Description of problem: I am trying to format a partition on a compact flash card installed with an IDE compact flash adapter. The card is partitioned with two partitions. Fdisk shows that the partitions exists. ls of /dev shows /dev/hdd, /dev/hdd1 and /dev/hdd2. Running mkfs.ext2 fails. Further list of /dev shows that /dev/hdd1 and /dev/hdd2 have disappeared. They later (30 - 60 seconds later) reappear. Here's a transcript of the session: # fdisk /dev/hdd The number of cylinders for this disk is set to 4065. There is nothing wrong with that, but this is larger than 1024, and could in certain setups cause problems with: 1) software that runs at boot time (e.g., old versions of LILO) 2) booting and partitioning software from other OSs (e.g., DOS FDISK, OS/2 FDISK) Command (m for help): p Disk /dev/hdd: 2097 MB, 2097930240 bytes 16 heads, 63 sectors/track, 4065 cylinders Units = cylinders of 1008 * 512 = 516096 bytes Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System /dev/hdd1 * 1 500 251968+ 83 Linux /dev/hdd2 501 4065 1796760 83 Linux # ls -la /dev/hdd* brw-r----- 1 root disk 22, 64 Sep 30 14:31 /dev/hdd brw-r----- 1 root disk 22, 65 Oct 3 13:46 /dev/hdd1 brw-r----- 1 root disk 22, 66 Oct 3 13:46 /dev/hdd2 # mkfs.ext2 /dev/hdd1 mke2fs 1.38 (30-Jun-2005) /dev/hdd1: No such file or directory while setting up superblock # ls -la /dev/hdd* brw-r----- 1 root disk 22, 64 Sep 30 14:31 /dev/hdd
2.6.14-1.1637_FC4 has been released as an update for FC4. Please retest with this update, as a large amount of code has been changed in this release, which may have fixed your problem. Thank you.
I just tried to reproduce this with a usb flash card reader, and it did the right thing. On creation of a new partition, a /dev node appeared, and when I deleted a partition, it went away. I'm going to close this as fixed in the current updates. If it's still a problem for you, please reopen.