x86: Creating and Changing Solaris fdisk Partitions

Review the following sections for guidelines and examples of creating or changing Solaris fdisk partitions.

x86: Guidelines for Creating an fdisk Partition

Follow these guidelines when you set up one or more fdisk partitions:

• The disk can be divided into a maximum of four fdisk partitions. One of partitions must be a Solaris partition.

• The Solaris partition must be made the active partition on the disk. The active partition is partition whose operating system will be booted by default at system startup.

• Solaris fdisk partitions must begin on cylinder boundaries.

• Solaris fdisk partitions must begin at cylinder 1, not cylinder 0, on the first disk because additional boot information, including the master boot record, is written in sector 0.

• The Solaris fdisk partition can be the entire disk. Or, you might want to make it smaller to allow room for a DOS partition. You can also make a new fdisk partition on a disk without disturbing existing partitions (if sufficient space is available) to create a new partition.

x86: How to Create a Solaris fdisk Partition

Before You Begin

If you need information about fdisk partitions, see x86: Guidelines for Creating an fdisk Partition.

1. Become an administrator.

   For more information, see How to Use Your Assigned Administrative Rights in Oracle Solaris 11.1 Administration: Security Services.

2. Invoke the format utility.

   # format

   A numbered list of disks is displayed.

   For more information, see format(1M).

3. Type the number of the disk on which to create a Solaris fdisk partition.

   Specify disk (enter its number): disk-number

   where disk-number is the number of the disk on which you want to create a Solaris fdisk partition.

4. Select the fdisk menu.

   format> fdisk

   The fdisk menu that is displayed depends upon whether the disk has existing fdisk partitions.

5. Create and activate a Solaris fdisk partition that spans the entire disk by specifying y at the prompt. Then, go to step 13.

   No fdisk table exists. The default partition for the disk is:
   
   a 100% "SOLARIS System" partition
   
   Type "y" to accept the default partition, otherwise type "n" to edit the
   partition table.
   y

6. Specify n at the prompt if you do not want the Solaris fdisk partition to span the entire disk.

   Type "y" to accept the default partition, otherwise type "n" to edit the
    partition table.
   n
                Total disk size is 17848 cylinders
                Cylinder size is 16065 (512 byte) blocks
   
                                                  Cylinders
         Partition   Status    Type          Start   End   Length    %
         =========   ======    ============  =====   ===   ======   ===
   
   
   
   SELECT ONE OF THE FOLLOWING:
      1. Create a partition
      2. Specify the active partition
      3. Delete a partition
      4. Change between Solaris and Solaris2 Partition IDs
      5. Edit/View extended partitions
      6. Exit (update disk configuration and exit)
      7. Cancel (exit without updating disk configuration)
   Enter Selection: 

7. Select option 1, Create a partition, to create an fdisk partition.

   Enter Selection: 1

8. Create a Solaris fdisk partition by selecting 1(=Solaris2).

   Select the partition type to create:
      1=SOLARIS2   2=UNIX      3=PCIXOS     4=Other        5=DOS12
      6=DOS16      7=DOSEXT    8=DOSBIG     9=DOS16LBA     A=x86 Boot
      B=Diagnostic C=FAT32     D=FAT32LBA   E=DOSEXTLBA    F=EFI (Protective)
      G=EFI_SYS    0=Exit? 

9. Identify the percentage of the disk to be reserved for the Solaris fdisk partition. Keep in mind the size of any existing fdisk partitions when you calculate this percentage.

   Specify the percentage of disk to use for this partition
   (or type "c" to specify the size in cylinders). nn

10. Activate the Solaris fdisk partition by typing y at the prompt.

    Should this become the active partition? If yes, it will be 
    activated each time the computer is reset or turned on.
    Please type "y" or "n". y

    The Enter Selection prompt is displayed after the fdisk partition is activated.

11. Select option 1, Create a partition, to create another fdisk partition.

    See steps 8–10 for instructions on creating an fdisk partition.

12. Update the disk configuration, and exit the fdisk menu from the selection menu.

    Selection: 6

13. Relabel the disk by using the label command.

    format> label
    Ready to label disk, continue? yes
    format> 

14. Quit the format utility.

    format> quit

Example 10-2 x86: Creating a Solaris fdisk Partition That Spans the Entire Drive

The following example uses the format utility's fdisk option to create a Solaris fdisk partition that spans the entire drive.

# format
Searching for disks...done
AVAILABLE DISK SELECTIONS:
       0. c8t0d0 <SEAGATE-ST973401LSUN72G-0556 cyl 8921 alt 2 hd 255 sec 63>
          /pci@0,0/pci1022,7458@11/pci1000,3060@4/sd@0,0
          /dev/chassis/SYS/HD0/disk
       1. c8t1d0 <SEAGATE-ST973401LSUN72G-0556 cyl 8921 alt 2 hd 255 sec 63>
          /pci@0,0/pci1022,7458@11/pci1000,3060@4/sd@1,0
          /dev/chassis/SYS/HD1/disk
       2. c8t2d0 <SEAGATE-ST973401LSUN72G-0556-68.37GB>
          /pci@0,0/pci1022,7458@11/pci1000,3060@4/sd@2,0
          /dev/chassis/SYS/HD2/disk
       3. c8t3d0 <SEAGATE-ST973401LSUN72G-0556 cyl 14087 alt 2 hd 24 sec 424>
          /pci@0,0/pci1022,7458@11/pci1000,3060@4/sd@3,0
          /dev/chassis/SYS/HD3/disk
Specify disk (enter its number): 3
selecting c8t3d0
[disk formatted]
No Solaris fdisk partition found.
format> fdisk
No fdisk table exists. The default partitioning for your disk is:
 
  a 100% "SOLARIS System" partition.
 
Type "y" to accept the default partition, otherwise type "n" to edit the
partition table. y

format> label
Ready to label disk, continue? yes
format> quit

Changing the fdisk Partition Identifier

The Solaris fdisk partition identifier on x86 systems has been changed from 130 (0x82) to 191 (0xbf). All Oracle Solaris commands, utilities, and drivers have been updated to work with either fdisk identifier. There is no change in fdisk functionality.

How to Change the Solaris fdisk Identifier

A new fdisk menu option enables you to switch back and forth between the new and old identifier. The fdisk identifier can be changed even when the file system that is contained in the partition is mounted.

Two type values in the fdisk menu reflect the old and new identifiers as follows:

• Solaris identifies 0x82

• Solaris2 identifies 0xbf

1. Become an administrator.
2. Display the current fdisk identifier.

   For example:

               Total disk size is 39890 cylinders
               Cylinder size is 4032 (512 byte) blocks
   
                                                 Cylinders
        Partition   Status    Type          Start   End   Length    %
        =========   ======    ============  =====   ===   ======   ===
            1       Active    x86 Boot          1     6       6      0
            2                 Solaris2          7  39889    39883    100

3. Select option 4 from the fdisk menu to change the fdisk partition identifier back to 0x82.

   SELECT ONE OF THE FOLLOWING:
     1. Create a partition
     2. Specify the active partition
     3. Delete a partition
     4. Change between Solaris and Solaris2 Partition IDs
     5. Exit (update disk configuration and exit)
     6. Cancel (exit without updating disk configuration)
   Enter Selection: 4

4. Select option 6 to update your disk configuration and exit.
5. If necessary, select option 4 from the fdisk menu to change the fdisk partition identifier back to 0xbf.

   For example:

   Total disk size is 39890 cylinders
               Cylinder size is 4032 (512 byte) blocks
   
                                                 Cylinders
        Partition   Status    Type          Start   End   Length    %
        =========   ======    ============  =====   ===   ======   ===
            1       Active    x86 Boot          1     6       6      0
            2                 Solaris           7  39889    39883    100
   
   SELECT ONE OF THE FOLLOWING:
     1. Create a partition
     2. Specify the active partition
     3. Delete a partition
     4. Change between Solaris and Solaris2 Partition IDs
     5. Exit (update disk configuration and exit)
     6. Cancel (exit without updating disk configuration)
   Enter Selection: 4

6. Select option 6 to update your disk configuration and exit.