On Wed, 2006-12-13 at 22:19 +0100, Vim Visual wrote:
> Hi,
>
> ok... it's taken me blood and sweat but I have succeeded at resizing
> (per hand) the linux disk without losing data (!). Qtparted just
> didn't work at all.
Qtparted is probably a front-end to Parted, which is yet another GNU
misgrowth - don't use it (no seriously, it's rubbish). For partitioning,
use fdisk or cfdisk instead; cfdisk has been reported to "write the
cleanest partition table entries", so must be good. It's also very
comfortable. I use it all the time.
I'm not acquainted with partition resizing, I just throw everything off
and install again. People who resize partitions are probably people who
don't keep backups (OK, the are a few Windows issues which make resizing
the most obvious option sometimes, but we're talking Linux here aren't
we?). Having e.g. a separate secondary partition mounted on /home is
also a good way to maintain flexibility.
> I don't know how but I have managed to have now
> three partitions
>
> 1st partition, ~35GB, with ext3
> 2nd partition, ~35GB no format
> 3rd partition swap linux (the rest)
>
> Now I have booted from the obsd40.iso cd but I am messed up... ahem...
>
> When I try to follow the instructions for the dual boot I get lost in
> the CHS nomenclature... I have taken a picture of the table:
>
> www.aei.mpg.de/~pau/partitions.png
>
> when I try to go for the disklabel thing it says the root slice just
> created, of 300MB, overlaps with b, swap, which I gave 2GB... but I
> don't know why... and I also don't know what's that extended DOS
> thing??!
>From my Notes:
"""
- older i386 subdirs (<= 3.4) contained a few files with very detailed
descriptions of harddisk issues in /pub/OpenBSD/<version>/i386/:
- INSTALL.ata The "ATA/ATA-1/ATA-2/IDE/ETDE/etc FAQ"
- The "HOW IT WORKS" series:
INSTALL.chs CHS translation
INSTALL.dbr DOS floppy boot sector
INSTALL.mbr Master Boot Record
INSTALL.os2br OS2 boot sector
INSTALL.pt Partition tables
Very useful if you like to know for example that "LBA =
( (cylinder * heads_per_cylinder + heads ) * sectors_per_track ) +
sector - 1"
These documents now live at: http://www.ata-atapi.com/hiw.htm
"""
Might provide you with a few Extended answers;).
> Would it be also possible to use the linux swap partition for both
> systems, o'bsd and linux?
Not that I'm aware of.
> Could you please be so nice as to write in a dummy way? something like
> "add a, delete b" etc?
The OpenBSD FAQ should be dummy-proof enough. It worked for me;)
> I have the feeling that I have messed up the CHS thing and would be
> VEERY grateful if you dummified the process...
>
> I have copied these lines from the installation guide and some of the
> numbers do not correspond to my disk... but I'd be grateful if you
> gave me the answers...
The numbers aren't supposed to match exactly, it's the Bigger Picture
that matters here. Sit down, relax, take a deep breath, concentrate,
read carefully and absorb.. The knowledge is there.
> Partition id ('0' to disable) [0 - FF]: [0] (? for help) a6
> Do you wish to edit in CHS mode? [n] y
I think this question could have also read "Do you want to make life
more difficult? [n]". So why answer with 'y'?
> BIOS Starting cylinder [0 - 9728]: [0] Here for instance I set
> 4659... because I see that linux goes until 4658
> BIOS Starting head [0 - 239]: [0] Enter (these numbers are from the
> inst. guide)
> BIOS Starting sector [1 - 63]: [0] 1
> BIOS Ending cylinder [0 - 2585]: [0] 2585
> BIOS Ending head [0 - 239]: [0] 239
> BIOS Ending sector [1 - 63]: [0] 63
Advice: start all over again using cfdisk (you will hardly need a manual
for that one), create a nice set of primary partitions (you can leave
your Linux partition as it is), and try again from there. As far as the
disk label is concerned: delete everything you find except of course
'c' (that should be only 'a' and 'b' on a fresh partition), and then
start adding OpenBSD partitions. All you'll need to worry about then are
sizes, not sector nos or other difficult stuff.
> I am reading the man, I swear! and the installation guide... I guess
> this is the result of many years of nice GUI applets... :(
And being in too much of a hurry. You want it All and you want it Now!
> I am afraid that the o'bsd partition should go to the first part of
> the table... mmmh...
> Otherwise I can do it the other way round... install obsd and then
> linux... in this direction I know my way...
BTW, expect to be able to mount Linux without problems (and r/w) from
OpenBSD, but not the other way around (that's my personal experience). I
use ext2/3 partitions for data shared across the two installs, works
perfectly. Apparently the Linux kernel can be compiled to mount an FFS
partition r/w, but I didn't try that, and I won't because I don't trust
it (as in: why is it not compiled in by default for the major distros?).
Mounting an FFS partition even r/o fails on my Fujitsu Siemens Lifebook
XXXX [I'm not good at numbers..]:
mount: wrong fs type, bad option, bad superblock on /dev/hda3,
missing codepage or other error
In some cases useful info is found in syslog - try
dmesg | tail or so
>From 'dmesg|tail':
[4429130.194000] ufs_read_super: bad magic number
On a PC it does work fine.
[[[ This is NOT a question nor an attempt to create a new thread - I'm
not asking for solutions here - I can live with it ]]].
Another thing you might bump into using lilo or possibly GRUB (I don't
use that - yet another GNU ...), is a complaint about "corrupted
partition entry" or "PT entry not aligned" or something. Can't remember
exactly what the message was, but lilo may see PT entries created with
OpenBSD fdisk as invalid/corrupt. Just insert an "ignore-table"
into /etc/lilo.conf and the problem is fixed.
Bill
> Cheers,
>
> Pau
>
> 2006/12/13, [EMAIL PROTECTED] <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>:
> > Why don't you just set aside a partiton for OpenBSD and dual-boot until
> > you get your setup to the point that you can work with it?
> >
> > -RjH
