disk partition probs - FC2 install

[Keith G. Robertson-Turner]

On Sat, 12 Jun 2004 16:22:09 +1000, Matt Rex wrote:

> I have a disk with the partitions out of order. i.e. hda5 is before hda4.
> Is this a problem? Is it possible to change the order?
> 
> FC2 fails to install, complaining about corrupt partition table. Windows
> works but the disk manager seems confused.
> 
> Is this anything to do with the geometry bug in the installer?

You don't say whether this problem existed before you attempted to install
FC2, or if it happened as a direct result of a failed install attempt.

However, this is most likely related to the extremely well publicised
issue regarding a known bug that affects all the recent 2.6 based distros.

The quick summary is that it is a combination of a bug in parted, running
the 2.6 kernel, and failing to explicitly specify LBA mode access on IDE
hard drives, in the mobo BIOS settings. AFAIK the specific issue is that
the 2.6 kernel IDE disk geometry calculation is now taken directly from a
disk query, and not from a BIOS call as with 2.4.

If you get the source trees for 2.4 and 2.6 then you can have a good look
at the changes in disk geometry handling:

diff -Nur \
   /usr/src/linux-2.4/drivers/ide/ide-geometry.c \
   /mnt/beta/usr/src/linux-2.6.5-1.358/drivers/ide/ide-generic.c

Rather than repeat the mass of documentation on the subject, I'll just
post a small selection of relevant links:

http://bugzilla.redhat.com/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=115980
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-test-list/2004-May/msg02114.html
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2004-May/msg00908.html
http://www.ces.clemson.edu/linux/fc2.html
http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-parted/2003-11/msg00051.html
http://tinyurl.com/35yyh (Google Groups)

This issue is so hot, it even got *Slashdotted*, although the OP
incorrectly attributes this problem exclusively to Fedora.

http://slashdot.org/articles/04/05/23/1448209.shtml?tid=110&tid=187

-
K.