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#1 2005-04-20 01:04:23

mackstevenson
Member
Registered: 2005-04-14
Posts: 18

partition names

Hi everyone,

I have successfully installed arch but I must have done something very stupid: although the system works perfectly, the names of the partitions are all mixed up! Eg,

$ mount

/dev/hda1 on / type reiserfs (rw)
none on /proc type proc (rw)
none on /sys type sysfs (rw)
none on /dev/pts type devpts (rw)
none on /dev/shm type tmpfs (rw)
tmpfs on /tmp type tmpfs (rw)
/dev/hda3 on /home type reiserfs (rw)
none on /proc/bus/usb type usbfs (rw)

$ fdisk /dev/hda

/dev/hda1   *           1          34      257008+  1e  Hidden W95 FAT16 (LBA)
/dev/hda2             389         421      249480   82  Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/hda3             422        5168    35887320   83  Linux
/dev/hda4              35         388     2676240   83  Linux

$ cat /etc/fstab

none                   /dev/pts      devpts    defaults            0      0
none                   /dev/shm      tmpfs     defaults            0      0
tmpfs                  /tmp          tmpfs     defaults            0      0
usbfs                  /proc/bus/usb usbfs     defaults            0      0

/dev/cdroms/cdrom0     /cdrom   iso9660    ro,user,noauto,unhide   0       0

/dev/discs/disc0/part2 swap swap defaults 0 0
/dev/discs/disc0/part1 / reiserfs defaults 0 0
/dev/discs/disc0/part3 /home reiserfs defaults 0 0


How can this be? Is /dev/hda1 my root partition (as mount says) or a hidden FAT partition (as fdisk says)?

I religiously followed the instructions available for setting up udev (available here: ) and haven't experienced any problem as a result. Is this related? If so, could anyone please let me know how I might fix it?

I also tried checking the output of cfdisk and it agrees exactly with fdisk.

One last note is the reason why this constitutes a problem: I had to reinstall my system from scratch so that I could create precisely that FAT partition so that the computer would hibernate. So (following some online instructions I found) now I need to run mkdosfs on the FAT partition, but don't know which argument to pass it... I tried several and either nothing happened (the program returned immediately), it complained that the system was already mounted or (once) the system crashed/became unresponsive.

What is happening? Why don't partitions a consistent name on my disk? Thank you for any insight,

Mack

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#2 2005-04-20 08:59:45

Kern
Member
From: UK
Registered: 2005-02-09
Posts: 464

Re: partition names

Mack

fdisk /dev/hda

    ??

tried fdisk -l ?

looks like
Partition 1 is /
Partition 2 is Swap
Partition 3 is /home

i remember something like this happening to me ages ago. if i recall, it happens because of the order in which you went thro the partitioning program fdisk/cfdisk/diskdruid etc.

the sequence offers you first, i think its /(root) then Swap, then boot. and my partitions were therefore root / was 1 - swap was 2 and boot was 3 as i followed numerically the order of what was offered.

After that i always noted to make the Boot first, then swap, then / (root) and it seemed to number them  as 1 for boot, 2 for swap 3 for root.

Dont quote me, iots so long back its all a bit foggy, but i still have the itch about it happening . its annoying i know smile

Sorry, not sure about the windows part. looks like a leftover boot partition? or did you have any dual boot intention?

If it works, dont worry too much. Better that it works just now than cripple stuff tryna fix it.

gl

K

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#3 2005-04-20 13:05:29

mackstevenson
Member
Registered: 2005-04-14
Posts: 18

Re: partition names

fdisk /dev/hda    ??

tried fdisk -l ?

i remember something like this happening to me ages ago. if i recall, it happens because of the order in which you went thro the partitioning program fdisk/cfdisk/diskdruid etc.

You're absolutely right, thanks! Actually, after outputting the partition table fdisk -l says precisely


Partition table entries are not in disk order

The trouble is that I am afraid of destroying one of my partitions if I try to guess where to create a FAT filesystem... After all, different programs call /dev/hda1 to different things! [Eg, in the case above mount and fdisk.] Do you know if there is a way to fix this without wiping out the disk and reinstalling from a backup?

Thanks so much for any further help

Mack


the sequence offers you first, i think its /(root) then Swap, then boot. and my partitions were therefore root / was 1 - swap was 2 and boot was 3 as i followed numerically the order of what was offered.

After that i always noted to make the Boot first, then swap, then / (root) and it seemed to number them  as 1 for boot, 2 for swap 3 for root.

Dont quote me, iots so long back its all a bit foggy, but i still have the itch about it happening . its annoying i know smile

Sorry, not sure about the windows part. looks like a leftover boot partition? or did you have any dual boot intention?

If it works, dont worry too much. Better that it works just now than cripple stuff tryna fix it.

gl

K

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#4 2005-04-20 14:28:47

i3839
Member
Registered: 2004-02-04
Posts: 1,185

Re: partition names

Try cfdisk, it may be refreshing.

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#5 2005-04-21 02:59:57

mackstevenson
Member
Registered: 2005-04-14
Posts: 18

Re: partition names

Just for future reference:

If you ever find yourself in a situation where fdisk and mount list the partitions in different order, you can go into fdisk, select "extra options" (x) and then "fix partition order" (f). Then just press "w" (to commit changes to disk), reboot and everything should be ok.

Hope this helps someone,

Mack.

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#6 2005-04-21 10:53:57

Kern
Member
From: UK
Registered: 2005-02-09
Posts: 464

Re: partition names

Mack, nice of u to feed that back as a solution.
im sure theres more than a few who have fdisk'd, scratched their head, cried, and started over, wishing they'd have found this tidbit first.

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