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Author Topic: grub on a eeepc 900A - why sd1, sda2 then sda5, sda6?  (Read 3056 times)

Offline bigpcman

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grub on a eeepc 900A - why sd1, sda2 then sda5, sda6?
« on: August 23, 2009, 02:00:32 PM »
TC 2.2
I'm dual booting a eeepc using grub and I was surprised to see the partition mapping it uses. I have 3 partitions on the ssd, the last one contains the tc boot files. Everything works fine except the device mapping seems strange. Grub reports via the command [setup (hd "tab"] that hd (0,0), hd (0,1), hd (0,4) & hd (0,5) are present and tc reports that sda1,2,5,6 are all present. Although, sda2 will not mount. Any ideas?

Here's my menu.lst:
Code: [Select]
#timeout 30
#default /default

title WinXP
find --set-root /ntldrxp
chainloader /ntldrxp

title TCL
root=(hd0,5)
kernel /bzImage tinycore waitusb=5 norestore embed pause
initrd /tinycore.gz
boot
big pc man

Offline gerald_clark

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Re: grub on a eeepc 900A - why sd1, sda2 then sda5, sda6?
« Reply #1 on: August 23, 2009, 02:08:20 PM »
sda2 (hd0,1) is an extended partition containing sda5 and sda6.

Offline bigpcman

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Re: grub on a eeepc 900A - why sd1, sda2 then sda5, sda6?
« Reply #2 on: August 23, 2009, 02:11:09 PM »
sda2 (hd0,1) is an extended partition containing sda5 and sda6.

Thanks for the answer. I wonder why sda3 and sd4 are not used? So if in tc I delete the extended partition and create new partitions using fdisk I should have a "normal mapping"?

edit: I deleted the extended partition and created two primary partitions and now all is well ( sda1,2,3).
« Last Edit: August 23, 2009, 02:24:54 PM by bigpcman »
big pc man

Offline gerald_clark

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Re: grub on a eeepc 900A - why sd1, sda2 then sda5, sda6?
« Reply #3 on: August 23, 2009, 02:13:01 PM »
Ask the person who setup the partitions.

Offline ^thehatsrule^

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Re: grub on a eeepc 900A - why sd1, sda2 then sda5, sda6?
« Reply #4 on: August 23, 2009, 02:16:28 PM »
The (old) standard only allowed one disk to have up to 4 partitions.  So the extended numbering starting at 5 is likely for compatibility
« Last Edit: August 23, 2009, 02:18:32 PM by ^thehatsrule^ »

Offline Kingdomcome

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Re: grub on a eeepc 900A - why sd1, sda2 then sda5, sda6?
« Reply #5 on: August 23, 2009, 02:24:08 PM »
sda1-4 are reserved for either up to 4 primary partitions or up to 3 primary partitions and an extended partition which can contain up to 128 logical drives. logical drive names start at sda5.  see here for a more in depth explanation.