Rename /dev/sda2 to /dev/sda1? [Solved]

PolyBender · 2015-01-13 16:18:27

Up until recently I had two partitions on /dev/sda. I deleted the first one and now I only have one, the second one (/dev/sda2).

[me@chromebook ~]$ lsblk
sda      8:0    0 14.9G  0 disk 
`-sda2   8:2    0 14.9G  0 part /
sdb      8:16   1 29.5G  0 disk 
`-sdb1   8:17   1 29.5G  0 part /home/me/SD

Everything works fine but it kind of bothers me that the only partition in /dev/sda has the number 2. How can I make it be called /dev/sda1? Then I'll just update my fstab and everything should be alright.

Last edited by PolyBender (2015-01-13 20:37:25)

nomorewindows · 2015-01-13 16:19:40

Have you rebooted?

PolyBender · 2015-01-13 16:21:02

Yes, many times since. I thought it would fix it too but it's still called /dev/sda2.

nomorewindows · 2015-01-13 16:25:14

You're using gpt and that's probably normal.

WorMzy · 2015-01-13 16:27:32

fdisk can "fix" this, using the "fix partitions order" under the "extra functionality (experts only)" menu.

However, this is purely cosmetic, and presumably is potentially dangerous, which is why it's hidden in the expert menu.

PolyBender · 2015-01-13 16:29:13

nomorewindows wrote:

You're using gpt and that's probably normal.

Actually I'm not. I manually converted it to MBR using gdisk because I didn't want to have to leave extra free memory at the start of the drive given how small a chromebook's memory already is.

WorMzy wrote:

fdisk can "fix" this, using the "fix partitions order" under the "extra functionality (experts only)" menu.
However, this is purely cosmetic, and presumably is potentially dangerous, which is why it's hidden in the expert menu.

Thanks for the reply, I just tried that and it seems like it should work but I get this instead:

Command (m for help): x

Expert command (m for help): f
Nothing to do. Ordering is correct already.

Last edited by PolyBender (2015-01-13 16:36:57)

alphaniner · 2015-01-13 16:32:53

Even though there's only one partition, it is partition 2 according to the partition table. And the device name is based on that. If you really need it to be sda1 you'll have to delete and re-create it, which will require manually specifying its geometry. IMO you should have sda2 absorb that free space left by sda1 one way or another though.

PolyBender · 2015-01-13 16:35:59

alphaniner wrote:

Even though there's only one partition, it is partition 2 according to the partition table. And the device name is based on that. If you really need it to be sda1 you'll have to delete and re-create it, which will require manually specifying its geometry. IMO you should have sda2 absorb that free space left by sda1 one way or another though.

Thanks for the reply. I was hoping that maybe there was an easy way to edit the partition table instead. There's no free memory left, I maximized the partition's size using the gparted live iso so I'm okay on that point.

Head_on_a_Stick · 2015-01-13 20:13:33

You can re-order the partitions using gdisk, I did this with mine:

Number  Start (sector)    End (sector)  Size       Code  Name
   1       233394176       234441614   511.4 MiB   EF00  EFI System
   2            2048       201326579   96.0 GiB    8300  Linux filesystem
   3              34            2047   1007.0 KiB  EF02  BIOS boot partition
   4       209712510       233394175   11.3 GiB    8300  Linux filesystem
   5       201326592       209711103   4.0 GiB     8200

Partition number 1 was originally partition number 3 (I converted it to EFI-mode); now if I use:

# gdisk /dev/sda

an press "s" (sort the partitions), I get:

Number  Start (sector)    End (sector)  Size       Code  Name
   1              34            2047   1007.0 KiB  EF02  BIOS boot partition
   2            2048       201326579   96.0 GiB    8300  Linux filesystem
   3       201326592       209711103   4.0 GiB     8200  
   4       209712510       233394175   11.3 GiB    8300  Linux filesystem
   5       233394176       234441614   511.4 MiB   EF00  EFI System

As you can see, this has sorted them in sector order

You can use "x" (expert options) and then "t" to transpose two partition table entries if the "sort" option doesn't work

Last edited by Head_on_a_Stick (2015-01-13 20:15:50)

nomorewindows · 2015-01-13 20:25:40

He said he wasn't using gpt unless gdisk will still do it (or a conversion back and forth in the process).

Head_on_a_Stick · 2015-01-13 20:32:34

Ooops sorry missed that!

@OP: I don't understand your point about "free memory" at the start of the drive -- surely a few KiB won't make any difference?

GPT is better than MBR purely because of the backup table (I have used this myself to save a disk on more than one occasion).

PolyBender · 2015-01-13 20:36:58

Head_on_a_Stick wrote:

Ooops sorry missed that!
@OP: I don't understand your point about "free memory" at the start of the drive -- surely a few KiB won't make any difference?
GPT is better than MBR purely because of the backup table (I have used this myself to save a disk on more than one occasion).

You're probably right. I had a few issues with my install and switching to MBR really helped me make it work. I think I'll play with it and try to switch it back to GPT sometime, I'm sure I can make it work. It'll probably fix the partition names too. I'll mark this as solved because there isn't much more to say or do. Thanks everyone!

Head_on_a_Stick · 2015-01-13 20:43:49

If you're booting in non-EFI mode, you will need a BIOS boot partition (ef02) with a GPT disk and it may not work at all (it is firmware dependent), so you may have to stick with MBR and a "wonky" partition table.

Arch Linux

#1 2015-01-13 16:18:27

Rename /dev/sda2 to /dev/sda1? [Solved]

#2 2015-01-13 16:19:40

Re: Rename /dev/sda2 to /dev/sda1? [Solved]

#3 2015-01-13 16:21:02

Re: Rename /dev/sda2 to /dev/sda1? [Solved]

#4 2015-01-13 16:25:14

Re: Rename /dev/sda2 to /dev/sda1? [Solved]

#5 2015-01-13 16:27:32

Re: Rename /dev/sda2 to /dev/sda1? [Solved]

#6 2015-01-13 16:29:13

Re: Rename /dev/sda2 to /dev/sda1? [Solved]

#7 2015-01-13 16:32:53

Re: Rename /dev/sda2 to /dev/sda1? [Solved]

#8 2015-01-13 16:35:59

Re: Rename /dev/sda2 to /dev/sda1? [Solved]

#9 2015-01-13 20:13:33

Re: Rename /dev/sda2 to /dev/sda1? [Solved]

#10 2015-01-13 20:25:40

Re: Rename /dev/sda2 to /dev/sda1? [Solved]

#11 2015-01-13 20:32:34

Re: Rename /dev/sda2 to /dev/sda1? [Solved]

#12 2015-01-13 20:36:58

Re: Rename /dev/sda2 to /dev/sda1? [Solved]

#13 2015-01-13 20:43:49

Re: Rename /dev/sda2 to /dev/sda1? [Solved]

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