Rosemary McGillicuddy wrote:
On Monday 28 Mar 2005 17:09, SnapafunFrank wrote:
Rosemary McGillicuddy wrote:
Warnings well heeded. I am almost too scared to do anything in Mandrake now - no just kidding.
[EMAIL PROTECTED] rosemary]# fdisk /dev/hda
The number of cylinders for this disk is set to 4865. There is nothing wrong with that, but this is larger than 1024, and could in certain setups cause problems with: 1) software that runs at boot time (e.g., old versions of LILO) 2) booting and partitioning software from other OSs (e.g., DOS FDISK, OS/2 FDISK)
Command (m for help): p
Disk /dev/hda: 40.0 GB, 40020664320 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 4865 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Please understand my notes to your table here. Is this what you were after? Strictly your call here.
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System [ Franks approx partition sizes ] /dev/hda1 * 1 2364 18988798+ 7 HPFS/NTFS [19gig ] /dev/hda2 2423 4865 19623397+ 5 Extended [20gig ]
/dev/hda5 2423 3186 6136798+ 83 Linux [6gig] ~ [ This is your root partition ] /dev/hda6 4808
4854 377496 83 Linux [350MB ]
/dev/hda7 4855 4865 88326 82 Linux swap [82MB ] /dev/hda8 3187 3326 1124518+ 82 Linux swap [1.1gig ] /dev/hda9 3327 4807 11896101 83 Linux [12gig - wow, wish I could
afford this much] ~ [ This is your /home partition ]
Partition table entries are not in disk order
I can breathe now I am out of fdisk!
regards
Rosemary
OK Rosemary, I need to study this a little but for now see what I see.
You have a 40gig hard drive:
You have 7 ( note ~ seven ) partitions:
You have only 1 primary partition ~ you ought to have 3 but not essential: more about this later.
You have only 1 ( one ) logic partition ~ you are allowed up to 16 last I heard:
You therefore have 1 ( all you are allowed I believe ) extended partition ~ it is within this partition that you have your logic partitions:
You have 2 swap partitions ~ no idea why you have two when one is enough especially when one of them appears huge.
( Don't mind me rambling on here ~ I'm working out loud.)
Generally the rules here are:
No more than 4 primary partitions with only one of them being made an extended partition in which you can have up to 16 logic ( LBA ) partitions.
You can have as many swap partitions as you like though usually one is enough.
Partition numbering is: primary 1 ~ 4 ( includes the extended partition ) With LBA partitions numbering 5 ~ say 16
The only partitions you have correct here are:
/dev/hda1 * [ Your WinXP partition and the * means it is bootable ] /dev/hda1 [ One of your swap partitions and I say this is correct because it appears to be of the correct size ~ Usually no more than 1.5 times your RAM size if it is under 512MB ]
Now lets take your df printf: [ printf is syntax for echo or in other words ~ what you see returned to the screen when you issue a command seeking info. ]
Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/hda5 5.8G 1.7G 3.9G 30% / [ My rough math for the above table isn't to far off here afterall.]
/dev/hda9 12G 170M 12G 2% /home [ You must work out what
you really will be using here because this is far to big at present ~ only 170MB of 12000MB used so far.]
SO.............
Your WinXP partition does not get mounted when you boot up ~ you may prefer this but fstab has it entered.
Your hda6 partition doesn't get mounted so we need to discover which directory this relates to. [ See below ]
Your hda8, in my opinion is just wasted space at present.
Please try this:
Go K>>Configure Your Desktop>>Partitions and tell me what you see there. If there is more there than /dev/hda5 and /dev/hda9, ( should at least be /dev/hda7 and /dev/hda8 ), then please make a note of what partitions are there AND what there sizes are, ( Usually in megabytes ~ [ MB ] ), as this will save having to work out partition sizes using the number of blocks reported by the fdisk command. { Went back and did that anyway but am still curious ]
Another thing to do is to mount that /dev/hda6 partition to find out what it is. So do as su:
# mkdir /mnt/hda6 # mount /dev/hda6 /mnt/hda6 [ If this gives you errors then stop here and let me know what those errors are. ] # cd /mnt/hda6 # ls Look at any directories listed here ( other than lost & found ) and tell me what they are please.
Not trying to crowd you so will stop here and await your replies.
Okay - first up:
during the install, I selected the partitions that Mandrake preselected - which is what I was advised to do, probably at linuxquestions or another forum, or possibly on the installation process itself.
These were: hda5 (5.8Gb, /, ext) hda6 (368Mb, /mnt, ext3) hda9 (11Gb, /home, ext 3)
If this was incorrect, then so be it - I was simply doing what I thought I had been advised to do. There was also swap there somewhere.
Rosemary, I stopped reading here to get things right. I'm not out to criticize or anything, I'm just trying to make you aware of what 'is' so that YOU can make informed decisions for yourself ~ and now I bet we have the time wasting thing again.
I seriously wonder if all this questioning is worth it - your time, and my limited knowledge.
Yep, there it is.
I simply want a system that works. If I have made a mistake, okay, then fix it if can be fixed simply, or reinstall. It seems the fix is not simple, and I believe it is time to reinstall.I'm going to stop reading here ~ and with regret pull away to make room for others.
I am sorry if this disappoints you ... and I am sorry if I have wasted your time.
I am obviously saying it all wrong and further regret upsetting you this way.
I'll follow you in the forums and wish you well.
Bye.
I acknowledge that I probably stuffed up when I attempted to install the mouse, however, there were always problems with stalling, even at the first install attempt. I see on other forums that Mandrake is reputed to have problems with USB devices. That may be disputed here - I don't know.
I do know that I need to have a system that works, and if i don't fully understand why it didn't, then I can live with that. I hope you can see my point. I read recently - on the local LUG mailing list I think - "that some prefer to wrestle with linux, than actually use their system" I *don't* fall into that category.
I really am deeply appreciative of your efforts to help, and of other listers - but am beginning to wonder if it is going anywhere.
Regards Rosemary
-- Newbie Seeking USER_FUNCTIONALITY always!
Regards
SnapafunFrank
Big or small, a challenge requires the same commitment to resolve.
Registered Linux User # 324213
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