It's like this: I wanted to keep my Ubuntu 5.10 with all my configuration, installed packages, tweaks , colors, and so on, but I still wanted to be able install and run another distro, se how it looks and feels like, check out what does and how good (or bad) it is, and then delete and recreate the whole partition and install yet another distro.
To do that, I resized my hdb6 FAT32 file storage partition with the handy but commercial and non-free Partition Magic, moved the swap partition and resized the extended partition that includes both; that way I got 3 GB of free space right after the hdb1 Linux partition and then I made another primary Ext3 partition as big as the free space, which should be enough to install a distro for testing purposes.
Because I had the same kind of partitioning (two primaries OS partitions on the same drive) before I installed Linux and Windows on two different drives, I figured out that a primary partition that is located right after the primary hdb1, should be called hdb2; so I removed the PMagic CD from the tray and rebooted.
Then I edited /etc/fstab to configure it to mount the new partition at startup; I added the line:
And of course I made a /hdb2 directory using mkdir (or maybe by right clicking, I don't really remember)
I dont mount my partitions in /media because I don't want to see icon on the desktop, the menus and some panel icons look better and get the job done just as good.

Anyways, the line added in /etc/fstab would do its job when rebootingm so I mounted the new partition mauallyAnd no: no "sudo" needed; I enabled the root log-in because I was getting sick and tired of having to type in my password every time I wanted to do something more than looking at websites.
When I discovered that I could grant my user super user privileges, which would have the same effect as logging in as root, plus the option of enable automatic log-in, then I had already configured my desktop being logged in as root and I didn't want to reconfigure it all over again as "regular" user, so I still log in as root but some day I will switch back to my original username with super user privileges, so I skip even typing in "root" and "rootpswd", but that's another story, though I've already told it.
Anyhow, when I hit Enter after tyoing in the mount code line, I got the output ...I'M Ħµ***ñç NOT, YOU MOŦĦ€®Ħ****ER !!!
Are you kidding me or what? (I actually said that to the computer, then I realized why I'm not in therapy: I'm afraid of what might come out)

Let's summarize this again: the first partition on the second hard drive should be hdb2.
No, actually, it *should* not be: IT IS !
Well, the machine says that there's no hda2, which incidentally makes my brand new fstab line quite useless...

Then I tried a different approach: instead of trying to guess what the partition should be called, I decided to let Linux mount *automatically*mount*all*the*available*partitions*
And that's one of the many reasons why everybody should have always at hand at least one Linux liveCD (I have four of those)
I booted from a Slax liveCD, logged in and checked it out.
My partition was being mysteriously named /dev/hdb3.

OK, that solved the mystery of the disappearing partition; I changed the line in /etc/fstab to make it point to /dev/hdb3 and mount to/hdb3 and everithing is up and running, but the big question is:
*Why* is that partition being called "hdb3" when it is obvious that it should be called "hdb2"?
"It's because you resized and made a partition between two existing ones" is not an answer: it doesnt explain why have a "3" following a "1", instead of the more appropriate "2".

That's the question:
Why is it called hdb3, and not hdb2?
(and when making one primary, one swap and one logical, as on my hda, why do I get hda1 as the primary and then hda6 as logical? Where are hda2 and hda3?
Counting the swapspace and the extended partition we have: hda1 primary, hda4 extended, hda5 swap logical and hda6 logical. No hda2 and hda3.

The good part is that when I made the new partition it tok an empty place in the line and didn't need to change the numbers of the partition coming after, which is good and probably planned, but I still woulld like to have my partition numerically ordered and with no "jumps": hda1 hda2 hda3 and so on
And by the way, I've never understood what that BTW acronym stands for.
(the last line is said to have been seriously posted on a forum)

Open a console and run:

$ sudo fdisk -l

and post the output here. If you made a root account, you can just su to root and run the above. This will print out all partitions recognized by your system, whether mounted or not and should give the info needed to answer your questions.

Re hda. The first logical drive is always hda5; hda1 through 4 are reserved for the primary partitions. So even if your extended partition was on hda2, as I suspect it is, the first logical drive will be hda5, even though there is no hda3 or hda4. The fdisk output will show this very clearly.

OK, I'm going to do that and post the output in a little while, in the meantime; if the first logical is always hd(x)5 than you cant have more than 3 primary partition, therefore the firest logical is probably *at least* hdx5, or there is actually an upper limit at three primaries?
Well, I could just get the answer by experimenting, and maybe I will.
OK, I'll be back in a while for the fdisk output
oh,and by the way, I am *always* logged in as root because I hate to get "permission denied" messages, it reminds me of my failures with women :-)

OK, I got it.
A simple look at the fdisk-l output made all clear, thanks for the hint.
Before I made the new Linux Ext3 partition, hdb was divided into one primary Ext3 and one extended partition with the swap and a fat32 file storage partition, which made the extended partition hdb2, the swap space hdb5 because it's always 5 as you said before, and the file storage partition became hdb6.
I *resized* the existing partition, not deleted them, to make space for the new one, therefore the extended partition hdb2 *stayed*hdb2*; the first logical is still always 5,which makes the new partition hdb3, of course (and I feel like the biggest moron in the northern emisphere for not figuring that out by myself)
Here comes the fdisk -l output, look at hdb
(I guess next time I should think a little more before I post)

You are limited to 4 primary partitions. Logical drives were devised to get around this limitation. To make a logical drive, you need to make an extended partition which takes up one of your primary partitions. However, one extended partition can hold a virtually unlimited number of logical drives. It's not really unlimited, but it's so many, you would never run out of logical drives if you want to keep creating them. The extended partition acts like a place holder for all your logical drives on the hard drive.
It's a little confusing but the fdisk output usually makes things pretty clear for people.

Yes, the extended partition is primary, I know that, but I never realized that logical partitions were invented to overcome some limitations, so now I know that the first logical drive is *always* hdx5, and ot *at least* 5 as I tought.
As they say "You never stop learning" is actually true.
thank you.