You can not avoid the renumbering. It is a problem because the partition numbers are not stored as part of the partition table, but are determined by what is found at boot time. What you can do is make your changes, and then edit /etc/fstab and /etc/lilo.conf to reflect the changes. Probably the simplest way in this case is to do the install of the new OS, mount the / partition of the system you have now broke, edit fstab and lilo.conf on the "broken" system, and try it. The other way is to create the partitions for the "new" install with fdisk, fix fstab and lilo.conf to reflect the change, and tell the installer what partitions to use.Rodolfo wrote:
In 10 Gigabyte space I have 4 linux partitions (besides the swap partition), each of them about 2.5 GB size.
One is the partition dedicated to the /home directory;
of the other three,
one contains a Mandrake installation whose bootloader is installed
in the MBR (Master Boot Record),
the other two contain Mandrake installations whose bootloaders
are installed in the first sector of the root partition.
Now, the problem is that the latest two (/dev/hda9 and /dev/hda10)
influence each other when I do new installations:
e.g., if in /dev/hda9 there is Mdk 10.1 and I install Mdk 9.1 in in /dev/hda10, then 10.1 becomes 9.1;
if in /dev/hda10 there is Mdk 10.1 Official and I install Mdk 10.1
Community in /dev/hda9, then Official becomes Community.
Is that normal? If not how to avoid it, and what am I doing wrong?
Mikkel wrote:
Dumb question - are you creating new partitions when you do the install, or are you re-using partitions that are already there?
From the sound of things, what I think is happening is that you have some
free space between hda8 and hda9. When you do the install, it creats a new partition from this free space. As part of this process, the partitions get renumbered, and this is what is causing the problems. The output of "fdisk -l /dev/hda" before and after would help is solving this problem.
Many thanks to Mikkel for his reply.
I did many trials, and indeed the problem occurs every time,
after deleting a partition, the other partitions get renumbered.
But, how to avoid that?
If I noticed well, when I delete the last number partition
the other don't get renumbered,
whereas they do if I delete one of the previous partitions.
E.g.: suppose I have /dev/hda8, /dev/hda9 and /dev/hda10 (and no /dev/hda11): if I delete (with 'fdisk') /dev/hda10, then the other two remain the same:
/dev/hda8 and /dev/hda9, without changing their numbers;
instead, if I delete /dev/hda8, then /dev/hda9 becomes 8 and /dev/hda10 becomes 9;
after that, at the reboot comes the disaster.
How to avoid that?
Suggestions appreciated.
Thanks indeed, Rodolfo
If you send a copy of "fdisk -l", /etc/fstab, and /etc/lilo.conf, we can help you with the changes. Or we can take this to the expert list, and start teaching you to make the changes yourself. This is not realy a "newbie" type of problem.
Mikkel --
Do not meddle in the affairs of dragons, for you are crunchy and taste good with Ketchup!
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