I cannot, for love or money, build a filesystem on my second hard disk. Here is the output from fdisk -l:
# fdisk -l
===================================================================
Disk /dev/sda: 40.0 GB, 40020664320 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 4865 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00029c25

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 1 25 200781 83 Linux
/dev/sda2 26 4865 38877300 8e Linux LVM

Disk /dev/sdb: 300.0 GB, 300069052416 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 36481 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xffffffff

Disk /dev/sdb doesn't contain a valid partition table

Disk /dev/dm-0: 338.6 GB, 338698436608 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 41177 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00000000

Disk /dev/dm-0 doesn't contain a valid partition table

Disk /dev/dm-1: 1073 MB, 1073741824 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 130 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x30307800

Disk /dev/dm-1 doesn't contain a valid partition table

===================================================================
When I run mkfs.ext3 /dev/sdb1
mke2fs 1.40.4 (31-Dec-2007)
/dev/sdb1 is apparently in use by the system; will not make a filesystem here!

I have tried using gparted, every variant of the fdisk command I can think of, and still there is some process that has a lock on /dev/sdb and I cannot build a filesystem on it.

lsof /dev/sdb1 returns nothing.

I have turned of the automounter, and looked through the process table and there is nothing apparently running that is accessing it.

I have even tried to vgreduce the disk from the volume group.
I've tried pvcreate, pvmove, and pvremove.
===================================================================
Here is the output of vgdisplay -v VolGroup00

Using volume group(s) on command line
Finding volume group "VolGroup00"
--- Volume group ---
VG Name VolGroup00
System ID
Format lvm2
Metadata Areas 2
Metadata Sequence No 3
VG Access read/write
VG Status resizable
MAX LV 0
Cur LV 2
Open LV 2
Max PV 0
Cur PV 2
Act PV 2
VG Size 316.50 GB
PE Size 32.00 MB
Total PE 10128
Alloc PE / Size 10126 / 316.44 GB
Free PE / Size 2 / 64.00 MB
VG UUID pY4sUu-FYUH-cvGk-mVd1-ef2g-D1SN-AoaT6Z

--- Logical volume ---
LV Name /dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00
VG Name VolGroup00
LV UUID AwEgSy-baAD-ixnq-wP23-Cm1D-0jJk-QAv6Ev
LV Write Access read/write
LV Status available
# open 1
LV Size 315.44 GB
Current LE 10094
Segments 2
Allocation inherit
Read ahead sectors 0
Block device 253:0

--- Logical volume ---
LV Name /dev/VolGroup00/LogVol01
VG Name VolGroup00
LV UUID 3rqvUF-hXZd-0ssk-lS6Y-6AEP-Cmy8-E6Mjv2
LV Write Access read/write
LV Status available
# open 1
LV Size 1.00 GB
Current LE 32
Segments 1
Allocation inherit
Read ahead sectors 0
Block device 253:1

--- Physical volumes ---
PV Name /dev/sdb1
PV UUID tqgfyY-eq1Y-LZyg-Wx5n-uSPL-L8bR-GGqk00
PV Status allocatable
Total PE / Free PE 8942 / 0

PV Name /dev/sda2
PV UUID 2F1dIW-8B07-GDjz-yxAB-gl0E-q0Mf-YPWCoC
PV Status allocatable
Total PE / Free PE 1186 / 2
===================================================================

So /dev/sdb1 is part of the volume group, but I cannot vgreduce it out.
The error is " Physical volume "/dev/sdb1" still in use"

So somewhere, some process has a lock on this disk. And nothing I am doing can override the lock. Can anyone advise me as to how to unlock the damn thing? I guess I can boot off the rescue disk. Is that the only recourse left?


Thanks in advance.
Geekasaurus

You have to build a partition before you file system on it (same as in windows).

As I said: I used fdisk, gparted and every disk partitioning tool available. The disk was held locked by the volume group and nothing I could do would unlock it. Evendently, Linux LVM is designed to seize disks and never allow them to be used for anything productive.

I ended up flattening the box...twice. The second time, I disconnected the IDE cable from the second hard disk while installing the OS and overwriting everything. After the 2 hour wait for all the patches to install, I rebooted it again from the Rescue CD. I then partitioned the disk, made an ext3 filesystem on it, then edited /etc/fstab. After rebooting again, the drive mounted as I wanted it to and everything was groovy.

Installing FC8 was the biggest pain-in-the-nether regions I've had the displeasure of in a long, long time. Maybe Win95 compares. I spent the first week just trying to get jigdo to work on my WinXP system, so I could get the ISO's to download. I eventually gave up and was able to make jigdo work on my laptop. I then tried to burn the CD's with the burner in my laptop....HUGE mistake. I probably burned 20 disks trying to make disks 1, 2, and 3. The installation would start, then hang while installing some package (a different package every time). I eventually network-shared the ISO's over to my desktop system, and used the burner there. The first several times I burned the CD's at the rated speed of 4x, and even with read-after-write confirmation, could not get a set of CD's to load. Eventually, I slowed it down to 1x speed, with read-after-write confirmation. Finally I was able to create 3 disks that would load the OS.

Then this disk problem occurred because I accepted the defaults. The LVM would not permit me to create logical volumes. I could not remove the disk, I could do nothing with the 2nd disk.

However, now that the damn thing is up and running, I've already started to configure the applications I wanted to. Streamripper is very cool. My ultimate goal is to convert it into a MIDI sound module.

My estimate is that I have spent over 100 hours of my time installing FC8. I am NOT a happy camper.