A couple of problems related to sfdisk

[xiaoqin_qiu]

Hi,

I am trying to write a script to gather disk and partition information from a 
lot of Linux systems in our company. I like to use sfdisk utility with -s and 
-l options which not only show normal SCSI/IDE disk drives but logical drives 
created based on some RAID controllers. The fdisk utility seems not as powerful 
as sfdisk. However, I encountered a couple of problems when using sfdisk. I 
hope someone can help me fix/explain it.

1) On a couple of new RedHat Enterprise Linux version 3 installation with the 
following configuration:
   Kernel version: 2.4.21-4.EL
   util-linux rpm version: 2.11y-31.1
   # sfdisk -v
   sfdisk version 3.07 (address@hidden, 990908)
   I have a single IDE disk drive on this sytem.

   When I run sfdisk, I got the following result:

   # sfdisk -s (Notes: I am expecting only /dev/hda: 22075200 and total: ... to 
show up)
   /dev/hda:  22075200
   /dev/hda1:    102280
   /dev/hda2:   5120136
   /dev/hda3:   1048824
   /dev/hda4:         1
   /dev/hda5:  15803896

   # sfdisk -l

   Disk /dev/hda: 43800 cylinders, 16 heads, 63 sectors/track
   Units = cylinders of 516096 bytes, blocks of 1024 bytes, counting from 0

      Device Boot Start     End   #cyls    #blocks   Id  System
   /dev/hda1   *      0+    202     203-    102280+  83  Linux
   /dev/hda2        203   10361   10159    5120136   83  Linux
   /dev/hda3      10362   12442    2081    1048824   82  Linux swap
   /dev/hda4      12443   43799   31357   15803928    f  Win95 Ext'd (LBA)
   /dev/hda5      12443+  43799   31357-  15803896+  83  Linux
   Warning: start=63 - this looks like a partition rather than
   the entire disk. Using fdisk on it is probably meaningless.
   [Use the --force option if you really want this]

   Why did this happen and how to fix it?

2) On some older RedHat 7.2 and 7.3 installations, sfdisk runs fine with 
correct information. However, it generated some error messages in 
/var/log/messages file everytime I run sfdisk. 

   For example, on one RedHat 7.3 installation:
   Kernel version: 2.4.18-3smp
   util-linux rpm version: 2.11n-12
   # sfdisk -v
   sfdisk version 3.07 (address@hidden, 990908)

   From /var/log/messages when I run sfdisk -s or sfdisk -l:
   Mar  1 15:54:10 redwood modprobe: modprobe: Can't locate module 
block-major-33
   Mar  1 15:54:10 redwood modprobe: modprobe: Can't locate module 
block-major-33
   Mar  1 15:54:10 redwood modprobe: modprobe: Can't locate module 
block-major-34
   Mar  1 15:54:10 redwood modprobe: modprobe: Can't locate module 
block-major-34
   Mar  1 15:54:10 redwood kernel: XD: Loaded as a module.
   Mar  1 15:54:10 redwood kernel: Trying to free nonexistent resource 
<00000320-00000323>
   Mar  1 15:54:10 redwood insmod: 
/lib/modules/2.4.18-3smp/kernel/drivers/block/xd.o: init_module: Operation not 
permitted
   Mar  1 15:54:10 redwood insmod: Hint: insmod errors can be caused by 
incorrect module parameters, including invalid IO or IRQ parameters
   Mar  1 15:54:10 redwood insmod: 
/lib/modules/2.4.18-3smp/kernel/drivers/block/xd.o: insmod block-major-13 failed
   Mar  1 15:54:10 redwood kernel: XD: Loaded as a module.
   Mar  1 15:54:10 redwood kernel: Trying to free nonexistent resource 
<00000320-00000323>
   Mar  1 15:54:10 redwood insmod: 
/lib/modules/2.4.18-3smp/kernel/drivers/block/xd.o: init_module: Operation not 
permitted
   Mar  1 15:54:10 redwood insmod: Hint: insmod errors can be caused by 
incorrect module parameters, including invalid IO or IRQ parameters
   Mar  1 15:54:10 redwood insmod: 
/lib/modules/2.4.18-3smp/kernel/drivers/block/xd.o: insmod block-major-13 failed
   Mar  1 15:54:10 redwood modprobe: modprobe: Can't locate module 
block-major-104
   Mar  1 15:54:10 redwood last message repeated 7 times
   Mar  1 15:54:10 redwood modprobe: modprobe: Can't locate module 
block-major-105
   Mar  1 15:54:10 redwood last message repeated 7 times
   Mar  1 15:54:10 redwood modprobe: modprobe: Can't locate module 
block-major-72
   Mar  1 15:54:10 redwood last message repeated 7 times
   Mar  1 15:54:10 redwood modprobe: modprobe: Can't locate module 
block-major-73
   Mar  1 15:54:10 redwood last message repeated 7 times
   Mar  1 15:54:10 redwood modprobe: modprobe: Can't locate module 
block-major-48
   Mar  1 15:54:10 redwood last message repeated 7 times
   Mar  1 15:54:11 redwood modprobe: modprobe: Can't locate module 
block-major-49

   Even after I upgraded the kernel to 2.4.20-28.7 and upgraded util-linux to 
2.11n-12.7.3, the problem still exists. But I did notice that RedHat 8.0 and 9 
standard installation don't have this problem. I searched web and found this 
URL https://bugzilla.redhat.com/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=52013 discussed this 
issue.
   
   I want to ask if anyone give me a little more detailed explaination of this 
problem and since when(which util-linux rpm and kernel) it got fixed?

Thank you very much for your help!

Xiaoqin Qiu
Agilent Technologies, Inc.