Gregory Hosler <ghosler <at> redhat.com> writes: > ... Hi, FYI. This is from the dev team member. From: Karel Zak <kzak@...> Subject: Re: cfdisk - logical partition Newsgroups: gmane.linux.utilities.util-linux-ng Date: 2010-08-06 13:18:37 GMT (35 minutes ago) On Fri, Aug 06, 2010 at 01:26:27PM +0200, J B wrote: > Example 1. > ========== > The last item (Free space) is "logical" > > Logical 192425984* 192426569 0 586*Free Space > None > > but clearly outside of extended partition's range. This is feature. The free space around extended partition is always marked as logical if the number of all partitions is greater than 4 (it means you cannot create a primary partition). Don't forget that cfdisk allows to create logical or primary partitions only. The extended partition is created/modified automatically for all logical partitions. The extended partition is completely hidden in the default output (interactive mode). > 4 Primary 105076736* 192425983* 0 87349248*Extended (05) > None > > Should it be "None" like the Unusable partition between 3 and 2 ? I don't think so. > Is that space mapped ("logical") or not ? cfdisk is able to use the free space for logical partitions only. From partition table point of view the space is invisible. > Will an installer (e.g. anaconda which uses parted) know about it ? I don't know (try to use parted, you will see) ... it depends on libparted. I think that smart partitioning tool should be able to detect gaps in layout and reuse the free space. > Example 2. > ========== > One more "rule to follow" with regard to partitions: > http://www.lissot.net/partition/partition-03.html > ... > Unlike primary partitions, logical partitions must be contiguous. > Each logical partition contains a pointer to the next logical partition, ... > > Between partitions 2 and 4 there is a free space marked as "logical". > > Logical 219463964* 219463964 0 1*Free Space > None > > It is clearly outside of the Extended partition range. that's the same situation like in your Example 1. > How comes it is called "logical" if it violates the rule of contiguousness ? No, cfdisk will update the first sector of the extended partition if you create a logical partition from the free space. The final ext partition will be contiguous. > # cfdisk -Ps > Partition Table for /dev/sda > > First Last > # Type Sector Sector Offset Length Filesystem Type (ID) > Flag > -- ------- ----------- ----------- ------ ----------- -------------------- ---- > 1 Primary 0 128519 63 128520 Dell Utility (DE) > None > 2 Primary 128520 219463963* 0 219335444*HPFS/NTFS (07) > Boot > Logical 219463964* 219463964 0 1*Free Space > None > 4 Primary 219463965 615401954 0 395937990 W95 Ext'd (LBA) (0F) > None > 5 Logical 219463965 223672994 63 4209030 Linux swap / So (82) > None > 6 Logical 223672995 265618709 63 41945715 Linux (83) > Boot > 7 Logical 265618710 615401954 63 349783245 Linux (83) > None > 3 Primary 615401955 625137344 0 9735390 CP/M / CTOS / . (DB) > None > Example 3. > ========== > This example is by Michael Schwendt <mschwendt <at> gmail.com> . > These are his comments. > > You might want to examine the cfdisk source code to find out. cfdisk does > not claim it would be a valid partition. It just prints a partition type > for the free space, and that already could be a bug. Happens here, too: > > First Last > # Type Sector Sector Offset Length Filesystem Type (ID) Flag > -- ------- ----------- ----------- ------ ----------- -------------------- ---- > 1 Primary 0 390625* 1# 390626*Linux (83) Boot > 2 Primary 390626* 781250* 0 390625*Linux (83) None > 3 Primary 781251* 39062500* 0 38281250*Linux (83) None > Logical 39062501* 39070079 0 7579*Free Space None this is correct, you cannot create a primary partition (all positions are used) and the space is possible to add to the existing extended partition (part 4.) > 4 Primary 39070080 976768064 0 937697985 W95 Ext'd (LBA) (0F) None > 5 Logical 39070080 78124094 63 39054015 Linux (83) None > 6 Logical 78124095 117194174 63 39070080 Linux (83) None > 7 Logical 117194175 156248189 63 39054015 Linux (83) None > 8 Logical 156248190 195318269 63 39070080 Linux (83) None > 9 Logical 195318270 203125859 63 7807590 Linux swap / So (82) None > 10 Logical 203125860 976768064 63 773642205 Linux LVM > (8E) None Karel -- Karel Zak <kzak@...> http://karelzak.blogspot.com -- To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe util-linux-ng" in the body of a message to majordomo@... More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html JB -- users mailing list users@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx To unsubscribe or change subscription options: https://admin.fedoraproject.org/mailman/listinfo/users Guidelines: http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Mailing_list_guidelines