Creating a filesystem to use free space on an existing filesystem
 

Hello!

I use a 250GB hard disk formatted with NTFS in the entire partition. I need to install the Solaris on existing free space. I use the Windows ver. 8 and Ubuntu, uname -a result 'Linux ubuntu 3.2.0-24-generic #39-Ubuntu SMP Mon May 21 16:52:17 UTC 2012 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux'. I managed to create a mode using mknod with major 8 and minor 19.

stat result shows

"
root@ubuntu:~# stat /dev/sda2
File: `/dev/sda2'
Size: 0 Blocks: 0 IO Block: 4096 block special file
Device: 5h/5d Inode: 60436 Links: 1 Device type: 8,13
Access: (0664/brw-rw-r--) Uid: ( 0/ root) Gid: ( 0/ root)
Access: 2012-06-04 11:25:52.563822368 +0530
Modify: 2012-06-04 11:25:52.563822368 +0530
Change: 2012-06-04 11:28:18.340545241 +0530
Birth: -
"

df result shows

"
/dev/sda2 1006728 0 1006728 0% /root/temp
"

I managed to mount the device file with tempfs

I am also able to use the directory as in copying files in and out and read and write.

The problem is that the device file does not remain on disk once I reboot.

On mounting with ext3, the filesystem I choose to use, I get

"
root@ubuntu:~# mount -t ext3 /dev/sda2 /root/temp
mount: no medium found on /dev/sda2
"

Kindly help. The /dev/disk/by-id area shows no listing for this file. So also the proc area. I find the udev system installed. Kindly help as I do not know how to proceed.

Intend to later install FreeBSD on another free space area, or maybe another partition. At present no further disk space available.

Regards.

I am confused....You say that the entire partition is formatted NTFS---where is Ubuntu installed?

You would normally create a new Linux (Unix for Solaris) partition after first re-sizing the Windows one.

And why did you create mode using mknod, what is this mode? Show us the output of 'df -h'.
And why did you mount your partition on /root/temp? Well that would never be.

Hi pixellany,

Replying to your question, I too had the doubt when first installing Ubuntu. But ubuntu has installed along with Windows using the Windows partition. Ubuntu supports NTFS. Technically it is interesting, the fact is, that I have both systems on the same partition. I use one system at a time, through the boot. I can read the Windows filesystem' files through Ubuntu and vice versa. They both share the common partition.

The lshw command reads,

ubuntu
description: Portable Computer

*-disk
description: ATA Disk
product: WDC WD2500BEVT-7
vendor: Western Digital
physical id: 0
bus info: scsi@0:0.0.0
logical name: /dev/sda
version: 11.0
serial: WD-WXE309K6C091
size: 232GiB (250GB)
capabilities: partitioned partitioned:dos
configuration: ansiversion=5 signature=1925b10f
*-volume
description: Windows NTFS volume
physical id: 1
bus info: scsi@0:0.0.0,1
logical name: /dev/sda1
logical name: /host
version: 3.1
serial: 7e09194d-4039-dd49-be82-c18bf6f0ca74
size: 232GiB
capacity: 232GiB
capabilities: primary bootable ntfs initialized
configuration: clustersize=4096 created=2010-11-09 08:48:11 filesystem=ntfs modified_by_chkdsk=true mount.fstype=fuseblk mount.options=rw,nosuid,nodev,relatime,user_id=0,group_id=0,allow_other,blksize=4096 mounted_on_nt4=true resize_log_file=true state=mounted upgrade_on_mount=true

*-serial UNCLAIMED
description: SMBus
product: 82801I (ICH9 Family) SMBus Controller
vendor: Intel Corporation
physical id: 1f.3
bus info: pci@0000:00:1f.3
version: 03
width: 64 bits
clock: 33MHz
configuration: latency=0
resources: memory:f6afbf00-f6afbfff ioport:1100(size=32)
*-scsi
physical id: 1
bus info: usb@1:5
logical name: scsi6
capabilities: emulated scsi-host
configuration: driver=usb-storage
*-disk
description: SCSI Disk
physical id: 0.0.0
bus info: scsi@6:0.0.0
logical name: /dev/sdb

Hope this information helps!

Regards.

Hi Satyaveer Arya,

I wanted to install another version of Unix in my system after the successful installation of Ubuntu on Windows. Ubuntu downloaded and installed on its own. While getting used to the linux different packages' installation, I got to read about the various installations through certain downloads. Following the iso file distribution of Solaris and FreeBSD, I got to understand the creation of device nodes and individual device file creations to accomodate the hard disk space for files. The installation of Solaris in particular asks for a device file already available as I am installing from a file downloaded onto the system in Ubuntu.

Correction it is node not mode. The result of 'df -h'.

is

Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/sda2 984M 0 984M 0% /root/temp

The /root/temp is a temporary directory.

Hope this information helps.

Regards.

That would be a wubi install - that is a special Ubuntu Windows build. It installs into a virtual disk.

This is *not* a normal Linux install, and will not support anything else. Especially Solaris or a BSD.
Free up some space (as in unallocated) and create new partition(s) for dual-boot installs.

I agree that I suspect it is a wubi installed ubuntu.

What should be possible is to shrink the C drive using windows. Allow enough room for Solaris.
Then install solaris. It may or may not require you to fix the boot loader you have.

I recommend you consider running a virtual machine then install solaris into it.

Thank you guys for posting your replies.

I am looking into the nested filesystems concept available in Linux. Using cfdisk I can allocate the free space and install another OS. As Linux has brought in varying unbelievable options(differences from earlier systems management), I am trying to work out the nested filesystems opportunity. I observe the difficulty in updating the NTFS of Windows or otherwise. Ubuntu's wubi install has probably introduced itself as an encrypted file listing. Likewise another raw file(raw as in oblique to Windows).

I would try and create an ext3 filesystem from ubuntu. Once I am able to work this, would I try to install Solaris. Since Solaris uses a device file, and if I can have a filesystem, looking forward to format it with ZFS. Sounds strange, but I will give it a try. Regards.