Package: parted Version: 1.8.8.git.2008.03.24-7 Severity: normal While trying to manually copy a few entries of the partition table on one drive to another drive, I run into the following problem, which is likely related to some discrepancy in how parted sets and/or displays cylinders.
fdisk says: ############################################################################### #fdisk -l /dev/hda Disk /dev/hda: 120.0 GB, 120034123776 bytes 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 14593 cylinders Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes Disk identifier: 0x00000000 Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System /dev/hda1 * 1 1216 9767488+ 83 Linux /dev/hda2 14532 14593 498015 5 Extended /dev/hda3 1217 2432 9767520 83 Linux /dev/hda4 2433 14531 97185217+ 83 Linux /dev/hda5 14532 14544 104391 83 Linux /dev/hda6 14545 14593 393561 82 Linux swap / Solaris Partition table entries are not in disk order ############################################################################### Note that when displaying, all of the cylinder numbers are shifted toward 0 by 1 cylinder. ############################################################################### 01:28:44> [EMAIL PROTECTED] #parted /dev/hda unit cyl print Model: WDC WD1200JB-00EVA0 (ide) Disk /dev/ide/host0/bus0/target0/lun0/disc: 14593cyl Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B BIOS cylinder,head,sector geometry: 14593,255,63. Each cylinder is 8225kB. Partition Table: msdos Number Start End Size Type File system Flags 1 0cyl 1215cyl 1215cyl primary xfs boot 3 1216cyl 2431cyl 1216cyl primary xfs 4 2432cyl 14530cyl 12099cyl primary xfs 2 14531cyl 14592cyl 62cyl extended 5 14531cyl 14543cyl 12cyl logical ext2 6 14544cyl 14592cyl 48cyl logical linux-swap 01:28:54> [EMAIL PROTECTED] #parted /dev/sdc unit cyl print Model: ATA MAXTOR STM332062 (scsi) Disk /dev/scsi/host3/bus0/target0/lun0/disc: 38913cyl Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B BIOS cylinder,head,sector geometry: 38913,255,63. Each cylinder is 8225kB. Partition Table: msdos Number Start End Size Type File system Flags 01:29:06> [EMAIL PROTECTED] #parted /dev/sdc unit cyl mkpart Partition type? primary/extended? p File system type? [ext2]? xfs Start? 0 End? 1215 Information: You may need to update /etc/fstab. 01:29:26> [EMAIL PROTECTED] #parted /dev/sdc unit cyl print Model: ATA MAXTOR STM332062 (scsi) Disk /dev/scsi/host3/bus0/target0/lun0/disc: 38913cyl Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B BIOS cylinder,head,sector geometry: 38913,255,63. Each cylinder is 8225kB. Partition Table: msdos Number Start End Size Type File system Flags 1 0cyl 1214cyl 1214cyl primary ############################################################################### However, looking at the partition table with fdisk again shows what really happened: gparted assumes that cylinder numbers entered by the user are not shifted by a cylinder, and thus sets the boundary in a way that (I imagine) is compatible with fdisk. The start cylinder is likely clamped to a reasonable value (namely, "1") somewhere during the write process. ############################################################################### #fdisk -l /dev/sdc Disk /dev/sdc: 320.0 GB, 320072933376 bytes 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 38913 cylinders Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes Disk identifier: 0x000385a6 Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System /dev/sdc1 1 1215 9759456 83 Linux ############################################################################### The most likely solution to this discrepancy is for gparted to stop pretending that cylinders are zero-indexed -- System Information: Debian Release: lenny/sid APT prefers unstable APT policy: (500, 'unstable'), (1, 'experimental') Architecture: i386 (i686) Kernel: Linux 2.6.25 (PREEMPT) Locale: LANG=en_US.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=en_US.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8) Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/bash Versions of packages parted depends on: ii libc6 2.7-11 GNU C Library: Shared libraries ii libncurses5 5.6+20071124-1 Shared libraries for terminal hand ii libparted1.8-9 1.8.8.git.2008.03.24-7 The GNU Parted disk partitioning s ii libreadline5 5.2-3 GNU readline and history libraries parted recommends no packages. Versions of packages parted suggests: pn parted-doc <none> (no description available) -- no debconf information -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
