Can one now help?

[Parshwa Murdia]

> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> From: Marko Vojinovic <vvmarko at gmail.com>
> To: users at lists.fedoraproject.org
> 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 at gmail.com>
> To: vmarko at ipb.ac.rs, Community support for Fedora users <
> users at lists.fedoraproject.org>
> 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 at gmail.com>
> To: users at lists.fedoraproject.org
> 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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