Arch Linux

whol

Member

Registered: 2004-02-04

Posts: 155

How do I partition a drive?

I have 3 drives, I only configure one during installation.  Now I want to add the other 2.

I used fdisk to create a single 80GB partition on /dev/hdb and /dev/hdc.  Under other linuxes the next step would be to format the partitions using the commands:
   mke2fs -j /dev/hdb1
   mke2fs -j /dev/hdc1
But those command don't work under AL.

I looked in /dev/discs/discX, and for disc0 I saw my 3 partitions created during the install.  So I assumed disc0 was /dev/hda.

I expected /dev/discs/disc1 to be /dev/hdb, and to have a /dev/discs/disc1/part1 representing the partion I thought I had created with fdisk (which would have been /dev/hdb1).  But there is no part1 in disc1.

There *is* a /dev/discs/disc2/part1 - so I thought maybe that was /dev/hdb1 and there will be a /dev/discs/disc3/part1 representing /dev/hdc1 - but no such luck.

So I have the following 'parts':
   /dev/discs/disc0/part1
   /dev/discs/disc0/part2
   /dev/discs/disc0/part3
   /dev/discs/disc2/part1
and thats all.

How do I get access to the partitions I created in fdisk on /dev/hdb and /dev/hdc?

thx!

rasat

Forum Fellow

From: Finland, working in Romania

Registered: 2002-12-27

Posts: 2,293

Website

Re: How do I partition a drive?

Arch Linux uses the devfs device system. To include the old device names (hda, hdb, hdc, etc.) in /dev, untag following lines in /etc/devfs.conf and reboot.

# Enable full compatibility mode for old device names. You may comment these
# out if you don't use the old device names. Make sure you know what you're
# doing!
REGISTER    .*        MKOLDCOMPAT
UNREGISTER    .*        RMOLDCOMPAT

Example:
Devfs = /dev/discs/disc0/part3
Old = hda3

# mke2fs -j /dev/hda3
# mke2fs -j /dev/discs/disc0/part3

---

Markku

whol

Member

Registered: 2004-02-04

Posts: 155

Re: How do I partition a drive?

Those two lines are already uncommented out of my devfsd.conf file. (apparently it cam that way)

When I use fdisk, it will not accept the devfs names, I have to enter:
   fdisk /dev/hdb

After creating a 'new' parition, there is no '/dev/discs/disc1/part1'.

I'm stuck.  It seems like fdisk uses one syntax and mke2fs uses another.