Hey all
I am new to slackware and I am trying to install it on my computer. But I am having problems with "fdisk and "cfdisk".


Computer specs
Cpu: sempron 2600
Graphics Card: Geforce 5200fx
HDD: WD800 (western digital 80gb) IDE, Secondary Master.

After pressing "enter" at the boot screen. And selecting my correct keyboard map. I log on as "root".

When trying to use "Cfdisk" I get an error message saying "Opened disk-read - only you have no permission to write"

Fdisk gave me a different problem. It would not allow me to create a partition over "668mb" this was the maximum I could create and I could not create any other partitions.

I did the following with fdisk:
entered "fdisk" using the command "fdisk /dev/hda" and typing "n" to create a new partition, then "p" for primary and "1". I use the first cylinder (the default) by pressing enter. Then I used 81 (the max) as the last cylinder (the highest cylinder I can choose from). I pressed "P" for print and sure enough my partition is 668mb.

But I can't use all of my hdd. I cannot create another partition and I cannot make the partition bigger. Fdisk thinks that my hdd is 668mb when it is 80gb.

I have tried installing windows on my computer which uses the full 80gb and ubuntu (which did also). So I do not think it is a hardware problem.

Also I have checked the cds md5 checksums (on the slackware 10.2 cds)and they appear to all be valid.

Anyway suggestions? Thanks

Tiepo

well do u need a SATA driver for this kind of drive?

slackware might not be loading the driver required on its own

so load the kernel during boot time with SATA support and seeif this works

regards

Thanks for the quick reply masand. I have tried the sata boot by typing "sata.i" at boot. However I still get the same results.

what about other boot options

i do not have access to slackware disc right now,so i do not remeber those

there are some scsi options also i beleive

regards

Does your BIOS setup for your IDE hard drive follow the slackware.com install recommendations?

If your drive is secondary master, i suppose you shuold try
cfdisk /dev/hdc
the "secondary master" means its PATA-drive, so there is no reason to use sata.i

Yes thankyou BerzinTehvs
This works. I cant beleive I didn't try this
Thanks for your help everyone.

i also cannot believe that i did not lookup to this

but what was that which eneabled u to fdisk ontp and create those small partitons

I have no idea. I have only one writeable disk device (my hdd). I guess its one of lifes mysteries

The only thing on primary master is my dvd rom drive but it doesn't have a burner or anything.

that might be the reason that u were only able to fdisk that drive in read only mode

regards

The problem is that cfdisk by default uses /dev/hda if you don't give it any arguments, so you were trying to partition your DVD-ROM; hence the size and permissions. If you're using another device location, as you learned, just give that after "cfdisk" From "man cfdisk"The read-only mode problem was the same ... the DVD-ROM is read-only, not the hard drive.

If your primary ide drive is the DVD drive, you really ought to switch the cables where they attach to the motherboard before you install.Will help later with confusion