Kev and All the Rest of You:
WHOA! Let's regroup here...
On Thu, 3 Oct 2002, Kevin Anderson wrote:
> ... You can do it. Nobody is arguing against that. We're just saying
> that *nix has been around for better than 30 years. The recommendations
> that exist are very well tested, and well thought out. They've proven
> the test of time for decades. If you have a reason for breaking them,
> then fine, break 'em. but if there is no reason, then don't. They are
> there to make things better for you. And that's valuable, especially
> when the road is REALLY rough (like when you first start). Otherwise,
> you'll end up leaving Linux because it's too frustrating. But really it
> won't be the fault of the OS.
We're losing sight of the problem at hand, letting other, peripheral
issues lead us off the beaten path.
The issue here is NOT whether I want to partition my disk into umpteen
logical disks or my reasons for doing so, however interesting the subject
may be. The issue here is how to accomplish the fact, given that both
operating systems that I use will allow it. That's the whole reason behind
my bothering you people in the first place. I need good solid, experienced
directions on how to solve a problem, not criticisms because I'm "doing it
my way," especially when I know that, good or bad, my way is possible,
even desirable in my situation.
Along those lines, most recently I kept getting error messages to the
effect that "Special device /dev/hda## does not exist." This clued me into
the concept that maybe Linux didn't realize that the partitions existed in
spite of the fact that Window$, Linux' fdisk and Linux' Disk Druid were
able to see them and manipulate them.
So, I checked /dev for all the listing that it had for hda*. Guess what?
The highest number was hda16. That immediately suggests that the Linux
developers weren't expecting me (or anyone else for that matter) to use
more than 16 partitions on hard disk 'a.'
So, the challenge than became to determine how to make more hard drive
device definitions. A lengthy perusal of HOWTO and FAQ sites proved
fruitless. I couldn't find any blow by blow instructions for doing the
dirty deed. (There were literally thousands of such sites and I don't have
forever to read every one.) However, most sites referred to a utility,
MAKEDEV.
A lengthy search of HOWTOs and FAQs for MAKEDEV again proved largely
fruitless. There were lots, but none of them gave detailed, itemized
instructions with an example or 2.
So, I "winged it." I downloaded MAKEDEV-3.??.rpm and installed it, moved
to /dev and entered the following series of commands:
./MAKEDEV /hda17
./MAKEDEV /hda18
./MAKEDEV /hda19
./MAKEDEV /hda20
./MAKEDEV /hda21
./MAKEDEV /hda22
and BINGO! I could mount the partitions by hand and read their contents
just fine.
I haven't tried it yet after rebooting (the acid test!), but I'm pretty
sure it'll work.
At this point I would like to thank all of you, even those whose feathers
I've managed to ruffle, for all the interest and input you've offered.
Without your collective help I'd still be trying to read scrambled
messages as they flashed up the screen!
Peace, health, wisdom and wealth. Live long and prosper.
Stan Schultz
Techno-Geek wannabe
Home: (403) 230-1911
Work: (403) 220-8570
FAX: (403) 270-8928
Webpage: http://www.ucalgary.ca/~schultz
