Very Computer

Hi

I recently tried mounting my Linux partitions in
Solaris 7 Intel. I couldn't mount my root Linux
partition, which is in an extended partition.

Here's a description of my system, from a Linux
perspective:

/dev/sda 9.1G Quantum
/dev/sdb 9.1G Quantum
/dev/sdc 1.9G IBM

/dev/sda1 16M /boot primary Linux partition
/dev/sda4 Extended partition (type 05)
/dev/sda5 3G / extended Linux partition

/dev/sdb1 500M FAT (initial boot drive)
/dev/sdb3 2.2G / primary Solaris partition
/dev/sdb4 Extended partition (type 05)
/dev/sdb6 128M extended Linux swap partition

The other partitions are all HPFS or NTFS.

It may be worth pointing out that Solaris did
not "cleanly" install on cylinder boundaries,
which tools like DOS fdisk and Partition Magic
do not like at all. To Make matters worse, Solaris
wrote into the partition table in the wrong order
(this is /dev/sda).

This shouldn't be a problem, as the partition table
and partitions on /dev/sdb are fine, and this is where
the Linux root I want to mount is.

I've managed to mount Linux /boot (primaty), but that
is of little use.

Is there any way to get Solaris to mount the partition
in the extended partition? I have the impression that
Solaris doesn't get on well with PC extended partitions
(it won't install in one for a start).

TIA
Paul

--
Paul Floyd
Is atrophy a shiny cup?

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Quote:

> Is there any way to get Solaris to mount the partition
> in the extended partition? I have the impression that
> Solaris doesn't get on well with PC extended partitions
> (it won't install in one for a start).

Note I have no idea if this works with extended ext2
filesystems or should I say bios partition types.
I suppose it brings up the question if you wish to
write the ext2 file system which it dosn't support.
I heard Linux has a UFS mount command but haven't seen
any data on how well it's supported, specially if
you have some large partitions with files >2G.
Question what is the primary purpose of an extended
linux partition?

---Bob

--
Bob Palowoda   The Solaris x86 Corner   http://fishbutt.fiver.net

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Using the mount command that comes with the ext2fs
package that you mention below.

Quote:> > Is there any way to get Solaris to mount the partition
> > in the extended partition? I have the impression that
> > Solaris doesn't get on well with PC extended partitions
> > (it won't install in one for a start).
> You might want to try the linux ext2 mount utilities that
> come with lxrun.  See http://www.sun.com/linux/lxrun/
> or http://soldc.sun.com/articles/lxrun/#ext2fs
> Note I have no idea if this works with extended ext2
> filesystems or should I say bios partition types.
> I suppose it brings up the question if you wish to
> write the ext2 file system which it dosn't support.
> I heard Linux has a UFS mount command but haven't seen
> any data on how well it's supported, specially if
> you have some large partitions with files >2G.
> Question what is the primary purpose of an extended
> linux partition?

The main use of extended partitions is to overcome the
PC limitation of 4 primary partitions. I prefer to
separate data and OS into different partitions (possible
performance benefit as well). Since extended partitions
chain together rather than being pointed to by a fixed
table, it increases flexibility.

The only real problem is that in general, support for
booting from an extended partition is poor. Linux and
OS/2 can do it, Windows/DOS (any flavour) and Solaris
can't.

Hwyl
Paul

Quote:> ---Bob

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---Bob

--
Bob Palowoda   The Solaris x86 Corner   http://fishbutt.fiver.net

Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/
Before you buy.

Quote:> In that case I doubt if extended ext2fs file systems are supported.
> Seems to be more of a kludge just to cram more OS's on
> a single disk which makes it a administration nightmare.
> Seems like a dumb idea to depend on bios partitions for
> unix partitions on the Linux side.  But whatever.

Another thing I don't quite understand are the contents
of /dev/dsk.

There is c0t1d0p0 to c0t1d0p4, which seem to represent
primary partitions on disk 0, of which I can mount
c0t1d0p1, my Linux /boot partition (a whole 16M).
But why are there 5, when the partition table only has
4 entries? A bit of a mystery.

As for PCs being a kludge, that is hardly news!

Cheers
Paul

Quote:> ---Bob

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Before you buy.

Quote:>> I prefer to
>> separate data and OS into different partitions (possible
>> performance benefit as well). Since extended partitions
>> chain together rather than being pointed to by a fixed
>> table, it increases flexibility.

>> The only real problem is that in general, support for
>> booting from an extended partition is poor. Linux and
>> OS/2 can do it, Windows/DOS (any flavour) and Solaris
>> can't.

>In that case I doubt if extended ext2fs file systems are supported.
>Seems to be more of a kludge just to cram more OS's on
>a single disk which makes it a administration nightmare.

Quote:>Seems like a dumb idea to depend on bios partitions for
>unix partitions on the Linux side.  But whatever.

The "p0" special-file allows access to the whole drive regardless
of the contents of the partition table entries. The p1-p4 special-files
corresponded to the four partition table entries. You can only open a
p1-p4 special-file if the corresponding entry in the partition table is
present and valid. Clearly, on a blank disk which doesn't have any
valid partition table entries you need something other than p1-p4 to
create a new partition table.