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 only - Solaris slices are also called partitions. Certain interfaces might refer to a slice as a partition.

fdisk partitions are supported only on x86 based systems. To avoid confusion, Oracle Solaris documentation tries to distinguish between fdisk partitions and the entities within the Solaris fdisk partition. These entities might be called slices or partitions.

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.

Become an administrator.
For more information, see How to Use Your Assigned Administrative Rights in Oracle Solaris Administration: Security Services.
Invoke the format utility.
```
# format
```
A numbered list of disks is displayed.
For more information, see format(1M).
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.
Select the fdisk menu.
```
format> fdisk
```
The fdisk menu that is displayed depends upon whether the disk has existing fdisk partitions.

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

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:

Select option 1, Create a partition, to create an fdisk partition.
```
Enter Selection: 1
```

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?

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
```

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.

Select option 1, Create a partition, to create another fdisk partition.
See steps 8–10 for instructions on creating an fdisk partition.
Update the disk configuration, and exit the fdisk menu from the selection menu.
```
Selection: 6
```

Relabel the disk by using the label command.

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

Quit the format utility.
```
format> quit
```

Example 13-2 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. c0d0 <DEFAULT cyl 2466 alt 2 hd 16 sec 63>
          /pci@0,0/pci-ide@7,1/ide@0/cmdk@0,0
       1. c0d1 <DEFAULT cyl 522 alt 2 hd 32 sec 63>
          /pci@0,0/pci-ide@7,1/ide@0/cmdk@1,0
       2. c1d0 <DEFAULT cyl 13102 alt 2 hd 16 sec 63>
          /pci@0,0/pci-ide@7,1/ide@1/cmdk@0,0
Specify disk (enter its number): 0
selecting c0d0
Controller working list found
[disk formatted]
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

After You Create a Solaris `fdisk` Partition ...

After you create a Solaris fdisk partition on the disk, you can use it for a root pool disk or non-root pool disk. For more information, see x86: Setting Up Disks for ZFS File Systems.

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

Become an administrator.

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

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

Select option 5 to update your disk configuration and exit.

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

Select option 5 to update your disk configuration and exit.

Skip Navigation Links
Exit Print View
	Oracle Solaris Administration: Devices and File Systems Oracle Solaris 11 Information Library