sfdisk: partitioning problems

[Cristian Ionescu-Idbohrn]

Hi list,

(Sorry for the length.)
I have this problem with sfdisk:

,----
| BLKRRPART: Device or resource busy
|
| SFDISK ERROR:
|
| This disk is currently in use - repartitioning is probably a bad idea.
| Umount all file systems, and swapoff all swap partitions on this disk.
| Use the --no-reread flag to suppress this check.
| Use the --force flag to overrule all checks.
`----

but fdisk and cfdisk report similar error:

,----
| Wrote partition table, but re-read table failed.
| Reboot to update table.
`----

on this particular disk (IBM Deckstar 40Gb):

,----
| # hdparm -iv /dev/hda
|
| /dev/hda:
|  multcount    =  0 (off)
|  I/O support  =  1 (32-bit)
|  unmaskirq    =  1 (on)
|  using_dma    =  1 (on)
|  keepsettings =  0 (off)
|  nowerr       =  0 (off)
|  readonly     =  0 (off)
|  readahead    =  8 (on)
|  geometry     = 5005/255/63, sectors = 80418240, start = 0
|
|  Model=IC35L040AVER07-0, FwRev=ER4OA45A, SerialNo=SXPTXGN0147
|  Config={ HardSect NotMFM HdSw>15uSec Fixed DTR>10Mbs }
|  RawCHS=16383/16/63, TrkSize=0, SectSize=0, ECCbytes=40
|  BuffType=DualPortCache, BuffSize=1916kB, MaxMultSect=16, MultSect=off
|  CurCHS=16383/16/63, CurSects=16514064, LBA=yes, LBAsects=80418240
|  IORDY=on/off, tPIO={min:240,w/IORDY:120}, tDMA={min:120,rec:120}
|  PIO modes: pio0 pio1 pio2 pio3 pio4
|  DMA modes: mdma0 mdma1 mdma2 udma0 udma1 udma2 udma3 udma4 *udma5
|  AdvancedPM=yes: disabled (255) WriteCache=enabled
|  Drive Supports : ATA/ATAPI-5 T13 1321D revision 1 : ATA-2 ATA-3 ATA-4 ATA-5
|
|  busstate     =  1 (on)
`----

plugged in this ide-controller:

,----
| VP_IDE: VIA vt82c686b (rev 40) IDE UDMA100 controller on pci00:04.1
|     ide0: BM-DMA at 0xd800-0xd807, BIOS settings: hda:DMA, hdb:pio
|     ide1: BM-DMA at 0xd808-0xd80f, BIOS settings: hdc:DMA, hdd:pio
| hda: IC35L040AVER07-0, ATA DISK drive
| hdc: CD-ROM 52X/AKH, ATAPI CD/DVD-ROM drive
| ide0 at 0x1f0-0x1f7,0x3f6 on irq 14
| ide1 at 0x170-0x177,0x376 on irq 15
| hda: 80418240 sectors (41174 MB) w/1916KiB Cache, CHS=5005/255/63, UDMA(100)
| Partition check:
|  hda: hda1 hda2 < hda5 hda6 hda7 hda8 hda9 >
...
|  ataraid/d0: ataraid/d0p1 ataraid/d0p2 < ataraid/d0p5 ataraid/d0p6 ataraid/d0p7 ataraid/d0p8 ataraid/d0p9 >
| Drive 0 is 39266 Mb (3 / 0)
| Raid0 array consists of 1 drives.
| Promise Fasttrak(tm) Softwareraid driver for linux version 0.03beta
`----

on this box:

,----
| #
| # This report has been generated by detect 0.9.72
| #
|
| CPU:AuthenticAMD:AMD Athlon(TM) XP 1700+:1466:[HAS_FPU:HAS_3DNOW:HAS_MMX]:2922.9
| 0:(none)
| MEMORY:514992:498056:0:8:7956:0:0
| BRIDGE:PCI:VIA Technologies, Inc.:VT82C686 [Apollo Super]:unknown
| IDE:PCI:VIA Technologies, Inc.:VT82C586 IDE [Apollo]:ignore
| USB:PCI:VIA Technologies, Inc.:VT82C586B USB:usb-uhci
| USB:PCI:VIA Technologies, Inc.:VT82C586B USB:usb-uhci
| DISK:ATAPI/IDE:Unknown:IC35L040AVER07-0:/dev/hda:80405325:255:63:5005
| FLOPPY:Floppy Drive Controller:Unknown:1.44MB 3.5":/dev/fd0
| CDROM:ATAPI/IDE:Unknown:CD-ROM 52X/AKH:/dev/hdc
| CDROM:SCSI:E-IDE:CD-ROM 52X/AKH:/dev/scd0
| VIDEO:Unknown:NONE:Generic VGA:[VGA16]:256:NONE:Unknown
| ETHERNET:PCI:3Com Corporation:3c905C-TX [Fast Etherlink]:3c59x
| SOUND:PCI:C-Media Electronics Inc:CM8738:[]:cmpci
| MOUSE:PS/2:Unknown:Unknown:/dev/psaux
| PARALLEL:/dev/lp0:LPT0
| SERIAL:/dev/ttyS0:COM0
| SERIAL:/dev/ttyS1:COM1
| OTHER:1022700e:PCI:Advanced Micro Devices [AMD]:Unknown:Unknown
| OTHER:1022700f:PCI:Advanced Micro Devices [AMD]:Unknown:Unknown
| OTHER:11063057:PCI:VIA Technologies, Inc.:VT82C686 [Apollo Super ACPI]:ignore
| OTHER:10de0171:PCI:nVidia Corporation:Unknown:Unknown
| FREE_IRQS:3:4:7:12:13:
| FREE_DMAS:0:1:3:5:6:7:
`----

Doesn't matter _how_ I parition it. sfdisk:

,----
| # LC_ALL=C sfdisk -q /dev/hda < /tmp/fai/hda.sfdisk
`----

fails:

,----
| BLKRRPART: Device or resource busy
`----

I can:

,----
| # LC_ALL=C sfdisk -f -q /dev/hda < /tmp/fai/hda.sfdisk
`----

and it will do the job. But it will:

,----
| BLKRRPART: Device or resource busy
| This disk is currently in use.
`----

if I:

,----
| # LC_ALL=C sfdisk -R /dev/hda
`----

After a reboot, I can format and fsck the partitions on this particular
disk with no trouble.

I get _no_ such problems if I use another (smaller) ide-disk. I tried
Seagate and IBM.

Any idea what I might be amiss here?


Cheers,
Cristian