Thanks, I am know about the major and minor numbers, and based on what appears in ( cat /proc/dasd/devices) listing all are correct. The major number start with 94:0 thru 94:252 then 254:0 thru 254:104 incremented by 4, with is 254:104 being device dasdcm. This covers dasd address 0750 - 07aa for 91 devices. The /etc/zipl.conf has the proper parameter in it (parameters="dasd=0750-07aa root=/dev/dasda2'), but not all of the devices appear in the /dev directory. It only shows dasda-dasdz3.
>>> [EMAIL PROTECTED] 01/06/04 08:56AM >>> Hi Mike, /dev/dasda (major 94: minor 0) is reserved three partitions on it: /dev/dasda1 (94:1), /dev/dasda2 (94:2), and /dev/dasda3 (94:3). Same scheme for all the other physical DASD --- the minor value that mod 4 returns zero on is the unit itself, the other three are its partitions -- these aren't optional. So if you have 91 physical devices, /dev/dasdcm looks correct as your last device (with its three partitions, /dev/dasdcm1, /dev/dasdcm2, and /dev/dasdcm3). But I only have 37, so what would I know? :-) Most sysadmins have their DASD units emulating 3390-3s, with a capacity of approximately 2.3 GB per unit. 91 DASD units makes for a pretty darned large system. Basic DASD unit /dev/xxxxx names never have numbers in them, their partitions always do. Vic already showed you the mknod command, and Mark (thanks again) already gave you the major:minor pairs to use for each. Nobody says you HAVE to partition your DASD (see "man fdasd"); but I've always put partition tables on mine just in case I want to split the disk up later. You can also do that with LVM, but let's just stick to the basics now since you're new. Make one partition (for example, /dev/dasda1) on each physical DASD. You're going to need to make the system decide how to mount them onto your filesystem. File /etc/fstab should have a series of "mount"-like commands (see "man mount" and "man 5 fstab") that force DASD partitions to uniquely correspond to points in your filesystem tree at which each partition will be mounted. You can then put a filesystem on each of your partitions as you please. ext3 is probably the most commonly used, but there are others available. Have a look at "man mkfs" if you want an idea of what this entails. 91 units way exceeds what most basic installation programs will format, partition, and mount up for you unless you spend hours entering in device labels & mount points during initial installation. Starting off with a jumbo system like you have is rarely a good idea if you used the standard installation program and have never done this before. My guess is that you could have as little as 1 DASD unit mounted on /, with all the other mount points on that single DASD unit. Then you'd have 1 unit in use and 90 sitting there doing nothing. File /etc/fstab will tell you. The "df" command will give you a hint what you're using, too. Your first DASD unit/partition (/dev/dasda1) should have mount points /etc, /bin, /sbin, /boot, and /lib on it, at minimum -- your "parmfile" (in /boot/zipl on SuSE) should have "root=/dev/dasda1" in it, too ... this is the device you'll IPL. If you didn't understand those last three paragraphs, keep reading very basic Linux/Unix books until you do. I have no idea _how_ new you are to all this -- I hope I haven't insulted you. IBM's ITSO website has got lots of Redbooks you can read about implementing Linux under VM, natively, or LPARed. Welcome, by the way. --Jim-- James S. Tison Senior Software Engineer TPF Laboratory / Architecture IBM Corporation "A bird in hand is safer than one overhead."
