Re: [SLUG] boot partition

From: Eben King (eben1@tampabay.rr.com)
Date: Mon Aug 02 2004 - 16:44:08 EDT


On Mon, 2 Aug 2004, Robert Snyder wrote:

> Chad Perrin wrote:
>
> > I have a machine that was set to dual-boot.
> >
> > hda1 was Windows
> > hda2 is swap
> > hda3 is Linux
> >
> > I've removed hda1 from lilo.conf and now it only boots to Linux, and
> > doesn't ask if I want to boot to anything else. I have no intention
> > of using Windows on this thing. fdisk tells me that hda1 is the boot
> > partition.
> >
> > Would mkfs hda1 destroy the laptop's ability to boot? I'd like to
> > change the filesystem, get rid of all Windows files, and mount the
> > thing as my /home directory. Since it's the boot partition, though, I
> > worry that doing so would cause problems for booting.
> >
> It should work just fine. the lilo probably (hopefully installed ) in
> your MBR ( Master Boot Record) on /hda so it should be able to safely
> delete hda1 with out any problems

As soon as you delete hda1, fdisk (or whoever) will renumber hda2 and hda3
to hda1 and hda2. The new partition, in the space formerly occupied by
hda1, will be hda3. You'd have to change fstab and lilo.conf . A better
option (IMO) would be not to delete and recreate it, but rather to change
its type using fdisk, then (or prior) mkfs'ing it.

There's a "renumber partitions" option in fdisk that may eliminate that
problem, but I haven't used it,

-- 
I firmly believed we should not march into Baghdad ...To occupy Iraq would
instantly shatter our coalition, turning the whole Arab world against us and
make a broken tyrant, into a latter-day Arab hero assigning young soldiers
to a fruitless hunt for a securely entrenched dictator [.] - George Bush Sr.

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