1 Topic by rhb327

  • rhb327
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Topic: First time user, had some major issues....

Hello,

I used the Gparted Lived CD downloaded 7/7/07 to try and create some space on my /dev/hda8.  I have a single 80GB hard drive on slackware 12...this is the new sizes after the issues I'm going to explain but you can see the general layout.  I am a first time user of G/parted as I normally use cfdisk on fresh installs.

--------------------------------
root@bairco: /boot# fdisk -lu
Disk /dev/hda: 81.9 GB, 81964302336 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 9964 cylinders, total 160086528 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/hda1              63     5124734     2562336   82  Linux swap
/dev/hda2   *     5124735    14892254     4883760   83  Linux
/dev/hda3        14892255    24659774     4883760   83  Linux
/dev/hda4        24659775   160087724    67713975    5  Extended
/dev/hda5        24659838    53962334    14651248+  83  Linux
/dev/hda6        53962398    63729854     4883728+  83  Linux
/dev/hda7        63729918    83264894     9767488+  83  Linux
/dev/hda8        83264958   132150689    24442866   83  Linux
/dev/hda9       132150753   146480669     7164958+  83  Linux
/dev/hda10      146482623   153163709     3340543+  83  Linux
/dev/hda11      153163773   160087724     3461976   83  Linux
--------------------------------

So I setup Gparted to run ~10 operations.  I reduced my swap, slid 2,3 and 4 down (to the left on the GUI), removed some space from hda9 to get what you see above.  Please note, I did not delete ANY partitions during this process.  It was on operation 8 of 10 when I left and came back to a garbled screen a few hours later with only a hard restart recovery.  I don't think I lost power.

Well, the system would not boot...originally, it was L 99 99 99 99.  I finally became brave enough to delete hda10 as one utility on Ultimate Boot CD showed this as an overlap (I mount /var and /tmp to hda10 and hda11 respectively so I did not need to keep any data there).  Once I did this, i got L I junk junk junk where junk are unreadable characters.  I took that as progress...2 of the 4 letters.  Also, I put LILO is my MBR.

Next, I put my Slack12 CD in and booted from it.  I went through the install without installing any packages (just trying to get LILO and the partitions mapped) and low and behold I'm back BUT...

1) cfdisk won't run at all...here's the output:
FATAL ERROR: Bad primary partition 3: Partition ends after end-of-disk

2) Lots of + in my fdisk output (see above).  Please explain (are these a concern)?

3) dmesg concerns (seems to be related to hda11 which is at the end of my hda and mounts to /tmp):
rich@bairco: ~# dmesg | grep -C 1 Buffer
hda: rw=0, want=160087557, limit=160086528
Buffer I/O error on device hda11, logical block 865472
attempt to access beyond end of device
hda: rw=0, want=160087557, limit=160086528
Buffer I/O error on device hda11, logical block 865472
usb 4-2: new low speed USB device using uhci_hcd and address 2
--
hda: rw=0, want=160087557, limit=160086528
Buffer I/O error on device hda11, logical block 865472
usb 4-2: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice
--
hda: rw=0, want=160087725, limit=160086528
Buffer I/O error on device hda11, logical block 865493
attempt to access beyond end of device
hda: rw=0, want=160087725, limit=160086528
Buffer I/O error on device hda11, logical block 865493
attempt to access beyond end of device
hda: rw=0, want=160087725, limit=160086528
Buffer I/O error on device hda11, logical block 865493
attempt to access beyond end of device
hda: rw=0, want=160087725, limit=160086528
Buffer I/O error on device hda11, logical block 865493
attempt to access beyond end of device
hda: rw=0, want=160087725, limit=160086528
Buffer I/O error on device hda11, logical block 865493
attempt to access beyond end of device
hda: rw=0, want=160087725, limit=160086528
Buffer I/O error on device hda11, logical block 865493
attempt to access beyond end of device
hda: rw=0, want=160087725, limit=160086528
Buffer I/O error on device hda11, logical block 865493
attempt to access beyond end of device
--
printk: 4 messages suppressed.
Buffer I/O error on device hda11, logical block 865472
attempt to access beyond end of device
hda: rw=0, want=160087557, limit=160086528
Buffer I/O error on device hda11, logical block 865472
attempt to access beyond end of device
hda: rw=0, want=160087557, limit=160086528
Buffer I/O error on device hda11, logical block 865472
attempt to access beyond end of device
hda: rw=0, want=160087725, limit=160086528
Buffer I/O error on device hda11, logical block 865493
attempt to access beyond end of device
hda: rw=0, want=160087725, limit=160086528
Buffer I/O error on device hda11, logical block 865493
attempt to access beyond end of device
hda: rw=0, want=160087725, limit=160086528
Buffer I/O error on device hda11, logical block 865493
attempt to access beyond end of device

4) parted yields:
root@bairco: /boot# parted
GNU Parted 1.8.7
Using /dev/hda
Welcome to GNU Parted! Type 'help' to view a list of commands.
(parted) p
Error: Can't have a partition outside the disk!
(parted)
           
Thus, I'm up and running without data loss...THANK GOODNESS (didn't even need my backups).  Now I have a lot of concerns about cleaning up so items 1-4 above act normally and understanding what went wrong.  I'm very curious if my disk geometry was misunderstood.  My BIOS had Auto all the way until after I recovered to the state I'm at.  In other words, it was Auto during the original Gparted run.  I now have it set to LBA.  I tried LBA prior to all of the heroics above without success.

Please help me understand this as I'm fairly certain it's not a bug but something I did incorrectly!

I refer you to here for additional detail:
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions … ost2815683

-Rich

2 Reply by rhb327

  • rhb327
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Re: First time user, had some major issues....

I was reading other posts and found testdisk mentioned.  Here is some output:

Disk /dev/hda - 81 GB / 76 GiB - CHS 158816 16 63
Current partition structure:
     Partition                  Start        End    Size in sectors

1 P Linux Swap               0   1  1  5084   0 63    5124672

Warning: Bad ending head (CHS and LBA don't match)
2 * Linux                 5084   1  1 14774   0 63    9767520

Warning: Bad ending head (CHS and LBA don't match)
3 P Linux                14774   1  1 24464   0 63    9767520

Warning: Bad ending head (CHS and LBA don't match)
4 E extended             24464   1  1 158817   2 63  135427950

Warning: Bad ending head (CHS and LBA don't match)
5 L Linux                24464   2  1 53534   0 63   29302497
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3 Reply by class413

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Re: First time user, had some major issues....

Is it ATA or SATA disk? hda would mean that it is ATA, but I know that some new motherboards (like ASUS) can show SATA disks as ATA (IDE).

This long chain of operations would be very long to complete (many hours, even days I heard once); especially if we want to slightly move a partition, without any big unallocated block on the disk. During these long operations chances are that something goes wrong, even by power instability.

*** It is highly recommended to backup any important files before doing resize/move operations. ***

4 Reply by rhb327

  • rhb327
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Re: First time user, had some major issues....

It seemed to be on pace for to complete in < 4 hours.  It moved through hda1 up to hda8 prior to me having to leave for a bit.

Thanks.

5 Reply by rhb327

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Re: First time user, had some major issues....

Sorry, it was ATA.

6 Reply by chooch

  • chooch
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Re: First time user, had some major issues....

Dang, thats a lot of OS for an 80gb hdd. If your bright enough to run that many OS's, your swift enough to come up with a couple more hdd's. lol

I am not a Linux guy, but I have heard that updating and so on, with extended drives doesn't always work so well. I can share your pleasure in running many types of OS's, as I enjoy Solaris, OpenSolaris, BeleniX, Menuet64 and Kolibri. But I do use prudence in how many I run on one hdd.

On a ATA hdd, I would run just 4 slices; my swap at 2gb, seems a little large but it works really well; (any larger and you may get memory leaks). Then select my favorite 3 OS's and place them upon the remaining 3 slices.

You didn't name your Linux's, (except Slackware) but I would suspect you have Fedora, SuSE and probably Debian 64. Ubuntu and the rest are basically clones. I can respect your ability to use Slackware but would enlighten you that there are more 'potent' OS's to be had.

For example, if you were to broswe OpenSolaris download page, you would see a list of OS's, most built upon the Solaris Kernel, which have everything linux has and more. Nexenta is pretty much Debian on a Solaris kernel. If you like Slackware, you will love OpenSolaris.

Here is what I would suggest for your 80gb hdd.

/dev/hda1              2gb              swap
/dev/hda2             20gb             Slackware
/dev/hda3             20gb             Debian64
/dev/hda4             35gb             OpenSolaris

Take note that that is only 77gb, your 80gb hdd is probably NOT 80gb. That is sorta like an industry bench mark. Like with motorcycles, a 500, can be a 490cc or a 520 cc, it just in the 500 catagory. Likewise with the hdd; it is close to 80gb but probably not exactly 80gb. I like to leave a gb or so, for block checking or what have you.

Observe that OpenSolaris has more room than the others, that is my preference but may be yours as well, once you begin to use OpenSolaris. It is a step above. I chose Debian 64 for its legendary perfection as a Linux OS.

Remember, just because you can do something, doesn't mean it is best. I can wear 3 shirts to work, but I am better off just wearing one. Similarly with your extended hdd, it can be done...but your better off just using the basic 4 slices for now.

Have fun,
Chooch