Cannot write partitions

LinuxFrosh · 05-26-2006, 08:04 PM

This one got me stumped for a half a day!
After logging in as 'root' during the install process and running either of fdisk or cfdisk I get an unpleasant message saying I do not have permission to write any parititions...what is this all about? It allows me to lay the partitions out and everything, but when it is time to write, that message pops up again. Any ideas?

I used several linux flavors and I never saw a root account with no permission to do anything!

Thanks.

DrEwMoNeY · 05-27-2006, 05:14 PM

Is the partition mounted as read only? Just a thought.........

How is it formatted?

cwwilson721 · 05-27-2006, 05:44 PM

Also try to see if you have a bios setting for "antivirus" or "protect mbr" or "write protect", anything like that.

Also, which hdd are you trying to partition?

And, post results of

Code:

fdisk -l

LinuxFrosh · 05-28-2006, 09:50 AM

Ok the machine is at work now so can't post that info yet. I will check the bios settings tomorrow and re-post.

I am trying to partition /dev/hdb

LinuxFrosh · 05-29-2006, 08:43 AM

fdisk -l /dev/hdb
returns an error saying no parition table exists

when I run cfdisk /dev/hdb
I get that the drive was opened read only. Why is that?

Any ideas now?

LinuxFrosh · 05-29-2006, 09:02 AM

somehow my partition table got messed up and hdb is my cd-drive and nothing else works...

masonm · 05-29-2006, 11:13 AM

just run "fdisk -l" and post the results of that

LinuxFrosh · 05-29-2006, 04:30 PM

I figured it out. It did not detect SATA harddrive. Maybe there is an installer option or something but the easy way for me was to pop in an IDE hard drive and now im up and running.

and just for your info, fdisk has no output - just a blank line.

DrEwMoNeY · 05-30-2006, 08:35 PM

Ahhhhh SATA, sorry didn't even think to ask what type of HD. I think you need a kernel with SATA support (?or maybe there is a module?). I've read a few posts in here with SATA/Linux problems, or try a google search. Here's one:

http://linuxmafia.com/faq/Hardware/sata.html