Re: fstab/mount filesystem nomenclature
On Mon, Feb 10, 2003 at 03:57:16PM -0500, David Turetsky wrote:
> 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')
That should be /dev/hde, /dev/hdf. I've just experimented with
cfdisk -P /nonexistent, and indeed the partition table of /dev/hda is
what I get.
Re cfdisk vs fdisk, I generally use cfdisk to alter partition tables,
fdisk when I simply want to read them.
> A closing note in the debian v3r1 distribution of 'info cfdisk'
> indicates that it does not currently support multiple disks
I guess that probably refers to LVM or RAID arrays. It doesn't have a
problem with simply having more than one hard drive.
> 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'
Well, I don't think that's anything related to your disk problems.
I've never tried any of the colourising options for ls, but I reckon
you are setting some environment variable to colourise ls in
.bash_profile / .profile, but not in .bashrc. Difference: non-login
shells (such as you get when you su) don't read the .profile, only the
.bashrc.
> 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
I can't comment on Partition Magic as I have never had anything to do
with it.
> 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]
As we all know, Joseph was a carpenter. In the Infancy Gospels (which
concern Jesus's childhood, and are not in the canonical Bible) it says
that he wasn't a very good carpenter, and when he cut a bit of wood
too short he got Jesus to come and miraculously stretch it to the
correct length. Without the slightest connotation of blasphemy, I
found this hilarious.
> 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
EZ-Drive is a BIOS patch which is hidden on the first cylinder of the
hard drive, right after the MBR. Its purpose is to carry out CHS-LBA
translation; it originates from the days when most BIOSes couldn't do
this. These days, every BIOS can do it, but EZ-Drive still crops up
here and there. I have come across second-hand HDs which were
apparently partitioned and formatted, but refused to work sensibly
until EZ-Drive was wiped off them. This despite the fact that these
HDs had originally been installed in boxes whose BIOSes could do
CHS-LBA translation, and therefore didn't need EZ-Drive.
The boxes concerned were running Microfots OSes; I haven't
experimented with EZ-Drive and Linux. I would expect and hope that
Linux would bypass EZ-Drive as it bypasses the normal BIOS, but
perhaps this is not the case.
I am not familiar with your WD format utility, but it might well have
installed EZ-Drive, possibly without your being totally aware of it.
Would Windoze fdisk and format not work? If they do, I would consider
wiping the drive and repartitioning using Windoze fdisk.
I can't comment on Partition Magic as I have never had anything to do
with it.
Re your Promise IDE controller - just as a vague and woolly thought,
perhaps your kernel does not have specific support for it, but the
generic support is enough to get it "mostly working but not quite"?
If you unplug the drive from the Promise, and run it off the onboard
IDE, is it any better? (of course it won't be /dev/hde anymore.) Maybe
you would be better to use the onboard IDE for these hard drives, and
the Promise for whatever drives (CD-ROM?) are taking up your other
onboard IDE port.
nate is an advocate of these controllers, maybe he knows something
that might help. He's a regular on this list.
I have noticed with older WD drives that they play silly buggers if
another, non-WD drive is on the same cable. They like to be on their
own, or paired with another WD drive. Don't know if the modern ones
still have this problem though.
Another vague kernel-related idea - there is a kernel configuration
option for "advanced partition table support" or similar with the
sub-option for "MS-DOS partition tables". This *might* help. I've
never noticed any difference with it on or off though.
> 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!
I had good vibes about getting a SiS6326 video card to support high
pixel clock rates in text mode... and it worked.
Pigeon
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