Western Digital that I used to format /hde (from
Windows) did seem to have a bit of a slapdash quality about it. My
previous experience with Partition Magic suggests they are more rock
solid. The problem is compounded by necessary use of a Promise
controller to mount the two additional drives (I originally had two
drives connected via the motherboard IDE), so the chain of evidence is
somewhat more complex
I think you're definitely onto something about good/bad vibes. I had
good vibes about using woody to support my nvidia graphics card, and
dogoneit, it worked!
--
David
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