Lost my hard drive partitions

Using applications, configuring, problems
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johnpaul013
Posts: 9
Joined: Fri 10 Dec 2010, 22:32

Lost my hard drive partitions

#1 Post by johnpaul013 »

I am running puppy 5.1.1, released Sept 2010.

I boot from flash and it sees my disk drive:
/dev/sda1 ext3 fs
/dev/sda2 ext3 fs
/dev/sda3 swap
/dev/sda4 ext3 fs

I then save my session to lupusave.3fs (ext3) and then shutdown.

Now I unplug my 160GB hard disk and plug in another 160GB hard disk.
The new disk looks as follows:
/dev/sda1 ext3 fs
/dev/sda2 swap
/dev/sda3 ext3 fs
/dev/sda4 ext3 fs

On bootup puppy fails to load the swap partition onto /dev/sda2

The funny thing is that the entries for sda1 thru sda4 disappear from /dev.
I re-create the entries manually
mknod /dev/sda1 b 8 1
mknod /dev/sda2 b 8 2
mknod /dev/sda3 b 8 3
mknod /dev/sda4 b 8 4

Then I execute : swapon /dev/sda2
Not all is ok.....
But it took me all day to figure out how to recover.
Is this a bug???
If you guys think this is a bug, then I will file a bug report.
Thanks

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Béèm
Posts: 11763
Joined: Wed 22 Nov 2006, 00:47
Location: Brussels IBM Thinkpad R40, 256MB, 20GB, WiFi ipw2100. Frugal Lin'N'Win

#2 Post by Béèm »

You are speaking about IDE/sata HDD's or USB HDD's?
The boot is done from CD?
There is no save file then?
Last edited by Béèm on Mon 10 Jan 2011, 23:22, edited 1 time in total.
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Karl Godt
Posts: 4199
Joined: Sun 20 Jun 2010, 13:52
Location: Kiel,Germany

#3 Post by Karl Godt »

The files at /dev are partly fixed. They are part of the original pup.sfs . The kernel or apps can delete or add new entries at /dev if youre plugging in some USB for example or modprobe some drivers . How it would behave without a savefile I do not know.

probepart or partprobe command does create new entries for hds at /dev

It is possible to configure a kernel with the option
Device Drivers --->
Generic Driver Options --->
[ ] Create a kernel maintained /dev tmpfs (EXPERIMENTAL) (NEW)

which would delete all inside /dev and create new as detected every boot
which is not implemented for the 2.6.30 kernel but at least at 2.6.33 and 34

PANZERKOPF
Posts: 282
Joined: Wed 16 Dec 2009, 21:38
Location: Earth

#4 Post by PANZERKOPF »

Karl Godt wrote: It is possible to configure a kernel with the option
Device Drivers --->
Generic Driver Options --->
[ ] Create a kernel maintained /dev tmpfs (EXPERIMENTAL) (NEW)
which would delete all inside /dev and create new as detected every boot
which is not implemented for the 2.6.30 kernel but at least at 2.6.33 and 34
Very interesting option.
UDEV also can run in that manner (not used in Puppy). It creates small tmpfs in RAM, mounts It on /dev and makes the device nodes.
SUUM CUIQUE.

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Karl Godt
Posts: 4199
Joined: Sun 20 Jun 2010, 13:52
Location: Kiel,Germany

#5 Post by Karl Godt »

Another point to think of :

BIOS : Hardrive AUTO instead of USER

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Aitch
Posts: 6518
Joined: Wed 04 Apr 2007, 15:57
Location: Chatham, Kent, UK

#6 Post by Aitch »

Suum cuique pulchrum est - Cicero

Is beautiful, yes? :wink:

Aitch :)

johnpaul013
Posts: 9
Joined: Fri 10 Dec 2010, 22:32

#7 Post by johnpaul013 »

OK..Now it happens all the time.
I do not see my hard drive partitions.
If I go into GParted then I see them ok.
They don't show up on my desktop.
I have to create the special nodes every time.
mknod sda1 b 8 1
mknod sda2 b 8 2
mknod sda3 b 8 3
mknod sda4 b 8 4
I think I broke something in my Linux.
Can I fix this short of creating a new puppy linux?
thanks.

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Aitch
Posts: 6518
Joined: Wed 04 Apr 2007, 15:57
Location: Chatham, Kent, UK

#8 Post by Aitch »

At the 5 second boot page, type

Code: Select all

Puppy pfix=purge
This fixes broken filesystems, usually

If it is the save file, you have to fsck it. Gparted doesn't see this file as a partition and thus can't do anything about it.

Else just forsake your savefile and make a new one....


Aitch :)

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Karl Godt
Posts: 4199
Joined: Sun 20 Jun 2010, 13:52
Location: Kiel,Germany

#9 Post by Karl Godt »

I've got the same problem now because of switching between hd and sd kernels on one full install. SATA treats the joints on the board differently then ATAPI/EIDE does .

So perhaps I'll put a function into /sbin/pup_event_frontend_d or a #!/bin/bash into /root/Startup .

My problems : Only one HD now instead of three ( removed two HDs into another box ) : SDC became HDB or SDA . And I made a 16th partition on the drive four months ago ( swap ) which is working ok but

Code: Select all

# ls -l /dev/sda16
brw-rw---- 1 root root 259, 0 2011-01-16 01:46 /dev/sda16

Code: Select all

# ls -l /dev/sdc16
b--------- 1 root root 8, 48 2010-12-13 04:17 /dev/sdc16

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