Mailinglist Archive: opensuse (2702 mails)

[reaston@xxxxxxxxxxx (Bob Easton)]

On 9 Jun 99, at 11:59, j.vermeulen wrote:

> 
> I want to set up SuSE 6.0 on my W98 system:
> 
> hda has 1 primary DOS partition
>         1 primary W98 partition (DOS) formatted
>  1 OS/2 Bootmaster partition
>  1 logical W98 partition (DOS) formatted
>  no free space
> 
> hdb has 2 logical FAT32 partitions, each 2 Gb, at the end of the free
> space and I want to add:
>  1 Linux ext/2 partition of 500 Mb (root)
>  1 Linux swap partition	
>  1 Linus ext/2 partition of 1.2 Gb
> 
> YaST sets 'Format' to 'Normal' for the FAT32 partitions and doesn't let me
> to change that so I fear for my data.
> 

I don't recall ever seeing the word "Normal" in this regard.  Is 
it actually "No" ? Since you are talking about 6.0, do you have 
the manual?  If so, refer to page 57, fig 3.4, which shows the 
"CREATING FILESYSTEMS" menu.  Even if no manual, are we talking 
about the same screen? The fourth column shows "No" for some 
entries which means that they *won't* be formatted.  You would 
have to enter F6 for a selected partition to change it's format 
status.  

By the way, please be forwarned that once you allow YaST or 
Linux fdisk to modify a disk that has been created by a Win/DOS 
fdisk you must not ever go back to using the Win/DOS fdisk to 
modify the partitions.  Stick with Linux fdisk thereafter.  The 
same would apply to Partition Magic 4.0 (for those that are 
interested), which is capable of creating/modifying Linux 
partitions, but can't deal properly with partition tables that 
were written with Linux fdisk.  If you use PM 4.0, begin from 
the Win/DOS created table *only* and then stay with PM 4.0; 
don't use Linux fdisk thereafter if you expect to be able to use 
PM 4.0 again.  You should tell YaST to not modify or format any 
partition that was created with PM 4.0, including the swap 
aprtition.

The issue is that Linux fdisk chains partition table entries in 
the order of creation of each partition, whereas Win/DOS fdisk 
(more simply) always chains them in their physical order on the 
drive. Letting Win/DOS fdisk modify a Linux fdisk partition 
table can result in a recursivly chained (infinite) loop because 
Win/DOS fdisk is unaware of the "legality" of chaining by 
creation order.  It would be much simpler (IMHO) if Linux fdisk 
would just stick to the Win/DOS method - I don't see the benefit 
of the Linux chaining scheme.

-bob

> Now will I get a chance to cancel the formatting or must I be prepared for
> the worst?
> 
> JV
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