Bug 12099

Summary: RFE: Support more than 16 partitions/drive
Product: [Retired] Red Hat Linux Reporter: rhaig
Component: installerAssignee: Matt Wilson <msw>
Status: CLOSED DEFERRED QA Contact:
Severity: medium Docs Contact:
Priority: low    
Version: 6.2CC: 2lprbe78, borgan
Target Milestone: ---Keywords: FutureFeature
Target Release: ---   
Hardware: i386   
OS: Linux   
Whiteboard:
Fixed In Version: Doc Type: Enhancement
Doc Text:
Story Points: ---
Clone Of: Environment:
Last Closed: 2006-02-21 18:47:41 UTC Type: ---
Regression: --- Mount Type: ---
Documentation: --- CRM:
Verified Versions: Category: ---
oVirt Team: --- RHEL 7.3 requirements from Atomic Host:
Cloudforms Team: --- Target Upstream Version:
Embargoed:

Description rhaig 2000-06-11 22:58:57 UTC
During install, I get "no free resources" on trying to partition the disk.
I found on Deja.com the following article:
	http://www.deja.com/getdoc.xp?AN=628953505&fmt=text

	After some experimentation with fdisk, I've found that if you
	define partitions to the point that there's greater than 16,
	i.e. define /dev/hda17, that Red Hat 6.2 chokes and dies on the
	install.  On the step between fdisk and disk druid, it fails
	with the message:  An error occurred reading the partition table
	for the block device hda.  The error was:  No free resources.  I
	lined up a small (8G) disk to test this, so that there wouldn't
	be any above the line (1024 cyl) problems.  I don't think this
	is a general linux problem, just confined to Red Hat, but I'll
	have to do some further testing to confirm that.

I did indeed have 18 partitions on my disk.  I deleted the last few and the
install worked.

It looks like 16 is a boundry condition in the install code somewhere.


HOW TO REPRODUCE

partition a disk (I used a 7G Maxtor) with more than 16 partitions
(Mine had 18).

boot from install CD

use text mode install

at the point where the installer tries to partition the disk, the error
will occur.

note: this was not tested under graphical install.

Comment 1 Michael Fulbright 2000-06-15 16:03:21 UTC
This is a known limitation of the 6.2 installer, and increasing the limit
for IDE devices is under consideration.

Comment 2 Michael Fulbright 2000-09-15 19:29:41 UTC
Brock is this limit still a problem in Pinstripe?

Comment 3 Michael Fulbright 2000-10-04 22:18:54 UTC
*** Bug 18265 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 4 Jeremy Katz 2001-10-23 20:38:06 UTC
*** Bug 54853 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 5 Jeremy Katz 2001-12-07 21:49:40 UTC
*** Bug 57167 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 6 Jeremy Katz 2002-01-02 22:23:12 UTC
*** Bug 57828 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 7 Michael Fulbright 2002-03-26 17:25:44 UTC
Deferred to future release.

Comment 8 rhaig 2002-03-26 18:13:58 UTC
when the next release (after the current beta) comes out I'll test this.  you
can be sure I'll open a new bug report if it's not fixed.  I've seen (with other
vendors) bugs marked as "next release" and then forgotten about.

Comment 9 Michael Fulbright 2002-05-26 18:59:54 UTC
Fixing bug status- sorry for the email.

Comment 10 David Balažic 2003-01-13 15:39:30 UTC
Phoebe can create 40 partitions during GUI install.
I started with an empty hard drive.

There were problems at boot-up though :

 - /dec/hdxnn exists only up to partition 32, I created the rest ( up to 63 ) 
manually and then all worked
 - note : current fdisk ( util-linux-2.11w-2 ) can handle only 16 partitions 
per (IDE?) disk, use something else for partitioning ( maybe parted )

Comment 11 Red Hat Bugzilla 2006-02-21 18:47:41 UTC
Changed to 'CLOSED' state since 'RESOLVED' has been deprecated.