---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Marko Vojinovic <vvmarko@xxxxxxxxx>
To: users@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Date: Mon, 19 Jul 2010 04:35:36 +0100
Subject: Re: Can one now help?
On Sunday, July 18, 2010 23:35:34 Parshwa Murdia wrote:
Ok, as an aftermath, for educational purposes :-) :
* The partition /dev/sda1 is what corresponds to the C: partition on Windows.
It is the so-called "primary" partition, and only 4 of those can exist on the
disk. They are named /dev/sda1 through /dev/sda4 in Linux.
* You don't have any more primary partitions, and /dev/sda2 is instead a so-
called "extended" partition, which is actually only a "container label" for
all other partitions that follow, which are not primary.
* The first partition contained inside the extended one is /dev/sda5 (if the
number were less than 5 it would correspond to a primary partition, and could
not be inside the extended one). This one is probably the Windows D:
partition.
* As above, /dev/sda6 and /dev/sda7 are also members of the extended
partition, and correspond to your Windows drives E: and F:. Now, somewhere in
between those letters Windows might stick the CD/DVD drives and assign its
letters differently. The CD/DVD drives are *not* listed by the above fdisk
command, and I can only guess how Windows will order its drive letters.
* The /dev/sda8 partition is also a member of the extended one, and most
probably the Fedora /boot partition, where the kernel and grub files reside.
Windows does not show a letter for that one, since it doesn't recognize Linux
partitions in general.
* Finally, the /dev/sda9 partition is again not a real partition, but again a
container like /dev/sda2 (although of quite different type). It is contained
inside /dev/sda2, and it contains yet more partitions. This container is of
LVM type, and contains all other Linux partitions (probably root and swap)
inside. These partitions are not listed by fstab.
I know it sounds complicated. And believe me, it is. That is what you get when
you mix very old standards (only four partitions allowed on the disk) with
patched technologies and new hyped ideas --- you get one primary partition,
and several of them inside LVM which is inside the extended partition which is
a bogus primary one.
Really complicated, I would have to see much and try to understand its basics.
Don't ask me how did disk partitioning evolve into such a stupid state. When
IDE disks were being standardized (long time ago), nobody dreamed that one day
you might wish to have more than 4 partitions on the disk, dual boot system
and wish to be able to resize partitions on a live disk. So they invented a
stupid and shortsighted standard which had to be patched after it became
*obviously* shortsighted...
Of course, as you already found out yourself, mounting partitions inside the
LVM container is not the same as trying to mount the LVM container itself (the
latter is bound to fail, since it is just a container, not an actual
partition...). Hence the errors.
Yes.
Although I am confused about sda8, it is type 83 (ext2/3/4), that one *should*
have worked. But nevermind now... ;-)
Oh I see.
And of course, I missed to remember that you probably have a LVM container by
default, so my original instructions didn't work as I thought they should. My
bad. But you found out what is the proper procedure for that case via google.
:-)
No probs, it happens in technology. Frankly speaking, I am a novice and a beginner, I just listen to music on Fedora and check my mails but for security reasons, and as it is better than Windows, I am using it. To learn it, it would take much much time for me at least.
Well, the fstab file is a file that contains rows and columns. Specifically, each
row must contain 6 columns. Column entries are separated with a space. So for
example, the line
tmpfs /tmp tmpfs defaults 0 0
has "tmpfs" in the first column, "/tmp" in the second, "tmpfs" in the third,
"defaults" in the fourth, and "0" in fifth and sixth. And that is ok.
Now, if you look at one of the lines you modified initially, for example:
/dev/mapper/VolGroup-lv_root / ext4 defaults, noatime, nodiratime 1 1
I am counting 7 spaces total, which means that line has 8 columns, which the
computer does not tolerate. The "defaults,", "noatime," and "nodiratime" are
distributed into three columns, when they should all be in only one (4-th
column). When you introduced extra spaces, you introduced extra columns, which
is wrong. The right line should be
/dev/mapper/VolGroup-lv_root / ext4 defaults,noatime,nodiratime 1 1
Now there are no extra columns, you have 5 spaces delimiting 6 columns total,
and the data in the 4-th column is "defaults,noatime,nodiratime", as it should
be. The computer knows how to interpret and understand this.
Too much depth, I earlier ran the commands thinking it would simply increase the bandwidth, but running with even a single mistake is really troublesome.
If you want to read more about the structure and syntax of the fstab file, type
"man fstab" in the terminal, and read on.
The "man" command stands for "manual", and gives you usage instructions for
whatever command you wish to know about. Try "man mount", "man ls", "man cd",
"man vgscan", and so on. Try even "man man", there is a manual about using the
manual. :-)
If you want to be able to use Linux with greater power, you need to be
skillful in using the terminal. Reading manual pages is the first place to
start learning. If you are very determined to learn, read "man bash".
If you are a masochist, read "man bash" twice. ;-)
Precisely. After the explanation above, it should be clear what was wrong and
why it is now correct.
Yes.
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: JD <jd1008@xxxxxxxxx>
To: vmarko@xxxxxxxxx, Community support for Fedora users <users@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Sun, 18 Jul 2010 20:48:25 -0700
Subject: Re: Can one now help?
I wonder why the fedora installer did not create a gpt partitioned disk, instead of old dos partitioning scheme.
If they might have done this, we could have asked "why the fedora installer did not create a old dos partitioning scheme, instead of a gpt partitioned disk." Every part has its own problems.
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Marko Vojinovic <vvmarko@xxxxxxxxx>
To: users@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Date: Mon, 19 Jul 2010 04:50:15 +0100
Subject: Re: Can one now help?
On Sunday, July 18, 2010 22:56:35 Christofer C. Bell wrote:
And this is *precisely* why I hate LVM being the default. While a newbie
typically has trouble to understand even the above output, and is completely
lost with the added layer of complexity of LVM, when something stupid goes
wrong it can easily become rocket science to mount and fix something inside
LVM.
For beginners, its really troublesome.
And the benefit of LVM for a newbie is next to nothing, they are hardly even
aware what LVM is and how it can be used, let alone manipulate it from a
rescue environment.
I know LVM is useful if one needs its functionality, but it is a complete
overkill as a default installation choice, IMNSHO. People who know they need
it typically know how to choose it during installation. People who don't know
about it typically don't need it. Why it is chosen by default is beyond me.
Everytime, something new they try to do, so they implemented it with LVM, I hope this may be reason.
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