[opensuse] installing 10.3 on a disk with >15 partitions
Carlos and I were discussing this briefly in another thread, but I thought it best to start a new one for this specific topic. I've just attempted to install 10.3 on a disk with 26 partitions. I only tried a small 6.4Gb drive in a test-system, so I didn't actually make it anywhere, but I think it could well work. Here's what I did: 1. start normal install from CD. 2. when YaST is running, and the step with "Loading harddisk modules" (or somewthing like that) is complete, use Ctrl-Alt-F1 to swap into text mode. Then Alt-F2 to swap to an active shell. 3. kpartx -a <harddrive> - I did "kpartx -a /dev/sdb". ls -l /dev/disk/by-id should produce all of your partitions. 4. Alt-F7 to get back into YaST. Continue and choose "Custom Partitioning". 5. Ask it to reread the partition table. Now you should see all of your partitions with the kpartx set listed as "DM". This is as far as I got in round 1 - when I tried to edit one of my DM partitions (to set mount point etc), I just got a winfow with a blue bar saying "free", and a close button. I might go and change the partition sizes and see if I can make it do something more sensible. /Per Jessen, Zürich -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
Per Jessen wrote:
Now you should see all of your partitions with the kpartx set listed as "DM".
http://jessen.ch/images/yast-custom-partitioning-23-partitions.jpeg
This is as far as I got in round 1 - when I tried to edit one of my DM partitions (to set mount point etc), I just got a winfow with a blue bar saying "free", and a close button.
http://jessen.ch/images/yast-23-partitions-bluebar.jpeg I don't have a need for that many partitions, so this is not a problem for me, I just found it interesting. I think it would be a minor change in YaST to use kpartx, but only for systems with more than 15 partitions. Possibly with a disclaimer of "unsupported etc". Just like for JFS file system. /Per Jessen, Zürich -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 The Tuesday 2008-05-27 at 12:55 +0200, Per Jessen wrote:
I don't have a need for that many partitions, so this is not a problem for me, I just found it interesting. I think it would be a minor change in YaST to use kpartx, but only for systems with more than 15 partitions. Possibly with a disclaimer of "unsupported etc". Just like for JFS file system.
I would certainly prefer "supported" somehow. There are bugs on supported software that takes years to correct, so one on an unsupported software would stay unsolved for decades. - -- Cheers, Carlos E. R. -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v2.0.4-svn0 (GNU/Linux) iD8DBQFIPUtbtTMYHG2NR9URAqiMAJ40jIRH71kaHoxZ35QZmxoGIBQPngCfbffz o4sYzR6HcU3MIl/LVW0Uias= =Gv8l -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
Carlos E. R. wrote:
The Tuesday 2008-05-27 at 12:55 +0200, Per Jessen wrote:
I don't have a need for that many partitions, so this is not a problem for me, I just found it interesting. I think it would be a minor change in YaST to use kpartx, but only for systems with more than 15 partitions. Possibly with a disclaimer of "unsupported etc". Just like for JFS file system.
I would certainly prefer "supported" somehow.
Certainly - so would I (in the case of JFS), but sometime we have to accept a reasonable compromise.
There are bugs on supported software that takes years to correct, so one on an unsupported software would stay unsolved for decades.
Well, it would only be the support in YaST that would come under "not officially supported". The software itself (device mapper etc) is subject to normal open source support. (or lack thereof). /Per Jessen, Zürich -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 The Tuesday 2008-05-27 at 12:14 +0200, Per Jessen wrote:
Carlos and I were discussing this briefly in another thread, but I thought it best to start a new one for this specific topic.
I've just attempted to install 10.3 on a disk with 26 partitions. I only tried a small 6.4Gb drive in a test-system, so I didn't actually make it anywhere, but I think it could well work.
Here's what I did:
1. start normal install from CD. 2. when YaST is running, and the step with "Loading harddisk modules" (or somewthing like that) is complete, use Ctrl-Alt-F1 to swap into text mode. Then Alt-F2 to swap to an active shell. 3. kpartx -a <harddrive> - I did "kpartx -a /dev/sdb".
ls -l /dev/disk/by-id should produce all of your partitions.
4. Alt-F7 to get back into YaST. Continue and choose "Custom Partitioning". 5. Ask it to reread the partition table.
Now you should see all of your partitions with the kpartx set listed as "DM".
This is as far as I got in round 1 - when I tried to edit one of my DM partitions (to set mount point etc), I just got a winfow with a blue bar saying "free", and a close button. I might go and change the partition sizes and see if I can make it do something more sensible.
This is very interesting, thanks for the information. I'll store it in my private archive. I don't have a machine to test it now, as this machine is pata only and thus, I use the old method which is safer or more comfortable. But I certainly want to try your method. Perhaps on vmware? Perhaps if I win a lotto and buy a new PC - but I don't even play :-p Of course, what I would prefer would be a direct interface, instead of /dev/sda being called "/dev/dska", for instance, with no limitations, and valid for scsi, usb, ata, sata, pata, firewire, etc. Or a move to use words instead of bytes for the major,minor scheme. In that, I can only hope, I can't do anything myself, of course. - -- Cheers, Carlos E. R. -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v2.0.4-svn0 (GNU/Linux) iD8DBQFIPUpltTMYHG2NR9URAkWSAJ950RyribNX9i2gEN1nZMYPP7Ds6QCghJU4 7ePQk5qA2YqV3MWCnQ7Pv8U= =SrgC -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
Carlos E. R. wrote:
Of course, what I would prefer would be a direct interface, instead of /dev/sda being called "/dev/dska", for instance, with no limitations, and valid for scsi, usb, ata, sata, pata, firewire, etc. Or a move to use words instead of bytes for the major,minor scheme. In that, I can only hope, I can't do anything myself, of course.
Here's my take on this situation (keep in mind that I don't use >15 partitions myself) - afaict, kpartx does a pretty good job of mapping partitions from <device> to /dev/mapper/NNNNNN. I certainly haven't thoroughly tested it though. If your SCSI/usb/firewire/etc. device can be read and understood by kpartx, it'll probably work. In 10.3 YaST has a problem with these device-mapper drives, as well as the many partitions (the warning pop-up). If openSUSE is not to keen on providing this more-than-15-partitions support in general, a compromise might be an option for "experts" to enable kpartx at the time of the pop-up window. /Per Jessen, Zürich -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
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Per Jessen