From: paulm@waitrose.com
Date: Fri, 17 Nov 2000 22:38:20 +0000
Message-Id:
Don't know if this is OS/2's particular tummy trouble with your disk: but if Mandrake's partitioning software has (this is the classic example) split a single partition that OS/2's fdisk already knows about into 2 partitions, then OS/2's fdisk is dead with regard to that disk.
Hmm, not in my experience. The problem is (or used to be) quite specific to Disk Druid (Red Hat 5). Rewriting the partition table with the normal Linxu Fdisk is usually enough to clear the problem.
Attempting to use OS/2's fdisk produces the "partition table may be corrupt" error, and OS/2's fdisk will no longer be able to save any changes for that disk, not even partition deletions. Other, smaller changes may also set OS/2's fdisk off on a tantrum. OS/2 itself functions perfectly, but further fdisk work on the disk will need to be done with Linux until and unless (AFAIK) the entire disk is backed up, blown away with something other than OS/2's fdisk, and repartitioned afresh from OS/2.
Again, not in my experience. I've changed partitions with the Linux fdisk without causing problems for OS/2's Fdisk. Indeed, when the guy from IBM Austing asked me to reproduce the problem a couple of months ago, I couldn't get it done at all. This time, the problem has occured on a new disk, so I'm not going to fix it until IBM gets the data they want...
This is a known issue with OS/2's fdisk & Linux of whatever flavor, which is why after running into the problem a few times, many people with both OS's either do *all* their partitioning work only with Linux tools, or they keep OS/2 and Linux safely apart on separate disks.
The problem I'm describing wouldn't be helped by seperate disks - OS/2s Fdisk traps on startup. Which means that unless OS/2 is already installed, it isn't possible to install it on anything other than a primary partition (since FDISK is also the tool used to install Boot Manager. When I installed SuSE 6.4 on the other machine, I used fdisk from Suse to set up the partitions - no problems with OS/2's fdisk. The only thing that I did differently on this machine was to use the partitioning software in the Mandrake install - don't know if its a relative of Disk Druid or not, but whatever it is, its certainly upset OS/2s Fdisk. As soon as IBM get the data they want, Mandrake is gone anyway - I had a lot of sucess with Mandrake 6.1, but I've had problems with both 7 and 7.1 which I've not seen with SuSE. paul. ----------------------------------------------------------- paulm@waitrose.com Paul Marwick - Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire, UK Marwick Computer Services - OS/2, LAN & general computer consultants -----------------------------------------------------------