Problem creating filesystems under 2.4 kernel

quintaq＠yahoo.co.uk

8 Oct 2001 8 Oct '01

12:33

Hi, Has anyone had problems partitioning and creating filesystems on a large HDD under a vanilla 2.4 kernel (2.4.10 in my case)? I have just installed a Maxtor 30GB drive as /dev/hdc. It is the secondary master and I am using it to backup my SuSE 7.0 system. I found that I could write the partition table and create a small ext2 partition for /boot plus 768MB of swap. Creation of the main ext2 filesystem on /hdc7 failed with "file size limit exceeded". The same problem recurred every time I tried - and I did try various combinations of partition size. I saw the same error message when trying to change some partition table flags. I have no file limits set in ulimit and I do not think that this is the problem. I eventually put the same drive as /dev/hdc in another box running a stock SuSE 2.2.16 kernel and creation of the filesystems completed without any problem. Any ideas ? Regards, Geoff _________________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Get your free @yahoo.com address at http://mail.yahoo.com

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Cliff Sarginson

8 Oct 8 Oct

17:16

New subject: [SLE] Problem creating filesystems under 2.4 kernel

On Mon, Oct 08, 2001 at 01:33:14PM +0100, quintaq@yahoo.co.uk wrote:

...

Hi,

Has anyone had problems partitioning and creating filesystems on a large HDD under a vanilla 2.4 kernel (2.4.10 in my case)?

I have just installed a Maxtor 30GB drive as /dev/hdc. It is the secondary master and I am using it to backup my SuSE 7.0 system. I found that I could write the partition table and create a small ext2 partition for /boot plus 768MB of swap. Creation of the main ext2 filesystem on /hdc7 failed with "file size limit exceeded". The same problem recurred every time I tried - and I did try various combinations of partition size. I saw the same error message when trying to change some partition table flags. I have no file limits set in ulimit and I do not think that this is the problem.

I eventually put the same drive as /dev/hdc in another box running a stock SuSE 2.2.16 kernel and creation of the filesystems completed without any problem.

I just had a look at this out of curiosity. I have a 40GB disk with reiserfs partitions I created at install time, plus one ext2 file system I created later. This still left some free space over. Under both 2.4.4 and 2.4.10 fdisk cannot see this free space. I really cannot remember but I think I created the ext2 partition under Slackware and kernel 2.2.19. Now here is the interesting part. "cfdisk" does see the free space and will let me create new file systems. What does this mean ? A bug in fdisk probably. I notice that fdisk and cfdisk show partition information in a different order. I have a primary partition /dev/hda4 at the physical end of my disk for FreeBSD, my extended partition precedes it. It is possible that this confuses fdisk but not cfdisk. I would regard this as a very nasty bug. If the partition manipulation program does not work properly then it tends to diminish one's confidence in it ! -- Regards Cliff

quintaq＠yahoo.co.uk

19:16

New subject: [SLE] Problem creating filesystems under 2.4 kernel

On Mon, 8 Oct 2001 19:16:56 +0200 Cliff Sarginson wrote:

...

...
I just had a look at this out of curiosity. I have a 40GB disk with reiserfs partitions I created at install time, plus one ext2 file system I created later. This still left some free space over. Under both 2.4.4 and 2.4.10 fdisk cannot see this free space. I really cannot remember but I think I created the ext2 partition under Slackware and kernel 2.2.19.

Now here is the interesting part. "cfdisk" does see the free space and will let me create new file systems. What does this mean ? A bug in fdisk probably. I notice that fdisk and cfdisk show partition information in a different order. I have a primary partition /dev/hda4 at the physical end of my disk for FreeBSD, my extended partition precedes it. It is possible that this confuses fdisk but not cfdisk.

I would regard this as a very nasty bug. If the partition manipulation program does not work properly then it tends to diminish one's confidence in it !

-- Hi Cliff,

After posting my message I tried booting this machine using the 2.2.16 kernel on the 7.0 CD. I was able to make filesystems and change flags just as I did on the spare machine. I therefore reported the problem as a possible bug in 2.4.10 to the kernel.org list and Alan Cox has replied to the list (and me) as follows : "Obvious one to check would be to see if when 2.4.10 acquired the page cach changes someone backed out the device picks up underlying file size limit bug fix that the -ac tree has and went to Linus. It really sounds like that happened." If this is the cause, then I guess it may have other ramifications. am not subscribed to the kernel list, so I am dependent on being copied in on replies or reading the thread on the archive as (and if) it develops. Regards, Geoff _________________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Get your free @yahoo.com address at http://mail.yahoo.com

Cliff Sarginson

20:38

New subject: [SLE] Problem creating filesystems under 2.4 kernel

On Mon, Oct 08, 2001 at 08:16:10PM +0100, quintaq@yahoo.co.uk wrote:

...

On Mon, 8 Oct 2001 19:16:56 +0200 Cliff Sarginson wrote:

...
...
I just had a look at this out of curiosity. I have a 40GB disk with reiserfs partitions I created at install time, plus one ext2 file system I created later. This still left some free space over. Under both 2.4.4 and 2.4.10 fdisk cannot see this free space. I really cannot remember but I think I created the ext2 partition under Slackware and kernel 2.2.19.

Now here is the interesting part. "cfdisk" does see the free space and will let me create new file systems. What does this mean ? A bug in fdisk probably. I notice that fdisk and cfdisk show partition information in a different order. I have a primary partition /dev/hda4 at the physical end of my disk for FreeBSD, my extended partition precedes it. It is possible that this confuses fdisk but not cfdisk.

I would regard this as a very nasty bug. If the partition manipulation program does not work properly then it tends to diminish one's confidence in it !

-- Hi Cliff,

After posting my message I tried booting this machine using the 2.2.16 kernel on the 7.0 CD. I was able to make filesystems and change flags just as I did on the spare machine. I therefore reported the problem as a possible bug in 2.4.10 to the kernel.org list and Alan Cox has replied to the list (and me) as follows :

"Obvious one to check would be to see if when 2.4.10 acquired the page cach changes someone backed out the device picks up underlying file size limit bug fix that the -ac tree has and went to Linus.

It really sounds like that happened."

If this is the cause, then I guess it may have other ramifications. am not subscribed to the kernel list, so I am dependent on being copied in on replies or reading the thread on the archive as (and if) it develops.

Ok. But it is curious that cfdisk behaves differently from fdisk. I would presume they rely on the same underlying calls. Keep in touch!

...

Regards,

Geoff

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-- Regards Cliff

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Cliff Sarginson
quintaq＠yahoo.co.uk