Damn Small Linux CFdisk command error

[bobbyjuvenille]

Recently I've downloaded DSL and used the live CD to check it out; however, I have decided to install it now. I read the instructions, and they said use fcdisk to create/delete the partitions and then create a partition for it. I do as stated, I open the terminal and type in fcdisk, and I get an error saying "FATAL ERROR: Cannot open disk drive". So, what do I do?

[Kreuger]

I've never heard of fcdisk to modify a partion or do anything. I think it might be a typo because fdisk is the common way (that I know)

[bobbyjuvenille]

Either way, when i type in fdisk -l to show all the partitions it says "cannot open /dev/hda"! I just simply want to delete all the partitions and create a partition for this!

[MrA]

I've never heard of fcdisk to modify a partion or do anything. I think it might be a typo because fdisk is the common way (that I know)

I think the OP meant cfdisk. It gives you a DOS-like fdisk screen. I haven't used it in quite a while and I just rely on plain old fdisk instead. Not's not hard to use.

@OP: Is there anything "special" about your HDD setup? RAID? SATA? broken drive? There might be some driver or drive problem is fdisk -l gives you an error.

[bobbyjuvenille]

No, nothing special. I even tried two different hard drives and it still said the same thing! What should I do?

[mitch00]

Are you root or regular user? Gotta be root to access fdisk or cfdisk

[Barney T. Administrators]

Are you root or regular user? Gotta be root to access fdisk or cfdisk

Mitch is right. At least that has been my experience.

Barney

[bobbyjuvenille]

Well the command worked now and when i try create a partition, the whole comp freezes on me :( What now?

[mitch00]

What exactly did you do, and is there an error message?

[bobbyjuvenille]

I typed in CFDISK, then it said could not identify the hd signature/partitions, so it started with a new table. Then I went to create a partition that took the full hd, and said write. Soon as i pressed write.. it just freezes. Left it on for an hour, nothing happened. Maybe there is an alternative to removing/adding partitions? Possibly download a tool while im on the cd?

[markwolfe Veteran]

If you cannot write a partition table, there are serious problems. :ermm:

Let's try zeroing the whole 512 bytes of MBR, and see how that goes.

(as root)

dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/hda bs=512 count=1

should write one 512 byte chunk of zeros to the very beginning of the hard drive.

Then try going in and creating your partition table.

If that fails, you have a strange permissions issue (are you sure you are root?), or bad hardware, or a corrupt version of fdisk. (listed roughly in order of likelihood)

[_TeMpTeD_]

If you cannot write a partition table, there are serious problems. :ermm:

Let's try zeroing the whole 512 bytes of MBR, and see how that goes.

(as root)

dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/hda bs=512 count=1

should write one 512 byte chunk of zeros to the very beginning of the hard drive.

Then try going in and creating your partition table.

If that fails, you have a strange permissions issue (are you sure you are root?), or bad hardware, or a corrupt version of fdisk. (listed roughly in order of likelihood)

Although I haven't tried the above yet... I am able to partition, format, and re-partition using gpart. Yet when I use DSL it hangs just like what was described above.

The only oddity is that I'm using a SolidState Drive (1 GB that I bought from logic supply). However, I've successfully installed OpenSuSE on there (partitioning, formatting, and installation)... as well as using Gpart afterwards to re-write the patition table to get ready for DSL.

I honestly forget the board model #, I'm pretty sure it's a PC Chips board wiht a Celeron 400 mhz processor, 128 MB ram and that's it. There's no floppy drive connected.

I'd love to put DSL on this board as this will be going in my car (hence the solid state drive) and since I only have 1gb of space the smaller the linux the better. :)

I'll try the zero'ing out later tonight. If you have any other ideas or suggesitons please post. Thanks. :)

[markwolfe Veteran]

Wow. A callback to a post of mine from 2006. :blink:

But, yeah, the "zero" thing will work, providing you are root.

[Elv13]

Download the gparted live-cd (30mb) and use it, it will be easier than cfdisk. What kind of hard drive do you have? IDE, STA, SCSI? And what chipset does your computer use? Damn Small Linux use an old 2.4 kernel, it may not be suported (unfortunally). But gparted may fix all your problems. In the worst case serario, if you really want it, install it on a USB key.

I have to advise you that DSL is nice if you change nothing, but dont try to change something, use only package from their package manager or you will broke DSL.