One of the secrets of success in a complex installation like this is to completely understand exactly where everything is on disk. Acronis disk director could list some of the info, but I needed more. I wrote a tool to take the info that Acronis displayed and produce a table for my notes...
Code:
===== Device Name ==== ========== Start ========== ========== End ============== ====== Length ========
P# Grub Linux FreeBSD Description Partition Type LBA Cyl--Head--Sectr LBA Cyl--Head--Sector Sectors MB Cyls
-- -------- ----- ------- ------------------- --------------- ---------- ---------------- ---------- ------------------ --------- ------ -----
(hd0) hda the whole disk 0 (0---0---1) 195371568 (12161---81---1) 5371569 2622 334
first full cylinder 0 (0---0---1) 16064 (0---254---63) 16065 7 1
usable space 0 (0---0---1) 195366464 (12160---254---63) 5366465 2620 334
unusable space 195366465 (12161---0---1) 195371568 (12161---81---1) 5104 2
MBR 0 (0---0---1) 0 (0---0---1) 1
the hidden sectors 1 (0---0---2) 62 (0---0---63) 62
1 (hd0,0) hda1 ad0s1 XP NTFS 0x07 63 (0---1---1) 31519529 (1961---254---63) 1519467 741 94
EBR 31519530 (1962---0---1) 31519592 (1962---0---63) 63
5 (hd0,4) hda5 ad0s4 driveE FAT32 0x0B 31519593 (1962---1---1) 52500419 (3267---254---63) 0980827 478 61
EBR 52500420 (3268---0---1) 52500482 (3268---0---63) 63
6 (hd0,5) hda6 ad0s5 /userdata EXT3 0x83 52500483 (3268---1---1) 62990864 (3920---254---63) 0490382 239 30
EBR 62990865 (3921---0---1) 62990934 (3921---1---7) 70
7 (hd0,6) hda7 ad0s7 /mastergrub EXT3 0x83 62990935 (3921---1---8) 63263969 (3937---254---63) 273035 133 16
EBR 63263970 (3938---0---1) 63264032 (3938---0---63) 63
8 (hd0,7) hda8 ad0s8 Linux swap 0x82 63264033 (3938---1---1) 67472999 (4199---254---63) 4208967 2055 262
EBR 67473000 (4200---0---1) 67473062 (4200---0---63) 63
9 (hd0,8) hda9 ad0s9 /tmp EXT3 0x8E 67473063 (4200---1---1) 69577514 (4330---254---63) 2104452 1027 131
EBR 69577515 (4331---0---1) 69577577 (4331---0---63) 63
10 (hd0,9) hda10 ad0s10 Redhat00 Linux LVM 0x8E 69577578 (4331---1---1) 77979509 (4853---254---63) 8401932 4102 523
EBR 77979510 (4854---0---1) 77979572 (4854---0---63) 63
11 (hd0,10) hda11 ad0s11 Fedora00 Linux LVM 0x8E 77979573 (4854---1---1) 88469954 (5506---254---63) 0490382 239 30
EBR 88469955 (5507---0---1) 88470017 (5507---0---63) 63
12 (hd0,11) hda12 ad0s12 SuSE00 Linux LVM 0x8E 88470018 (5507---1---1) 101064914 (6290---254---63) 2594897 1267 161
EBR 101064915 (6291---0---1) 101064977 (6291---0---63) 63
13 (hd0,12) hda13 ad0s13 Debian00 Linux LVM 0x8E 101064978 (6291---1---1) 117852839 (7335---254---63) 6787862 3314 422
EBR 117852840 (7336---0---1) 117852902 (7336---0---63) 63
14 (hd0,13) hda14 ad0s14 Scientific00 Linux LVM 0x8E 117852903 (7336---1---1) 130447799 (8119---254---63) 2594897 1267 161
EBR 130447800 (8120---0---1) 130447862 (8120---0---63) 63
15 (hd0,14) hda15 ad0s15 /backupgrub EXT3 0x83 130447863 (8120---1---1) 130720904 (8136---254---63) 273042 133 17
EBR 130720905 (8137---0---1) 130720967 (8137---0---63) 63
16 (hd0,15) hda16 ad0s16 /testgrub EXT3 0x83 130720968 (8137---1---1) 130994009 (8153---254---63) 273042 133 17
Free Space 130994010 (8154---0---1) 158256314 (9850---254---63) 7262305 3546 452
2 (hd0,2) hda2 ad0s2 FreeBSD 0xA5 158256315 (9851---0---1) 172939724 (10764---254---63) 4683410 2286 291
3 (hd0,3) hda3 ad0s3 Solaris 0xBF 172939725 (10765---0---1) 195366464 (12160---254---63) 2426740 1184 151
Some notes on this...
MBR, the hidden sectors, and the EBR's
The Master Boot Record (MBR) is the first sector of the disk. It has the boot code and the partition table in it. The rest of the first track is called "the hidden sectors". In my case, Grub stage 1.5 is in the hidden sectors. The structure of this first track is duplicated for each logical partition. Each logical partition has a structure like a MBR as it first sector. Then the rest of the first track is ignored. This first track immediately precedes the logical partition that it describes. Microsoft uses the term "logical drive" which almost means the same thing as "logical partition". But looking carefully at the definitions it seems to me that "logical drive" = EBR + "wasted sectors" + "logical partition". In any case, you need the MBR and the EBR's to define the partition layout of a drive. I see programs to backup the MBR but they always ignore the EBR's. I will fix that by writing a utility to backup the MBR plus the EBR's. Strickly speaking the EBR is one sector and it is followed by some wasted sectors. In my chart I have cheated a little bit and redefined the EBR to be all overhead sectors between partitions. I feel that the chart is "busy enough" and would be even harder to read with two lines between each partition.
Cylinder Alignment
Notice how the partitions are generally aligned on cylinder boundaries. The exception is /mastergrub and this is due to a bug in Acronis Disk Director. I originally had /mastergrub at .5 MB which is too big. I shrunk it, but I made the free space appear before the partition rather then after it. (This let me shuffle the free space down and add it to my XP partition.) When I produced this chart, I noted that /mastergrub was not aligned properly. This wastes a few more cylinders, but it seems to have few consequences. The only potential problems that I can think of... Some programs try to guess the disk geometry....with amazing success. They might do this by looking at the alignment of the partitions. Some programs (like Acronis itself) can locate and restore deleted partitions. This might fail if the partition was misaligned to begin with. I notice that Acronis has a "fast" and "slow" search for deleted partitions (with the "slow" option being more robust) and this might push you into the "slow" option.
This encouraged me to experiment with partitions that were truly logical but also had an entry in the fourth MBR slot as a primary partition. My idea was to switch one of several logicals into the primary slot, install an OS, destroy the primary entry, and boot from the logical partition. This did not work very well. A smart bootloader could switch a partition from logical to primary and then boot it, but I did not want to write a bootloader.
I notice that each logical partition is wasting most of a full track. I am considering misaligning all of the partitions to recover that space. There is not a lot of space to be recovered and this may not be worth the effort. Also Acronis does not have enough control to allow me to try. I believe that qtparted can do this though.
Solaris Changed Types
Solaris 10 is using BF as its partition type and the Solasis 10 installer does not recognize partition with a type of 82 anymore.
I did not want to enter the starting and ending LBA's for the EBR's. The script should be able to calculate them from the preceding and following entries. This increased the complexity of the script but in the long run it saved effort. And here is the source code...
Code:
#! /usr/bin/ksh
typeset -L3 opartn
typeset -L9 ogrubdev
typeset -L6 olinuxdev
typeset -L8 ofbsddev
typeset -L20 odesc
typeset -L11 otype
typeset -L5 ohextype
typeset -R9 ofirst
typeset -L17 ofirstchs
typeset -R9 olast
typeset -L20 olastchs
typeset -R7 olong
typeset -R6 omegs
typeset -R5 ocyls
function chs
{
((s=$1%63))
((rest=$1/63))
((h=rest%255))
((c=rest/255))
((c=rest/255))
((s=s+1))
echo "(${c}---${h}---${s})"
return 0
}
some_data_left=1
saved_record=0
echo ' ===== Device Name ==== ========== Start ========== ========== End ============== ====== Length ========'
echo 'P# Grub Linux FreeBSD Description Partition Type LBA Cyl--Head--Sectr LBA Cyl--Head--Sector Sectors MB Cyls'
echo '-- -------- ----- ------- ------------------- --------------- ---------- ---------------- ---------- ------------------ --------- ------ -----'
echo ';(hd0) ;hda ; ;the whole disk ; ; ; 0;195371568
; ; ; ;first full cylinder; ; ; 0; 16064
; ; ; ;usable space ; ; ; 0;195366464
; ; ; ;unusable space ; ; ;195366465;195371568
; ; ; ;MBR ; ; ; 0; 0
; ; ; ;the hidden sectors ; ; ; 1; 62
1;(hd0,0) ;hda1 ;ad0s1 ;XP ;NTFS ;0x07; 63; 31519529
; ; ; ;EBR ; ; ; ;
5;(hd0,4) ;hda5 ;ad0s4 ;driveE ;FAT32 ;0x0B; 31519593; 52500419
; ; ; ;EBR ; ; ; ;
6;(hd0,5) ;hda6 ;ad0s5 ;/userdata ;EXT3 ;0x83; 52500483; 62990864
; ; ; ;EBR ; ; ; ;
7;(hd0,6) ;hda7 ;ad0s7 ;/mastergrub ;EXT3 ;0x83; 62990935; 63263969
; ; ; ;EBR ; ; ; ;
8;(hd0,7) ;hda8 ;ad0s8 ; ;Linux swap;0x82; 63264033; 67472999
; ; ; ;EBR ; ; ; ;
9;(hd0,8) ;hda9 ;ad0s9 ;/tmp ;EXT3 ;0x8E; 67473063; 69577514
; ; ; ;EBR ; ; ; ;
10;(hd0,9) ;hda10 ;ad0s10 ;Redhat00 ;Linux LVM ;0x8E; 69577578; 77979509
; ; ; ;EBR ; ; ; ;
11;(hd0,10);hda11 ;ad0s11 ;Fedora00 ;Linux LVM ;0x8E; 77979573; 88469954
; ; ; ;EBR ; ; ; ;
12;(hd0,11);hda12 ;ad0s12 ;SuSE00 ;Linux LVM ;0x8E; 88470018;101064914
; ; ; ;EBR ; ; ; ;
13;(hd0,12);hda13 ;ad0s13 ;Debian00 ;Linux LVM ;0x8E;101064978;117852839
; ; ; ;EBR ; ; ; ;
14;(hd0,13);hda14 ;ad0s14 ;Scientific00 ;Linux LVM ;0x8E;117852903;130447799
; ; ; ;EBR ; ; ; ;
15;(hd0,14);hda15 ;ad0s15 ;/backupgrub ;EXT3 ;0x83;130447863;130720904
; ; ; ;EBR ; ; ; ;
16;(hd0,15);hda16 ;ad0s16 ;/testgrub ;EXT3 ;0x83;130720968;130994009
; ; ; ;Free Space ; ; ;130994010;158256314
2;(hd0,2) ;hda2 ;ad0s2 ; ;FreeBSD ;0xA5;158256315;172939724
3;(hd0,3) ;hda3 ;ad0s3 ; ;Solaris ;0xBF;172939725;195366464'|\
while ((some_data_left)) ; do
if ((saved_record)) ; then
saved_record=0
partn=$saved_partn
grubdev=$saved_grubdev
linuxdev=$saved_linuxdev
fbsddev=$saved_fbsddev
desc=$saved_desc
type=$saved_type
hextype=$saved_hextype
first=$saved_first
last=$saved_last
else
if IFS=";" read partn grubdev linuxdev fbsddev desc type hextype first last ; then
if [[ "$desc" = EBR* ]] ; then
if IFS=";" read partn grubdev linuxdev fbsddev desc type hextype fir
saved_record=1
saved_partn=$partn
saved_grubdev=$grubdev
saved_linuxdev=$linuxdev
saved_fbsddev=$fbsddev
saved_desc=$desc
saved_type=$type
saved_hextype=$hextype
saved_first=$first
saved_last=$last
partn=""
grubdev=""
linuxdev=""
fbsddev=""
type=""
hextype=""
desc="EBR"
((first=old_last+1))
((last=saved_first-1))
else
echo error EBR is last record >&2
exit 1
fi
fi
else
some_data_left=0
fi
fi
if ((some_data_left)) ; then
opartn=$partn
ogrubdev=$grubdev
olinuxdev=$linuxdev
ofbsddev=$fbsddev
odesc=$desc
otype=$type
ohextype=$hextype
ofirst=$first
ofirstchs=$(chs $first)
olast=$last
olastchs=$(chs $last)
((olong=last-first+1))
if ((olong>2048)) ; then
((omegs=olong/2048))
else
omegs=""
fi
if ((olong>16064)) ; then
((ocyls=(olong+64)/16065))
else
ocyls=""
fi
echo "${opartn}${ogrubdev}${olinuxdev}${ofbsddev}${odesc}${otype}${ohextype}" \
"${ofirst} ${ofirstchs} ${olast} ${olastchs} ${olong} ${omegs} ${ocyls}"
old_partn=$partn
old_grubdev=$grubdev
old_linuxdev=$linuxdev
old_fbsddev=$fbsddev
old_desc=$desc
old_type=$type
old_hextype=$hextype
old_first=$first
old_last=$last
fi
done
exit 0
