To reproduce: 1-install some ATA or USB disk with more than 16 partitions 2-run 'fdisk -l <device>' (e.g. 'fdisk -l /dev/hda' or 'fdisk -l /dev/sda') Actual results: 1-partitions above 16 are not listed Expected results: 1-All partitions are listed Additional information: SuSE gets it right: http://qa.mandrakesoft.com/attachment.cgi?id=2507 Fedora Core 3 is like Mandrake: http://qa.mandrakesoft.com/attachment.cgi?id=2508
SuSE link superceded to http://qa.mandriva.com/attachment.cgi?id=2507 and Mandriva link http://qa.mandriva.com/attachment.cgi?id=2508
That's wilful limitation of Red Hat fdisk. All types of disks (SCSI, ACSI, Parallel port IDE, ...) support usually 15 partitions only -- with exception for classic IDE where kernel supports 63 partitions. The actual design of fdisk doesn't implement any good way how support diffrent number of partitions for diffrent types of block devices. It's reason why we prefer usual limit (15 part.) rather than problems with non IDE disks. It's very unusual that someone needs more than 15 partitions. You can use LVM and create logical volumes rather than physical partitions.
Note: you can try use the parted(8) util.
A 'wilful limitation" makes it most certainly a bug, since SuSE fdisk does not have this limitation, proving the limit is both arbitrary and unnecessary. Neither windoze XP disk management nor OS/2 fdisk/lvm have this artificial limitation, creating a cross-platform incompatibility problem for multibooters expecting the traditional linux partitioning tool installed by default on all linux systems to be compatible. If it cannot be compatible, it should be removed from standard installation, and sfdisk or some other fully compatible tool recommended/supplied as the default replacement. http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/docs/device-list/devices.txt explicitly shows /dev/hda63 to be a valid devicename. I usually only use 'fdisk -l' to quickly refresh my mind which partitions are which before taking some action with one that could be disastrous if taken upon the wrong one. When I ask for a list, I need a list of all partitions, not some arbitrary number. parted has no counterpart to 'fdisk -l' that I can determine. Most ATA HDs I own and regularly use have more than 15 partitions, commonly considerably more. I do my backups partition to partition, typically keeping more than one per devicename on some disk mounted in a USB 2.0 enclosure, but also on permanently installed disks. Compare http://qa.mandriva.com/show_bug.cgi?id=14696 and http://qa.mandriva.com/show_bug.cgi?id=13715 There is no reason here expressed to leave this unfixed.
What happen if you try create 63 partitions (by fdisk) on SCSI disk on SuSE? Is it correct that fdisk offers to users create 63 partitions on device that supports only 15 partitions? To be honest, FC5 is probably last distribution with fdisk -- in future there will be parted(8) only.
Created attachment 119675 [details] SuSE 9.3 'fdisk -l' output I have no idea how many SCSI partitions SuSE fdisk can create, only that it shows all table entries when started with the -l switch: 1st item /dev/sda is real SCSI on sym53c8xx (last=sda9) 2nd item is PATA /dev/hda (last=hda26) 3rd item is PATA disk attached via USB 2.0 /dev/sdb (last=sdb39) I don't routinely create partitions with fdisk. I usually use the multiplatform compatible tool DFSee, which runs natively under DOS, doze, OS/2 & Linux, and is capable of managing in excess of 999 partitions per system and more than 63 partitions per disk. Pretending SATA is SCSI is a serious artificial limitation when it comes to partitioning. Back in days when disk size was measured in MB, large numbers of partitions didn't make sense largely because of the overall physical limitation on size imposed by small disks. That physical limitation is long gone with currently common disk sizes approaching a terrabyte, but the logistical management of data on very large partitions has replaced it, making larger numbers of partitions per physical device more relevant, useful, and attractive, particularly in backup strategies.