After reconfiguring partitions on a dual boot machine(W2K&RH9) with Partitionmagic8, I booted into RH9 and ran parted:

[root@Whitman /]# parted
GNU Parted 1.6.3
Copyright (C) 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
This program is free software, covered by the GNU General Public License.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the
implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License
for more details.

Using /dev/hda
Information: The operating system thinks the geometry on /dev/hda is 1247/255/63. Therefore, cylinder 1024
ends at 8032.499M.
(parted) select /dev/hda
Using /dev/hda
Information: The operating system thinks the geometry on /dev/hda is 1247/255/63. Therefore, cylinder 1024
ends at 8032.499M.
(parted) print
Disk geometry for /dev/hda: 0.000-9787.148 megabytes
Disk label type: msdos
Minor Start End Type Filesystem Flags
2 0.031 4761.452 primary fat32 boot
1 4761.453 9781.765 extended lba
5 4761.483 5765.515 logical fat32
6 5765.546 6769.577 logical fat32
7 6769.608 7773.640 logical fat32
8 7773.671 8777.702 logical fat32
9 8777.733 9781.765 logical fat32
(parted) select /dev/hdb
Using /dev/hdb
Information: The operating system thinks the geometry on /dev/hdb is 4865/255/63. Therefore, cylinder 1024
ends at 8032.499M.
(parted) print
Disk geometry for /dev/hdb: 0.000-38166.679 megabytes
Disk label type: loop
Minor Start End Filesystem Flags
1 0.000 38166.679 fat32
(parted)

My question is what does "Disk label type: loop" mean, and how did I lose the msdos label on hdb?

Alan
Th 1April2004 1pm

apparently the OS or program parted thinks that disk is an LVM or RAid PARTIOTION OR SOMETHING.

I would just format the damn thing like it should be to ext2/3 .

Something is wrong. You can't install RH9 on FAT. Or do you still have to install Linux? In that case ignore output of parted and proceed, the installation routine will let you make partitions to your heart's desire.

I don't know what the Disk Label Type is, sorry.

I am not installing anything, but rather resized certain partitions on hda & hdb with partitionmagic8. Before resizing, parted reported hdb as disk label type msdos and all partitions on hdb were reported correctly. After resizing, parted reprted as above.

Again, what does "Disk label type: loop" mean, and how did I lose the msdos label on hdb?

The label of a disk should be irrelevant, just a name. RH9 won't start form FAT32, you have to change that back to the correct value of the file system you installed originally (using fdisk or cfdisk).

The label does apparently does matter. See

http://www.gnu.org/software/parted/m...ted.html#SEC16

RH9 is not on a FAT32 partition; it's fs is ext2, and I can boot to it fine.

The problem is that parted no longer displays the correct information for hdb. And creating the proper disk label 'msdos' using the parted command 'mklabel' may make that disk unusable, as I understand it from the above link.

That's why I asked the question: What does "loop" mean? I could find no reference to the term in the manual above or with a google search.

Okay, I followed the link (thanks ) but I don't entirely understand -- is this just a human readable form for the usual hex-codes of the partition types?...


Your output from parted in your post #1 in this thread shows otherwise

...
Using /dev/hdb
Information: The operating system thinks the geometry on /dev/hdb is 4865/255/63. Therefore, cylinder 1024
ends at 8032.499M.
(parted) print
Disk geometry for /dev/hdb: 0.000-38166.679 megabytes
Disk label type: loop
Minor Start End Filesystem Flags
1 0.000 38166.679 fat32 <<=== see this?
(parted)
...

Huh? From that very link:

...
Parted works on all partition tables. (1)
label-type must be one of these supported disk labels:
bsd
loop (raw disk access)
...

Are you using data base access? Also, maybe this version of parted has a help system (dunno myself): http://qtparted.sourceforge.net/download.en.html You might want to try it.

Have no idea.

Yes, of course. What I'm saying is that parted is returning bogus information.
Here is windoze diskpart output for the same 2 disks:

DISKPART> list partition

Partition ### Type Size Offset
------------- ---------------- ------- -------
Partition 1 Primary 4761 MB 32 KB
Partition 2 Extended 5020 MB 4761 MB
Partition 3 Logical 1004 MB 4761 MB
Partition 4 Logical 1004 MB 5766 MB
Partition 5 Logical 1004 MB 6770 MB
Partition 6 Logical 1004 MB 7774 MB
Partition 7 Logical 1004 MB 9 GB

DISKPART> select disk=1

Disk 1 is now the selected disk.

DISKPART> list partition

Partition ### Type Size Offset
------------- ---------------- ------- -------
Partition 1 Unknown 855 MB 32 KB
Partition 2 Unknown 4001 MB 855 MB
Partition 3 Extended 32 GB 4856 MB
Partition 4 Logical 1004 MB 4856 MB
Partition 5 Logical 1004 MB 5860 MB
Partition 6 Logical 1004 MB 6864 MB
Partition 7 Logical 1004 MB 7868 MB
Partition 8 Logical 1004 MB 9 GB
Partition 9 Logical 7005 MB 10 GB
Partition 10 Logical 4761 MB 16 GB
Partition 11 Logical 4001 MB 21 GB
Partition 12 Logical 12 GB 25 GB
Partition 13 Unknown 251 MB 37 GB


RH9 resides on partition 2 above, unknown type to windoz, but a bootable ext2 RH9.

The problem is that I cannot mount drives on hdb while running RH, and that is apparently related to parted not being able to find them.

I will check docs some more, but have found nothing helpful to date.

Any other ideas?

Not necessarily related- what does fdisk (in Linux) have to say about your drive layout? Run the following command and post the output:

fdisk -l

(the " l " is a lowercase "L")

You have a very similar thread going at JustLinux; since I spend 99% of my time there, I'll follow up in that thread ASAP.

[root@Whitman root]# fdisk -l /dev/hda

Disk /dev/hda: 10.2 GB, 10262568960 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 1247 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hda1 608 1247 5140800 f Win95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/hda2 * 1 607 4875696 b Win95 FAT32
/dev/hda5 608 735 1028128+ b Win95 FAT32
/dev/hda6 736 863 1028128+ b Win95 FAT32
/dev/hda7 864 991 1028128+ b Win95 FAT32
/dev/hda8 992 1119 1028128+ b Win95 FAT32
/dev/hda9 1120 1247 1028128+ b Win95 FAT32

Partition table entries are not in disk order
[root@Whitman root]# fdisk -l /dev/hdb

Disk /dev/hdb: 40.0 GB, 40020664320 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 4865 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hdb1 620 4833 33848955 f Win95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/hdb2 110 619 4096575 83 Linux
/dev/hdb3 1 109 875511 17 Hidden HPFS/NTFS
/dev/hdb4 4834 4865 257040 82 Linux swap
/dev/hdb5 620 747 1028128+ 1b Hidden Win95 FAT32
/dev/hdb6 748 875 1028128+ 1b Hidden Win95 FAT32
/dev/hdb7 876 1003 1028128+ 1b Hidden Win95 FAT32
/dev/hdb8 1004 1131 1028128+ 1b Hidden Win95 FAT32
/dev/hdb9 1132 1259 1028128+ 1b Hidden Win95 FAT32
/dev/hdb10 1260 2152 7172991 b Win95 FAT32
/dev/hdb11 2153 2759 4875696 1b Hidden Win95 FAT32
/dev/hdb12 2760 3270 4104576 83 Linux
/dev/hdb13 3271 4833 12554766 b Win95 FAT32

Partition table entries are not in disk order

My only guess is the attribute "hidden" ... Can you "unhide" the partitions of hdb? Perhaps a new try then might bring better results...

Did you run fsck to test the integrity of the file system(s)?

An update:

I was wrong about not being able to mount hdb partitions; RH9 is hdb2 which certainly mounted when I boot it.

Here is the output of sfdisk:

[root@Whitman /]# sfdisk -l /dev/hda

Disk /dev/hda: 1247 cylinders, 255 heads, 63 sectors/track
Units = cylinders of 8225280 bytes, blocks of 1024 bytes, counting from 0

Device Boot Start End #cyls #blocks Id System
/dev/hda1 607 1246 640 5140800 f Win95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/hda2 * 0+ 606 607- 4875696 b Win95 FAT32
/dev/hda3 0 - 0 0 0 Empty
/dev/hda4 0 - 0 0 0 Empty
/dev/hda5 607+ 734 128- 1028128+ b Win95 FAT32
/dev/hda6 735+ 862 128- 1028128+ b Win95 FAT32
/dev/hda7 863+ 990 128- 1028128+ b Win95 FAT32
/dev/hda8 991+ 1118 128- 1028128+ b Win95 FAT32
/dev/hda9 1119+ 1246 128- 1028128+ b Win95 FAT32
start: (c,h,s) expected (1023,254,63) found (1023,1,1)
[root@Whitman /]# sfdisk -l /dev/hdb

Disk /dev/hdb: 4865 cylinders, 255 heads, 63 sectors/track
Units = cylinders of 8225280 bytes, blocks of 1024 bytes, counting from 0

Device Boot Start End #cyls #blocks Id System
/dev/hdb1 619 4832 4214 33848955 f Win95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/hdb2 109 618 510 4096575 83 Linux
/dev/hdb3 0+ 108 109- 875511 17 Hidden HPFS/NTFS
/dev/hdb4 4833 4864 32 257040 82 Linux swap
start: (c,h,s) expected (1023,254,63) found (1023,0,1)
/dev/hdb5 619+ 746 128- 1028128+ 1b Hidden Win95 FAT32
/dev/hdb6 747+ 874 128- 1028128+ 1b Hidden Win95 FAT32
/dev/hdb7 875+ 1002 128- 1028128+ 1b Hidden Win95 FAT32
/dev/hdb8 1003+ 1130 128- 1028128+ 1b Hidden Win95 FAT32
/dev/hdb9 1131+ 1258 128- 1028128+ 1b Hidden Win95 FAT32
start: (c,h,s) expected (1023,254,63) found (1023,1,1)
/dev/hdb10 1259+ 2151 893- 7172991 b Win95 FAT32
start: (c,h,s) expected (1023,254,63) found (1023,1,1)
/dev/hdb11 2152+ 2758 607- 4875696 1b Hidden Win95 FAT32
start: (c,h,s) expected (1023,254,63) found (1023,1,1)
/dev/hdb12 2759+ 3269 511- 4104576 83 Linux
start: (c,h,s) expected (1023,254,63) found (1023,1,1)
/dev/hdb13 3270+ 4832 1563- 12554766 b Win95 FAT32
start: (c,h,s) expected (1023,254,63) found (1023,1,1)
[root@Whitman /]#


I have a jpeg of my configuration from PartitionMagic8 taken with PrintKeys2000, but I am apparently not allowed to post attachments.

The jpeg is very helpful to visualize the configuration.

So diskpart, fdisk and sfdisk all show hdb partitions, but parted does not. It turns out that the RH9 app "Hardware Browser" doesn't either. ????

What has the PM8 resizing done that parted and hardware browser can not handle?

I still have not found out what parted "disk label type loop" means, and why after resizing that label was changed from msdos to loop.

Maybe I need to post a new thread on those questions.

Just read the last answer of post #7 of this thread...

As for the other questions -- sorry, answers (from me) are out. Did you consider contacting the authirs of parted?