pdisk

[Eric D.]

keywords: pdisk, OS X, OS 9, YellowDog Linux, formatting, sudo.

Hi Page, Mike & listers:

pdisk is built into OS X and YDL (it was written for mklinux by a programmer
working for Apple) and is a free download
(<ftp://ftp.mklinux.org/pub/mklinux-pre-R1/ppc/MacOS_Utilities/>) for OS 9.

In OS X fire up "Terminal.app" and type (in YDL too I presume) 'sudo pdisk'
You then follow the instructions you have or those provided below to
partition your HD.

Eric.

[Post from May 9th, 2002 begins]

-----Original Message-----
From: "Pete Peters" <ppeters914@attbi.com>
Date: Thu, 9 May 2002 08:49:19 -0700
Subject: RE: Formatting linux partition

Eric,

Info about Pdisk and using it can be found at the following links;

http://www.cfcl.com/eryk/linux/pdisk/

http://www.mklinux.org/getting_started/preparations/index.html

You can download pdisk from;

ftp://ftp.mklinux.org/pub/mklinux-pre-R1/ppc/MacOS_Utilities/

Are we having fun yet?

Pete

> Sent: Thursday, May 09, 2002 7:14 AM
> Subject: Re: Formatting linux partition
> 
> on 8/5/02 18:38, Timothy A. Seufert at tas@mindspring.com wrote:
> 
>> At 4:14 PM -0400 5/8/02, Eric D. wrote:
>>> Hello ya'll, is there any way to get a formerly linux partition
>>> reformatted as HFS?
>> 
>> Yes.
>> 
>> Using pdisk, delete that partition.  Then create it again, using the
>> same base and length.  When you recreate it, use the uppercase C
>> "create partition" command instead of the normal lowercase c.  The
>> uppercase option lets you specify the partition type (lowercase c
>> will always create partitions as "Apple_UNIX_SVR2", which is what you
>> want for Linux partitions).  Enter "Apple_HFS" (without the quotes)
>> as the type, and anything you like for the name.
>> 
>> At this point it's really still a Linux partition, it's just now
>> marked as HFS.  But that's OK.  Just boot MacOS.  MacOS will try to
>> mount the partition because its type signature in the partition table
>> is Apple_HFS, discover that the HFS magic numbers aren't present at
>> the beginning of the partition, and then ask you if you want to
>> format or eject the unreadable disk.  Tell it to format, select HFS
>> or HFS+ as you like, and you should be good to go.
> 
> Now my next question is:
> 
> How do I get to pdisk? I assume I have to be in YDL to run the app, but I
> doubt that I will be allowed to format the boot partition.
> 
> I have the YDL 2.1 and 2.2 Install CDs and tried booting the 2.1 CD but it
> wouldn't let me (failed with some error & said it would restart in 180
> seconds (& I wasn't able to command-control-power to restart for the first
> time ever (B&W G3, ADB keyboard)... I thought com-ctrl-pwr was a hardware
> thing and didn't think software could over-ride it)).
> 
> I've mangled the Linux partition (1536 MB) with the installer (trying to
> trick it into formatting me one big boot partition). Should I re-install YDL
> and try deleting the partition that way (using your pdisk instructions)?
> 
> Thanks for all your help, Eric.

[end of post from May 9th, 2002]


Message (June 10th, 2002):

on 10/6/02 16:16, Mike Abraham at mikeabraham2000@yahoo.com wrote:

> Yep. It's tough to find. I just Googled 'pdisk mac'
> and hit the 1st english link. Here's the URL:
> 
> http://cantaforda.com/cfcl/eryk/linux/pdisk/index.html
<snip>
> Mike
> 
> --- page comstock <wurmgirl78@hotmail.com> wrote:
>> does anyone know of a website where i can download pdisk? i have found a lot
>> of how-to websites, but i havent been able to find a place to get it. and how
>> do i go about using in on my ibook? can i run it from within os 9 or x? or do
>> i have to boot to something?