On Thursday 21 February 2008 04:53:38 pm Ian C. Blenke wrote:
> Bob Stia wrote:
> >Thanks to all who answered. Figured that was so. Reason I asked is that in
> >SUSE 10.3 They are loading libata drivers as default. This limits the
> >partitions to 15. If I want to load the IDE drivers I have to say so at
> > boot. I was wondering if the SATA drive would act the same as the IDE
> > drives. Hence my question.
>
> This isn't a libata thing, this is a sdmod (scsi disk module) thing vs
> an ide block device thing.
>
> Look at your /dev/ tree for hda and hdb:
>
> # ls -la /dev/hda
> brw-rw---- 1 root disk 3, 0 Mar 14 2002 /dev/hda
> # ls -la /dev/hdb
> brw-rw---- 1 root disk 3, 64 Mar 14 2002 /dev/hdb
>
> Notice how the minor number jumps from 0 to 64.
>
> This would allow /dev/hda1 through /dev/hda63, and /dev/hdb1 through
> /dev/hdb63, etc.
>
> Now do the same for sda and sdb:
>
> # ls -la /dev/sda
> brw-rw---- 1 root disk 8, 0 2002-03-14 16:51 /dev/sda
> # ls -la /dev/sdb
> brw-rw---- 1 root disk 8, 16 2002-03-14 16:51 /dev/sdb
>
> Notice how the minor number jumps from 0 to 16.
>
> This effectively means that you _are_ limited to 15 partitions:
> /dev/sda1 through /dev/sda15.
>
> This is a holdover from major/minor device assignment decisions made a
> long time ago primarily to allow 4 IDE drives with the IDE block device
> driver using only one major number, and to allow 15 IDE drives with the
> SCSI block device driver using only one major number.
>
> This is not a _partitioning_ limitation, it's a _block device driver_
> limitation.
>
> With the advent of dynamic udev device allocation, and the growth of
> major numbers beyond an 8bit value, things become a bit more interesting.
>
> As for partitioning: There are many different kinds of partitioning.
>
> MBR partitioning with primary and extended partitions are just the kind
> of partitioning you're currently used to.
>
> GPT (GUID Partition Table) is the latest craze for Vista and 2008, but
> there are other kinds of partitioning like Solaris partitioning that
> exist out there that you might want to be aware of as well.
>
> I hope this helps clear things up.
>
Thanks Ian, for the very comprehensive explanation. I guess that means any
SATA drive is limited to 15 partitions if I am understanding you correctly.
FYI Ihave two smaller IDE drives and one SATA drive running on my box. They
were hda, hdb, and sda. When I installed SUSE 10.3 they used the libata
scheme as default. The installer maintained sda and converted hda to sdb and
hdb to sdc. Luckily, I think, I had less than 15 partitions on hda and hdb.
When I installed 10.3 I used half the disk but 13 partitions. Now I have
125GB of free space on sda but only two partitions left.
SUSE also allows the PATA scheme by entering a command at boot, but if I
understand you, that won't help me with the partition problem.
I will check out what you told me about other partitioning schemes for a new
4th SATA disk but I don't think the SUSE 11.0 will work with something else.
Thanks again,
Bob S
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