Hi Ed, Thanks for your detail information and time spent. 'e2label' is the command I was searching. Before I ran 'parted' to create backup (now I only create tarball on data and burn the same on CD). I ran it direct from disc not installing it on RH. Regarding your test; > (parted) select /dev/sda Whether ran 'parted' disc on CDRom to boot the box and then select /dev/hdeX to find out its information. I never made this test before. Any warning, not to damage the RH box? B.R. Stephen On Fri, 2003-12-05 at 14:04, Ed Greshko wrote: > On Fri, 2003-12-05 at 12:32, Stephen Liu wrote: > > Hi Masquared, Matthew, Jay and others, > > > > Thanks for your advice. > > > > I don't understand how the extended partion coming in. The hard drive > > was previously used solely to run RH8.0. I made a clean installation of > > RH9 from its CDs using its GUI partition program to create 4 partitions > > for; > > > > /boot > > /swap > > /root > > /home > > > > no requesting for extended partitiion. After installation the box was > > not running very stable something missing on bottom bar, KStart menu, > > etc. I continued using it waiting for RH10. Until recently the box was > > heavily attacked by Swen/GiFe, the bouncing worms. I built spam filter > > on 'thunderbird', the email software, to catch most of them. Until > > recently the box went collapsed. > > > > Now I am prepared to make another clean installation of RH9.0 on this > > box but I need to reserve 'home' in particular, the 'Thunderbird' mail > > box > > > > /home/user/.thunderbird/default/zoe216nc.slt/Mail > > > > I already create its backup as tarball and backup of other data also as > > tarball as well. I did not creat 'home' backup because I worry there > > are problems. > > > > I tried to find out the designation of /dev/hde4 and /dev/hde5 but > > forget the correct command, whether 'lab /dev/hdeX' or 'label /dev/hdeX > > showing that it is home/root/boot/ etc. > > > > Could you please shed me some light. Thanks > > When you look at your listing below note that /dev/hde4 and /dev/hde5 > have the same starting and ending cylinders. They are virtually the > same space on the disk except for the extra information needed in hde4 > to describe the "extenstion". > > While you didn't ask for it to be created....It Will Be Created....for > the very reasons others have told you. You *really* only have 4 usable > partitions. 3 of them have Linux file systems and one is Linux Swap. > > You can actually get a little it more information if you run parted and > print the partition table...like so... > > (parted) select /dev/sda > Using /dev/sda > Information: The operating system thinks the geometry on /dev/sda is > 30401/255/63. Therefore, cylinder 1024 ends at 8032.499M. > (parted) print > Disk geometry for /dev/sda: 0.000-238475.179 megabytes > Disk label type: msdos > Minor Start End Type Filesystem Flags > 1 0.031 99998.349 primary ext3 boot > 2 99998.350 101998.630 primary ext3 > 4 101998.630 236480.251 extended lba > 5 101998.661 114000.314 logical ext3 > 6 114000.346 116996.813 logical ext3 > 3 236480.251 238472.688 primary linux-swap > > If you look closely at the above you will notice that there is quite a > bit of unassigned space on this disk. From 116996.813 to 236480.250 has > no file system. You'll also note the minor numbers are not consecutive. > > This happens.... There isn't anything wrong and there isn't anything to > be concerned about. When I make a file system for the unused space it > will get added into the extended partition. > > Another command of value is e2label it tells you the "label" *BUT* that > doesn't mean that is what it is used for....just it happens that most > people like to follow a convention and will do something like... > > [root@misty tars]# e2label /dev/sda2 > /opt1 > > And then you look in the /etc/fstab you will find.... > > LABEL=/opt1 /opt ext3 defaults 1 2 > > Which simply says take the partition with label of /opt1 and mount it on > /opt. I did that since I've an old disk that has partition labeled /opt > but I've got that mounted /var/spool/mqueue or some such thing.... > > Oh, just for fun.... > > [root@misty etc]# e2label /dev/sda4 > e2label: Attempt to read block from filesystem resulted in short read > while trying to open /dev/sda4 > Couldn't find valid filesystem superblock. > > So you couldn't mount it if you wanted to.... > > Ed > > > > > B.R. > > Stephen > > > > > > > > å ä, 2003-12-05 02:03, Msquared åéï > > > On Fri, Dec 05, 2003 at 12:50:32AM +0800, Stephen Liu wrote: > > > > > > > Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System > > > > /dev/hde1 * 1 13 104391 83 Linux > > > > /dev/hde2 14 78 522112+ 82 Linux swap > > > > /dev/hde3 79 736 5285385 83 Linux > > > > /dev/hde4 737 1245 4088542+ f Win95 Ext'd (LBA) > > > > /dev/hde5 737 1245 4088511 83 Linux > > > > > > > > According to my recollection I only created 4 partitions > > > > > > The primary partition table on the disk can only contain four partitions. > > > If you want more than that, you must create one of those partitions as a > > > sort of partition container. The partition container is a partition that > > > contains more partitions (secondary partitions). > > > > > > A simple rule of thumb is that if you make more than 3 partitions, the > > > additional ones should be secondary partitions. Having four partitions > > > under that rule of thumb is an odd case, since obviously 4 partitions fits > > > nicely into the four primary partitions. :-) *shrug* One of those > > > things... > > > > > > Something odd: if you create one primary partition and one secondary > > > partition, you'll probably end up with hda1 and hda5, since hda4 will be > > > the partition used to create the secondary partition container. I don't > > > know if partition 4 (hda4) is the only one that can be a secondary > > > partition container, or if that's just by convention. > > > > > > I hope that clears up the mystery for you. > > > > > > Regards, Msquared... -- Shrike-list mailing list Shrike-list@xxxxxxxxxx https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/shrike-list
