View Full Version : [ubuntu] How to find / partition?
raymondvillain
June 7th, 2009, 06:30 PM
Upgrade to Jaunty caused many problems, so I'm installing Jaunty from the live CD.
I want to keep my partitions the same, so I use the manual feature on the installation screen.
The next step requires me to identify the / partition. When I first installed Ubuntu, I did not write anything down.
Is there a way I can figure out (from a terminal window, perhaps?) which device (e.g. /dev/sdc6?) contains the / partition?
Using Applications>accessories>disk usage analyzer I can see the size of / and from that guess that it is a certain /dev/sdc6 (the size of which is given from the command sudo fdisk -l), but this seems risky to me.
On the other hand, when I tried installing from the live CD, the partition screen showed one partition (/dev/sdc12) with the label "Ubuntu 9.04". I imagine that must be because Jaunty already resides on my system. Does this mean that this is the / partition? The one labeled Ubuntu 9.04?
Any and all suggestions will be greatly appreciated.
raymondvillain
June 7th, 2009, 07:24 PM
Eureka!
To find the device on which is located the / partition, just use the df command in a terminal.
What a relief!
On my machine the first line is /dev/sdc12 and the mount column says "/" so that is worth knowing.
raymondvillain
June 7th, 2009, 10:05 PM
Went through the motions of installing Jaunty from the live CD. Tried to keep everything "as is" but reformatted the device with the / folder. Setup finished without a hitch, but when I restarted, absolutely nothing. The GRUB loader worked (it is a dual boot setup, also has Windows XP), I choose Ubuntu, hit "ENTER", and then the screen goes blank. Nothing else happens.
When I boot to the live CD, is there a way I can see the partitions, directories, files, etc. so I know they're still there?
Any hints or suggestions?
Thanks in advance from a desperate linux user.
merlinus
June 7th, 2009, 10:11 PM
After booting from the live cd, open a terminal and then post output of:
sudo fdisk -l
raymondvillain
June 7th, 2009, 10:48 PM
O. K.!
Here is the output of sudo fdisk -l:
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo fdisk -l
Disk /dev/sda: 80.0 GB, 80026361856 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 9729 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x9b5d9b5d
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 1 9728 78140128+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
Disk /dev/sdb: 160.0 GB, 160041885696 bytes
16 heads, 63 sectors/track, 310101 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 1008 * 512 = 516096 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x06fab47b
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1 1 78053 39338680+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sdb2 78054 310100 116951688 f W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/sdb5 78054 156981 39779680+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sdb6 156982 310100 77171944+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
Disk /dev/sdc: 250.0 GB, 250059350016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 30401 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x000cc719
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdc1 1 30401 244196001 5 Extended
/dev/sdc5 2610 5036 19494877+ 83 Linux
/dev/sdc6 5037 8133 24876621 83 Linux
/dev/sdc7 8134 8631 4000153+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sdc8 8632 28083 156248158+ 83 Linux
/dev/sdc9 28084 29056 7815591 83 Linux
/dev/sdc10 29057 30401 10803681 83 Linux
/dev/sdc11 1 196 1574275+ 83 Linux
/dev/sdc12 197 2609 19382391 83 Linux
Partition table entries are not in disk order
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$
merlinus
June 7th, 2009, 10:55 PM
/dev/sdc1 1 30401 244196001 5 Extended
/dev/sdc5 2610 5036 19494877+ 83 Linux
/dev/sdc6 5037 8133 24876621 83 Linux
/dev/sdc7 8134 8631 4000153+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sdc8 8632 28083 156248158+ 83 Linux
/dev/sdc9 28084 29056 7815591 83 Linux
/dev/sdc10 29057 30401 10803681 83 Linux
/dev/sdc11 1 196 1574275+ 83 Linux
/dev/sdc12 197 2609 19382391 83 Linux
It would seem that ubuntu / is on one of these linux partitions. Part of the problem is that obviously something got changed upon your reinstall. since the partitions are not in order.
Did you install / in the first partition on sdc? If so, then it appears to be sdc11.
You could manually mount sdc via the terminal in the live cd, and run
df -h
which will show what is /.
raymondvillain
June 8th, 2009, 12:50 AM
How to mount from a terminal window?
What does it mean when it says
Disk /dev/sdc12 doesn't contain a valid partition table
??
Did I make a mistake formatting?
One of the options in formatting is the partition table. I omitted that since I thought it would overwrite all my other partitions. Is that correct?
merlinus
June 8th, 2009, 01:05 AM
What does gparted show for sdc?
raymondvillain
June 8th, 2009, 01:26 AM
Gparted shows six columns: Partition, File System, Size, Used, Unused & Flags.
/dev/sdc11 ext3 1.50 Gib 103.09 MiB 1.40 GiB
/dev/sdc12 ext3 18.48 GiB 2.38 GiB 16.10 Gib
/dev/sdc5 ext3
/dev/sdc6 ext3 23.72 GiB 363.74 MiB 23.37 GiB
/dev/sdc7 linux-swap
/dev/sdc8 ext3
/dev/sdc9 ext3
/dev/sdc10 ext3
I didn't type everything in, but the sizes all make sense. The flags column has no entries.
What should I be looking for?
If I select /dev/sdc6 (with a right click) and then click on "information", it says the device is unmounted.
How should it be mounted? I mean, what are the commands from a terminal window?
merlinus
June 8th, 2009, 02:11 AM
You might try mounting this way:
sudo mount -a
If that does not work, then:
sudo mkdir /media/sdc6
sudo mount /dev/sdc6 /media/sdc6
See what happens....
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