I have repartitioned one of my drives that contained an NTFS partition and created a new single Linux partition using sfdisk.
I created a primary partition of type 83.

This is not the boot disk and contains none of the linux os stuff or the partitions that were created during install. However, I am having some problems.

I am not sure the type is correct. ie: 83
When sfdisk finished it didnt do a format . is this normal and should I format it and if so how!?
Lastly, the entry in the fstab was for the ntfs partition. I have changed the entry to

/dev/hde1 /mnt/lin2 ext2 defaults 0 0

but it doesnt like this. Is ext2 the correct type? and I am not even sure what 'defaults' and 0 0 do!

Any help would be greatly appriciated!

Thanks.
(major newbie but determined to get away from Windoze!!)

Zappos

Yes type 83 is the default linux partition type. After creating your partition you will need to format it using the example below after deciding to use ext2 or ext3

# from the Gentoo handbook, Preparing the disks and file systems.
http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/handboo...?part=1&chap=4

ext2 doesn't have metadata journaling, which means that routine ext2 file-system checks at startup time can be quite time-consuming.

ext3- ext3 is the journaled version of the ext2 file system, providing metadata journaling for fast recovery in addition to other enhanced journaling modes like full data and ordered data journaling. ext3 is a very good and reliable file system. It has an additional hashed b-tree indexing option that enables high performance in almost all situations. In short, ext3 is an excellent file system.


To format: (ext2) at bash prompt type ( # is comments not commands)
for ext2 type 'mke2fs /dev/hde1'
for ext3 type' mke2fs -j /dev/hde1'
#This is assuming your hard drive is listed correctly as hde1

Now then about the fstab entry assuming the hard drive is listed correctly your entry would need revised.. from Gentoo handbook, configuration file systems and Fstab..

http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/handboo...?part=1&chap=8


dev/hde1 /mnt/lin2 ext2 defaults 0 0
dev/hde1 /lin2 ext2 noatime 0 1 # /mnt is not needed

<---------- still a newbie also, learned allot installing Gentoo the handbook helped.

Excellent. Thanks Bre_Rea. That did the trick nicely.

Still not sure what the default and 0 0 numbers are about but I'll trawl through the manuals!

Thanks again. It's like learning to walk again! Still, worth it in the end me thinks.