F16's Stolen My Drive!

[bob]

Last fall, I set up a new box with a 500 gig drive, partitioning off a generous 100 gig for Mint, another 100 for Fedora and 5 gig for swap, leaving nearly 300 gig extended and unpartitioned for future use.

Mint installed as instructed onto Sda3, swap on Sda2 and Fedora was set at ext4 and installed on Sda1 and told to stay there! Well, look what's happened:

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/10_linux ###
menuentry 'Fedora (3.3.7-1.fc16.x86_64)' --class fedora --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os {
load_video
set gfxpayload=keep
insmod gzio
insmod part_msdos
insmod ext2
set root='(hd0,msdos1)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root f3140928-77d9-44e6-91bd-c681aee191f3
echo 'Loading Fedora (3.3.7-1.fc16.x86_64)'
linux /boot/vmlinuz-3.3.7-1.fc16.x86_64 root=UUID=f3140928-77d9-44e6-91bd-c681aee191f3 ro rd.md=0 rd.dm=0 rd.lvm.lv=VolGroup/lv_swap KEYTABLE=us qu
iet SYSFONT=latarcyrheb-sun16 rhgb rd.luks=0 LANG=en_US.UTF-8 nouveau.modeset=0 rd.driver.blacklist=nouveau
echo 'Loading initial ramdisk ...'
initrd /boot/initramfs-3.3.7-1.fc16.x86_64.img
}
menuentry "Linux Mint 12 64-bit, 3.0.0-13-generic (/dev/sda3) (on /dev/sda3)" --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os {
insmod part_msdos
insmod ext2
set root='(hd0,msdos3)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root 6ffd295c-8bc3-4570-83e1-7c1130d7cde2
linux /boot/vmlinuz-3.0.0-13-generic root=UUID=6ffd295c-8bc3-4570-83e1-7c1130d7cde2 ro quiet splash vt.handoff=7
initrd /boot/initrd.img-3.0.0-13-generic
}
menuentry "Fedora release 16 (Verne) (on /dev/mapper/VolGroup-lv_root)" --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os {
insmod part_msdos
insmod ext2
set root='(hd0,msdos5)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root 9f4835fd-0c2b-432f-83d7-82d265c4996f
linux /vmlinuz-3.1.0-7.fc16.i686.PAE root=/dev/dm-2
initrd /initramfs-3.1.0-7.fc16.i686.PAE.img
}

Yup, Fedora turned into a thief and stole 229 gig, locking it in LVM, not that it needed it since I still have 54 gig of ext4 remaining. Gparted Live can't unlock it or modify it to allow partitioning, so I may be temporarily stuck and unable to install any other distro (F17, for example) on the drive.

There's one instruction here: http://fedoraunity.org/Members/zcat/...-new-partition on shrinking LVM that's not exactly perfect for this situation. Anyone have a simple method?

[george_toolan]

Hmm. How or when exactly did that happen?

If you use the advanced partitioning options during installation and tell it which partition(s) to use it should stay within those partitions ;-)

[bob]

Yes, and since I installed it as Ext4, there shouldn't be LVM involved, yet...there it is. Don't think I've used LVM since maybe F3 or F4 and hated it back then.

In my previous box, there were twin 80 gig drives, which I had fully partitioned to hold 5 distros each and I always use Gparted Live to set things up prior to installation AND I always use the advanced partitioning options, but...here we are. *sigh*.

[SlowJet]

I think there may be two PV's and the second was added to the first into the VG.
If you display thiese list's I can see if you can just remove the second pv (which s/b free of used extents) from the vg.
Then you have your sda1 pv/vg/lv/ext4 Fedora.
Next you can just pvremove the second PV, may not even leave a partition there, but if it did you can change the type and/or # , size as needed.

Output of:
pvdisplay, vgdisplay, lvdisplay

SJ

[bob]

pvdisplay

-- Physical volume ---
PV Name /dev/sda6
VG Name VolGroup
PV Size 268.01 GiB / not usable 9.00 MiB
Allocatable yes (but full)
PE Size 32.00 MiB
Total PE 8576
Free PE 0
Allocated PE 8576
PV UUID TK8qr0-hv9U-00Ei-J2yP-p5Xs-rIU7-nsYAPj


vgdisplay
--- Volume group ---
VG Name VolGroup
System ID
Format lvm2
Metadata Areas 1
Metadata Sequence No 4
VG Access read/write
VG Status resizable
MAX LV 0
Cur LV 3
Open LV 1
Max PV 0
Cur PV 1
Act PV 1
VG Size 268.00 GiB
PE Size 32.00 MiB
Total PE 8576
Alloc PE / Size 8576 / 268.00 GiB
Free PE / Size 0 / 0
VG UUID SnIET3-IsTQ-bogk-ajRW-C3Mu-WvY2-4jIsLx


lvdisplay
--- Logical volume ---
LV Name /dev/VolGroup/lv_swap
VG Name VolGroup
LV UUID jYtBmO-gx9M-KXxJ-SX0T-k3DD-okdc-NNIIfX
LV Write Access read/write
LV Status available
# open 2
LV Size 4.97 GiB
Current LE 159
Segments 1
Allocation inherit
Read ahead sectors auto
- currently set to 256
Block device 253:0

--- Logical volume ---
LV Name /dev/VolGroup/lv_home
VG Name VolGroup
LV UUID lz1Mko-iQHJ-eUPI-nnUk-dsCR-0MQU-Ct8Dys
LV Write Access read/write
LV Status available
# open 0
LV Size 213.03 GiB
Current LE 6817
Segments 1
Allocation inherit
Read ahead sectors auto
- currently set to 256
Block device 253:1

--- Logical volume ---
LV Name /dev/VolGroup/lv_root
VG Name VolGroup
LV UUID 83zZhA-SryV-drH0-q1gW-bbrY-Ij1s-D348Pr
LV Write Access read/write
LV Status available
# open 0
LV Size 50.00 GiB
Current LE 1600
Segments 1
Allocation inherit
Read ahead sectors auto
- currently set to 256
Block device 253:2

[SlowJet]

Sorry,
To my best recall, that is not a default install because there is a home on a seperate lv.
And the whole system is on one PV on sda6.

Here is a default on a vgi disk
only two LV's /, and swap

VG Name
vg_ruby-23
System ID
Format lvm2
Metadata Areas 1
Metadata Sequence No 3
VG Access read/write
VG Status resizable
MAX LV 0
Cur LV 2
Open LV 2
Max PV 0
Cur PV 1
Act PV 1
VG Size 11.50 GiB
PE Size 32.00 MiB
Total PE 368
Alloc PE / Size 368 / 11.50 GiB
Free PE / Size 0 / 0
VG UUID K1bIfZ-Q17E-GoDX-tlNe-9WMJ-yaS2-2SJKqc
# lvdisplay
--- Logical volume ---
LV Path /dev/vg_ruby-23/lv_swap
LV Name lv_swap
VG Name vg_ruby-23
LV UUID FmNoJg-RAj4-yhke-9Odl-x2V7-O4jw-xmnI5l
LV Write Access read/write
LV Creation host, time Ruby-23.WinProxy, 2012-05-25 00:49:56 -0700
LV Status available
# open 2
LV Size 1.97 GiB
Current LE 63
Segments 1
Allocation inherit
Read ahead sectors auto
- currently set to 256
Block device 253:0

--- Logical volume ---
LV Path /dev/vg_ruby-23/lv_root
LV Name lv_root
VG Name vg_ruby-23
LV UUID QtgwG1-qDw1-839a-2qj1-FdzM-nB86-D2v4iE
LV Write Access read/write
LV Creation host, time Ruby-23.WinProxy, 2012-05-25 00:50:13 -0700
LV Status available
# open 1
LV Size 9.53 GiB
Current LE 305
Segments 1
Allocation inherit
Read ahead sectors auto
- currently set to 256
Block device 253:1


SJ

[bob]

Thanks anyhow, SJ.

So, then it's best to simply wipe the drive, start over and partition the whole thing. Kinda sad, since F16's been a good version for me. Also kinda sad since I have two perfectly usable 80 gig PATA drives in the attic and only one SATA.

Well, plenty of time to think all this out. Hmmmm.....

[PabloTwo]

Please note that the LVM on sda5 is using a 32 bit PAE kernel:

linux /vmlinuz-3.1.0-7.fc16.i686.PAE root=/dev/dm-2
initrd /initramfs-3.1.0-7.fc16.i686.PAE.img

and your primary F16 install is using a 64 bit kernel:

initrd /boot/initramfs-3.3.7-1.fc16.x86_64.img

Obviously, these entries are from two different F16 installs. I'm guessing you first did a F16.i686 default install on that hdd (/dev/sda) and then did a F16.x86_64 install.

[bob]

Ah...yeah....http://forums.fedoraforum.org/showthread.php?t=272377 So, the LVM is from prior install.

[PabloTwo]

You can just ignore that F16.i686 kernel entry in your grub2 menu, and feel free to use that sda5 partition for anything else you like without breaking your F16.x86_64 install. It's just that grub2's os-prober is very good at sniffing out any and all bootable Fedora kernels on the hdd's in your system.

Besides my dual-boot W7/F16.x86_64 installs on /dev/sda, I also have a dual-boot W2K/F12.i686 install on /dev/sdb. When I installed F16, grub2 found everything and put it into the grub2 menu (I can still boot into F12). And not only that, even though I did a custom partitioning when installing F16 and set up a 4GB swap partition, Anaconda saw the 2GB of swap on sdb from my F12 install and automatically included that in my swap space, for a total of 6GB of swap. Cripes!

[bob]

Well then, it seems that the simplest way is to use the Disk Utility from within F16 and format that 229 gig partition using the "GUID Partition Table Scheme" .

---------- Post added at 12:00 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:28 AM ----------

Uhhhh...Not so fast there, cowboy!

It seems that I can't change or modify that sda6 in any way, shape or form!

Attempting to format the partition with Disk Utility gives:

Error creating partition table: helper exited with exit code 1: In part_create_partition_table: device_file=/dev/dm-1, scheme=3
got it
got disk
committed to disk
BLKRRPART ioctl failed for /dev/dm-1: Invalid argument

Dropping back to Gparted Live, here's the report for sda6:

/dev/sda6
268.01 GiB
File System lvm2 pv
size: 268.01 GiB
used: 268.01 GiB (100%)
unused: 0.00b (0%)
path: /dev/sda6
status: VolGroup active
First Sector 414717952
Last Sector 976773119
Total Sectors 562055168

So, it would seem that my only option is to completely format the drive, perhaps even use a WIPE utility, and start fresh.

[PabloTwo]

/dev/sda6
268.01 GiB
File System lvm2 pv
size: 268.01 GiB
used: 268.01 GiB (100%)
unused: 0.00b (0%)
path: /dev/sda6
status: VolGroup active
First Sector 414717952
Last Sector 976773119
Total Sectors 562055168

It would seem that /dev/sda6 is active and mounted. You can't perform partition changes on a mounted partition. And I thought we were talking about /dev/sda5? Are you using default LVM on your F16.x86_64 bit install, or did you do custom partitioning without using LVM?

By default, with no Windows OS installed, F16 will use GPT partitioning scheme rather than standard MBR partitioning. Which of the two is your /dev/sda using? If it's GPT, then using "fdsik" will not work to see the partition layout. If fdisk works, then you're using MBR partitioning. For GPT partitioning, you use "gdisk" instead of "fdisk".

Yes, please tread carefully here with all due caution before reformatting a partition and/or deleting a partition until you are sure which partitioning scheme you have and which partitions belongs to your F16.x86_64 install and which don't.

[bob]

It's using GUID partition table and was reporting unmounted. I'm using custom partitioning and ext4 for my F16.x86_64, however I may have allowed LVM when I tried the 32 bit installation (it's been awhile, ya know?).

sda6 is what Gparted Live reports and it's born out by fdisk -l

[root@localhost ~]# fdisk -l

Disk /dev/sda: 500.1 GB, 500107862016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 60801 cylinders, total 976773168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x000c0dc1

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 63 204796619 102398278+ 83 Linux
/dev/sda2 204796620 208893194 2048287+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda3 * 208893195 413689814 102398310 83 Linux
/dev/sda4 413691902 976773119 281540609 5 Extended
/dev/sda5 413691904 414715903 512000 83 Linux
/dev/sda6 414717952 976773119 281027584 83 Linux

Disk /dev/mapper/VolGroup-lv_swap: 5335 MB, 5335154688 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 648 cylinders, total 10420224 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00000000

Disk /dev/mapper/VolGroup-lv_swap doesn't contain a valid partition table

WARNING: GPT (GUID Partition Table) detected on '/dev/mapper/VolGroup-lv_home'! The util fdisk doesn't support GPT. Use GNU Parted.


Disk /dev/mapper/VolGroup-lv_home: 228.7 GB, 228740562944 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 27809 cylinders, total 446758912 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00000000

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/mapper/VolGroup-lv_home1 1 446758911 223379455+ ee GPT

Disk /dev/mapper/VolGroup-lv_root: 53.7 GB, 53687091200 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 6527 cylinders, total 104857600 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00000000

Disk /dev/mapper/VolGroup-lv_root doesn't contain a valid partition table

Got to take a break for an hour or two, but thanks for the info, Pablo

[PabloTwo]

It's looking to me that you've somehow ended up with a mixed MBR/GPT partitioning scheme. I'm guessing the original 32 bit F16 install used GPT, and the later 64 bit F16 install converted to MBR, but left a stranded GPT partitioned partition. Here's what I get trying to use "sudo fdisk -l" on my laptop, which has only F16.i686 32 bit with GPT partitioning:

[paul@CarCrusher ~]$ sudo fdisk -l

WARNING: GPT (GUID Partition Table) detected on '/dev/sda'! The util fdisk doesn't support GPT. Use GNU Parted.


Disk /dev/sda: 120.0 GB, 120034123776 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 14593 cylinders, total 234441648 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00000000

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1               1   234441647   117220823+  ee  GPT

Notice the,

WARNING: GPT (GUID Partition Table) detected on '/dev/sda'! The util fdisk doesn't support GPT. Use GNU Parted.

which is also what you got using "fdisk -l". But yet fdisk displayed the bulk of your partition layout, which means it MUST be MBR partitioning scheme for those. Here is how gdisk displays my laptops drive:

[paul@CarCrusher ~]$ sudo gdisk -l /dev/sda
GPT fdisk (gdisk) version 0.8.4

Partition table scan:
  MBR: protective
  BSD: not present
  APM: not present
  GPT: present

Found valid GPT with protective MBR; using GPT.
Disk /dev/sda: 234441648 sectors, 111.8 GiB
Logical sector size: 512 bytes
Disk identifier (GUID): 3C0C2A44-B7DF-43FC-BF0B-25262FF3615A
Partition table holds up to 128 entries
First usable sector is 34, last usable sector is 234441614
Partitions will be aligned on 2048-sector boundaries
Total free space is 2925 sectors (1.4 MiB)

Number  Start (sector)    End (sector)  Size       Code  Name
   1            2048            4095   1024.0 KiB  EF02  
   2            4096         1028095   500.0 MiB   EF00  ext4
   3         1028096         9285631   3.9 GiB     8200  
   4         9285632       114143231   50.0 GiB    0700  
   5       114143232       234440703   57.4 GiB    0700

In order of appearance:
1 - 1MiB Protective MBR BIOS boot partition
2 - 500MiB /boot partition
3 - 3.9GiB swap partition
4 - 50GiB / partition
5 - 57.4GiB /home partition

Assuming /dev/sda6 has not somehow become an integral part of your F16 64 bit install, it looks like you'll need to use either GNU Parted (GParted Live CD) or the gdisk command line utility to do anything with that partition, but only after it's been unmounted. These are just my thoughts here, and I am far from very knowledgeable on this matter. Might be better for someone more experience to weigh in here before making a serious move.

[bob]

Well, GParted Live CD reports it as locked and unable to do anything with it at all. I've never had Windows installed on this or prior machines, so it would seem that it SHOULD be GPT, yet....???

So, this has become a very interesting situation.