On Sunday 29 March 2009 01:43:35 H. Peter Anvin wrote: > > Any comments? Is this going to break someone's favourite USB stick > > formatter? > Almost certainly. And yes, I agree this is a bug. I've found it > hideously annoying from day 1. Let's fix it! We can hack it to work both ways. This approach should work (unless I'm missing something about the more esoteric partition types): For 't' and 'd', if something other than the single automatic default (1, 2, 3 or 4) is given which is a valid value for the *next* input, then that default is selected, and the input is preserved for the next prompt. With that scheme, the input below remains valid (wisdom from random bullettin board to create a partition, set the type, activate and write, my comments added): d <=== delete: no partition given, single partition assumed u <=== this is a valid command, not a value in range 1 to 4 n p 1 489 t <=== type: no partition given, partition 1 assumed c <=== this is not a value, but not 1 (nor 2, 3 or 4) a 1 w So, when fdisk++ asks for a partition number (and there's only one possibility), the user can ignore the question, and type the reply for the next prompt -- the following command after 'd'elete, or the type of the partition. For setting the 't'ype of the final partition, a script without modifications would *fail* to set partition types 1 to 4 (FAT12, XENIX root, XENIX usr, FAT16 <32M) (but usually type 1, FAT12, since few people number their first partition 2 to 4). When last did an automatic script set those, I wonder ... So, something like this: Command (m for help): p ... Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System hda2 1 1023 8217216 83 Linux Command (m for help): d Partition number (1-4): n <===== this is the next command, not a partition DEPRECATED BEHAVIOUR! THAT'S NOT A PARTITION Selected default partition 2 <=== apply old behaviour Command (m for help): n <===== input carried over Command action e extended p primary partition (1-4) p Partition number (1-4): 1 First cylinder (1-1023, default 1): Using default value 1 Last cylinder, +cylinders or +size{K,M,G} (1-1023, default 1023): Using default value 1023 ... Command (m for help): t Partition number (1-4): 83 <=== Actually a partition type DEPRECATED BEHAVIOUR! THAT'S NOT A PARTITION Selected default partition 1 <=== apply old behaviour Hex code (type L to list codes): 82 <===== input carried over Changed system type of partition 1 to 82 (Linux swap) -- To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe util-linux-ng" in the body of a message to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html