Partitioning help please

[Cool Javelin]

I am trying to convert my file systems to ext4 on Ubuntu 8.10 text only sustem (No GParted)

Using parted:


(parted) mkpart primary ext4 0 100%
(parted) print
Model: ATA Maxtor 92739U6 (scsi)
Disk /dev/sda: 27.4GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: msdos

Number Start End Size Type File system Flags
1 512B 27.4GB 27.4GB primary ext4


First question, where it says msdos, What's that about? Is it OK or do I need to do something about it?

After quitting parted, I did and get:


~$ sudo mke2fs -T ext4 /dev/sda1
mke2fs 1.41.11 (14-Mar-2010)
Filesystem label=
OS type: Linux
Block size=4096 (log=2)
Fragment size=4096 (log=2)
Stride=0 blocks, Stripe width=0 blocks
1672800 inodes, 6688709 blocks
334435 blocks (5.00%) reserved for the super user
First data block=0
Maximum filesystem blocks=0
205 block groups
32768 blocks per group, 32768 fragments per group
8160 inodes per group
Superblock backups stored on blocks:
32768, 98304, 163840, 229376, 294912, 819200, 884736, 1605632, 2654208,
4096000

Writing inode tables: done
Creating journal (32768 blocks): done
Writing superblocks and filesystem accounting information: done

This filesystem will be automatically checked every 39 mounts or
180 days, whichever comes first. Use tune2fs -c or -i to override.


So far, so good, but the results of:


~$ blkid
/dev/sda1: UUID="74106219-ab42-46d7-a14a-0374aeb9faa0" TYPE="ext2"

Note it reports ext2.

Second, (and much more important) question, What's wrong, and how do I fix it?

Thanks, Mark.

[dino99]

sorry i've never used parted, but your issue seems to be due of using mkpart instead of mkpartfs

http://www.thegeekstuff.com/2011/09/parted-command-examples/

http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/handbook/handbook-x86.xml?chap=4&part=1

[prshah]

I am trying to convert my file systems to ext4 on Ubuntu 8.10 text only sustem (No GParted)

Second, (and much more important) question, What's wrong, and how do I fix it?

ext4 default support is built in from 9.10 onwards. I suspect that using 8.10 is the problem. I suggest that you upgrade. EOL for 8.10 was in April 2010.

ext4 is backwards compatible with ext2 and ext3. So you won't get any errors, but you will lose the important journalling capabilities of ext4.

[coffeecat]

Just to pick this point up:



Partition Table: msdos

...

First question, where it says msdos, What's that about? Is it OK or do I need to do something about it?

You have an MBR partition table which parted refers to as an msdos partition table. That's quite OK.

[Cool Javelin]

Thanks coffeecat:
I thought it might be the MBR and I will probably leave it. It would be nice to know what tools I would use to alter it for education purposes.
----
dino99:
I did try mkpartfs and parted complained that ext4 (and ext3 too for that matter) were not recognized.

I will look into the links you suggested when my mind stops spinning from all the honeydo jobs I am doing today.
----
prshah:
So, you are suggesting 8.10 cannot create ext4, OK, I will follow for a moment.

Another note I should have added, I do have other drives on the system, (4 in all) 2 of the others are NTFS, and the third is ext3.

Because ext2 doesn't have the journalling stuff, I would assume it would be overall faster then ext3. But, I read that ext4 may be faster then either ext2 or ext3 (the reason I wanted to go with ext4)

I don't remember how I got the one drive to be ext3. Maybe Gparted (on the live CD) does support ext3. I haven't tried to boot the live CD yet to verify.

Obviously, the 2 NTFS's came from a Windows machine.
----
OK, I must be going batty. I just looked again, and parted and blkid agree that the partition is ext4.
----
prshah, thanks for pointing out the lack of support for the later systems in 8.10. I need to do more research to see if it is worth using ext3 or ext4, of if I should simply stay with ext2.
----
I guess I am good to go, so in a day or so, I will mark this as solved, but I don't know what happened. Thanks for all your help.
----
Just for something to read:


~$ blkid
/dev/sdb1: LABEL="LEGOLAS_40G" UUID="8824C64B24C63BC6" TYPE="ntfs"
/dev/sdc1: UUID="7049bc4e-e877-426e-81bc-37d8c5b43b93" TYPE="ext3"
/dev/sdc5: UUID="f226c457-8da7-4411-b971-18a14e161d6e" TYPE="swap"
/dev/sdd1: LABEL="LEGOLAS_80G" UUID="9C0CED510CED274C" TYPE="ntfs"
/dev/sda1: UUID="80d9c8c1-a5ec-46f1-b0da-47f2a62736cb" TYPE="ext4"

and df

~$ df
Filesystem 1K-blocks Used Available Use% Mounted on
/dev/sdc1 13784152 1401388 11682556 11% /
none 120288 232 120056 1% /dev
none 124496 0 124496 0% /dev/shm
none 124496 524 123972 1% /var/run
none 124496 0 124496 0% /var/lock
none 124496 0 124496 0% /lib/init/rw
none 13784152 1401388 11682556 11% /var/lib/ureadahead/debugfs
/dev/sdb1 39086112 27764072 11322040 72% /40G
/dev/sdd1 78148160 10568628 67579532 14% /80G
/dev/sda1 26334864 176064 24821060 1% /25G

and parted

:~$ sudo parted
GNU Parted 2.2
Using /dev/sda
Welcome to GNU Parted! Type 'help' to view a list of commands.
(parted) print
Model: ATA Maxtor 92739U6 (scsi)
Disk /dev/sda: 27.4GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: msdos

Number Start End Size Type File system Flags
1 512B 27.4GB 27.4GB primary ext4

(parted)