Re: parted problem

Eric "Shubes" wrote:
> Eric "Shubes" wrote:
>
>> I'm trying to resize (shrink) a primary ext3 partition (root, sans
>> boot) using parted. I've tried the FC3 rescue cd (parted v1.6.15) and
>> the SystemRescueCD (parted v1.6.11), both with the same result.
>>
>> When I try parted's resize (or check) command, I get:
>> Error: Filesystem has incompatable feature enabled.
>>
>> I've googled for the error, and found no solution. From what I see in
>> the documentation, parted should be able to shrink ext3 partitions as
>> long as the starting point is the same, which it is. The fact that the
>> check command gives the same error makes me wonder (what?).
>>
>> Before I (re)start from scratch, does anyone have an idea what might
>> be the problem?
>
>
> I guess answering my own question isn't all bad.
>
> As I RTFM *in detail*, I realized that FC3 had installed logical volumes
> (became the default with FC3). Not a problem. According to the
> documentation, just use the virtual device name (/dev/md0) instead of
> the hardware device name (/dev/hda). The FM has details. Hope I
> understand it.
>
> Thanks to anyone who scratched their head.

For the record, that wasn't the problem after all. FC3 does default to
installing logical volumes, but I had manually changed that to use
normal (vanilla) partitions. The partition in question was a typical
linux (type 83) partition.

The first problem was that I didn't spell incompatIble properly, so I
wasn't finding anything on the parted email list archives. Once I
corrected that, I found some interesting posts.

In short, parted isn't as robust as it might be. The error message in
question is indicative of several ext2fs (and/or ext3fs) features that
aren't supported. It is unfortunate that these incompatible
(unsupported) features aren't documented in the parted manual. To find
out which features a given ext2/3 partition has, do a 'dumpe2fs | head |
grep "Filesystem features"' command. If you see dir_index or ext_attr
listed (and possibly others, as they're not documented except in the
source code), then parted won't be able to manipulate that partition.

I think it's probably a good practice to run the parted check command
before attempting to resize or move a partition. The check command gives
the same error if there's a problem with compatibility. On the positive
side, at least parted won't trash the partition if it has an
incompatible feature.

I ended up (re)starting from scratch.

That is all.
-- 
-Eric 'shubes'
"There is no such thing as the People;
  it is a collectivist myth.
  There are only individual citizens
  with individual wills
  and individual purposes."
-William E. Simon (1927-2000),
     Secretary of the Treasury (1974-1977)
  "A Time For Truth" (1978), pg. 237

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