When I try to add a partition for LFS with cfdisk I get the response "cannot create logical drive here-would create two extended partitions"
My drive looks like this
hda1 boot primary win 95 fat 32(LBA) 4491(MB)
hda5 logical Linux ext2 254
hda6 logical Linux swap 411
hda7 logical Linux ext2 1357
hda8 logical Linux ext2 1044
hda9 logical Linux ext2 1044
hda3 Primary Linux ext2 / 4194
hda4 Primary Linux swap 82
Logical Free 27135

This computer is triple booting Mandrake 8.0, redahat 7.1 and windows using lilo. I am in Redhat 7.1 using cfdisk but had the same problem when in mandrake. Selected free partition, new,beggining and got the above results.
I don't have partition magic. I am hopeful someone could help me in getting past this point so I can get started with LFS. What, how can I add a partition?

Hi smitty,

The problem is that you can't have more logical partions, because you already have 3 primary partitions and a logical one.

The sun of these partitions can't exceed 4, so you will have to remove one of the then to create another.

Another thing, you don't need more than one swap partitions.

Tip: if you were using LVM, it would be easier to fix that, so next time ...

Thanks for the response. I get around pretty good with linux but really want to do LFS. I have got past the drive part and am stuck on installing bash. I was doing it in mandrake 9.0 and using 2.0 Gbytes of /mnt/LFS. I dont have the ncurses stuff referred to in 3.3 chapter 5 and it is extremely vague to me. I cant find the ncurses stuff either. I wish people would be a bit more step-by-step for newbies and try to remember just how much trouble they had when first starting.
For example to state something like "install ncurses" doesn't inform a newbie how to do it.
Something a bit more step-by-step would
1. Check to see if your distro has ncurses(tell them how to do it)
2. if not, get ncurses here http://www.somesite.com(put it in /usr/local/sbin for example)
3. do this tar xvf ncurses.tar.gz or something similar
so on so on so on
Not ranting but if a useable distro for LFS doesn't install with ncurses there should be a link to find it. The goal for LFS is to learn linux and not to spend hours trying to find files. I have almost given up on doing it due to the vagueness of just what to do next. There seems to be an awful lot of assumptions made and most people doing it are newbies. I know the mailing list is huge compared to others and if the directions in the book were a little more elementary and step-by-step theis list would diminish greatly.
I would suggest the writers of LFS book 3.3 and others put a newbie in front of a computer and see if they can do it. If not it is the fault of the writers and not the people attempting to do it.
Anyways sorry for running on. I just want to do this so very bad and can't seem to get past what is obvious for most.
Steve

Are you sure that you don't have ncurses? It seems like mandrake would have that. check in /usr/local/lib for the files too. if that doesn't work, do "updatedb" to make a database of all of the files on your system. then do "locate libcurses" or locate libncurses" and you will probably get something. If not, isn't mandrake an rpm-based distro? You will probably be able to find the "ncurses-dev" rpm package on one of the cd's or somewhere on a mandrake ftp site. let us know how it turns out. The rest of the book is really step-by-step (I built my latest one by doing copy and paste straight from the book to the command line)

EDIT:

the "put package here" stuff is just part of getting used to linux. It's a basic operation that you are going to have to learn.... which is why you are doing lfs, right?

if you download something, you usually have an option to save it in a particular directory. if you want to move it, do "mv <source> <destination>", or copy it "cp <source> <destination>" for example, if i have a file in /root and I want it in /usr/src/sources, i'll do this:

mv /root/file /usr/src/sources/

now, the "tar -zxvf <file.tar.gz>" is another one you are just going to have to learn. gzip is a program that compresses/decpompresses files, and tar kindof does the same, but it will do it to a folder w/ stuff in it. the "tar -zxvf <file.tar.gz>" will unpack both the gzip and the tar. and give you the folder which the sources are in. when you install something like bash, you need to change into the directory you just unpacked (ex: cd /usr/src/sources/bash-xx) and then type in exactly what the book says... that's all there is to it.

if you have a <file.tar.bz2> file, do "tar -jxvf <file.tar.bz2>", the only difference being the "j" instead of "z". If this is too much, to unpack a .bz2 file, do "bzcat <file.tar.bz2> | tar -xv".... just like it says in the book.

so basically, other than the ncurses thing, you need to know three basic commands:

cp --> copy a file (cp <from> <to>)
mv ---> move a file (mv <from> <to>) *** also used to rename files
tar -jxvf <file.tar.bz2>
tar -zxvf <file.tar.gz>

It does take a lot of reading to start to become comfortable with all of this, but that's how you learn. isn't that your reason for going through LFS?

good luck

-Adam

P.S.- the (partial) goal for lfs IS to spend those hours looking for files, then when you're done, you realize that there was a much easier, faster way to do it.... and you've just learned something.

for instance:

to see if you have ncurses in /usr/local/lib, try this:

ls /usr/local/lib | grep curses

that will list all the files in /usr/local/lib, then send that output to grep, which only lets through files which match the string "curses"

I did as you suggested for curses and have libncurses.so files in /lib and in /usr/lib and in /mnt/lfs but the files all end in .so not .a as this paragraph states.
I have no libcurses.a or .so files anywhere
"Before you attempt to install Bash, you have to check to make sure your distribution has the /usr/lib/libcurses.a and /usr/lib/libncurses.a files. If your host distribution is an LFS system, all files will be present if you followed the instructions of the book version you read exactly."
Which if I a to do as this paragraph states "exactly" I should have libncurses.a NOT libncurses.so. I can't find libncurses.a at all. The internet was a wash as well.
So I am now stuck for days now looking for this file maybe someone could help me get it or am I reading the paragraph wrong.
I have in /mnt/lfs a ncurses-5.2.tar/gz and when I unzipped and untarred it there is no .a files at all only .so
Steve

I just rebooted the computer and went to redhat 7.1 and in /usr/lib there are both the lincurses.a and libcurses.so files also the libncurses.a and .so files. Mandrake doesn't have them there only .so files.
steve

cool, so now you can just build the LFS from redhat. I'm not sure if the .so files that are in mandrake are all that you will need, but it's best to be safe.... just use r.h. The ncurses package that you unpacked from the LFS sources hasn't been compiled yet, so that wouldn't have all of the files that you need.

Anywase, good luck with all of it. If you run into any problems, post a question (in another thread). This site is a very good resource for help.