Bug 89688

Summary: fdisk false error message
Product: [Retired] Red Hat Linux Reporter: acount closed by user <a1459440>
Component: util-linuxAssignee: Elliot Lee <sopwith>
Status: CLOSED DEFERRED QA Contact: Ben Levenson <benl>
Severity: high Docs Contact:
Priority: medium    
Version: 7.3   
Target Milestone: ---   
Target Release: ---   
Hardware: athlon   
OS: Linux   
URL: http://www.math.tau.ac.il/~didi/editing-busy-partition-tables.html
Whiteboard:
Fixed In Version: Doc Type: Bug Fix
Doc Text:
Story Points: ---
Clone Of: Environment:
Last Closed: 2003-05-16 20:27:40 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 acount closed by user 2003-04-25 23:40:23 UTC
From Bugzilla Helper:
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Description of problem:
sometimes when it is made a new partition fdisk shows a message about it is
necesary reboot the system for to use the new fs. And this is not TRUE!!

--
[..fdisk shell...]
Command (m for help): w
The partition table has been altered!

Calling ioctl() to re-read partition table.

WARNING: Re-reading the partition table failed with error 16: Device or resource
busy.
The kernel still uses the old table.
The new table will be used at the next reboot.
Syncing disks.
---

it is possible to use partx for to solve this trouble
--partx--
/*
 * Given a block device and a partition table type,
 * try to parse the partition table, and list the
 * contents. Optionally add or remove partitions.
 *
 * [This is not an fdisk - adding and removing partitions
 * is not a change of the disk, but just telling the kernel
 * about presence and numbering of on-disk partitions.]
 *
 * Call:
 *	partx [-{l|a|d}] [--type TYPE] [--nr M-N] [partition] wholedisk
 * where TYPE is {dos|bsd|solaris|unixware|gpt}.
 *
 * Read wholedisk and add all partitions:
 *	partx -a wholedisk
 *
 * Subdivide a partition into slices (and delete or shrink the partition):
 * [Not easy: one needs the partition number of partition -
 *  that is the last 4 or 6 bits of the minor; it can also be found
 *  in /proc/partitions; but there is no good direct way.]
 *	partx -a partition wholedisk
 *
 * Delete all partitions from wholedisk:
 *	partx -d wholedisk
 *
 * Delete partitions M-N from wholedisk:
 *	partx -d --nr M-N wholedisk
 *
 * aeb, 2000-03-21 -- sah is 42 now
 */
--end--

I dont know about sfdisk, but this false reboot message must be changed by other
!!! 

more info here:
http://www.math.tau.ac.il/~didi/editing-busy-partition-tables.html
to

Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable):


How reproducible:
Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1.fdisk
2.to add one partition and :w
3.reboot? NO
    

Additional info:

Comment 1 acount closed by user 2003-05-15 02:30:49 UTC
redhat 9 has the same problem, maybe the new version 2.11z is ok :-?

Comment 2 Elliot Lee 2003-05-16 20:27:40 UTC
If you use partx, this message does not appear. When you use fdisk, this message is valid 
because of the way fdisk is implemented. Until fdisk's implementation changes to not 
require a reboot, the message will stay. I cannot say if/when fdisk's implementation will 
change, although I agree it would be a useful feature in the future.