First steps reformat

[Linunix]

Finally Knoppix 4.0.2 is on CD and running! It is the first Linux system that brought it to the point of functioning on my system, congratulations! ;)

For now I need to do only one thing, namely reformat a partition (holds reisersf) and perhaps install a file system on another one. How would I best do that?

[dvryknopper]

man cfdisk

also use
sudo fdisk -l to view a list of all your current partitions, their size and their file system type. Also beware of qtparted in my experience it will malformat partitions. cfdisk is the tool that I used to format my partitions one thing that you need to keep in mind is that the partitions sizes are not listed in gigabytes and you have to select commit in order for changes that you choose to occur, good luck and becareful, the forums here should have more information somewhere around here to help you out :)

[Linunix]

Ok, thanks! So, are you saying that there is no GUI-based function in Knoppix to perform this kind of task?

[OErjan]

certainly, qtparted should work.

[Linunix]

So far I'm not enthusiastic! -

1. "fdisk" and "cfdisk" don't work because they don't gain access to the hard drive.
2. Attempt to change to "root" user failed because of missing password!
3. QParted does not know "reiserfs" system (furthermore its last update was 2004, which is a bad sign already)

Does not look like a good maintenance tool!

[OErjan]

eeh, ok.
sudo cfdisk
WILL work!
If you read some in the forums sticky headlines you will see something like the line below.

root password what is it?

[dvryknopper]

Avoid qtparted, it in my experience will malformat your drive, but cfdisk does work and as both I and OErjan pointed out, you need the sudo prefix before each command hope you get it running :)

[Linunix]

Ok, many thanks, I finally found a command "Root Console" in the menues. ;)

It seem though that I've made my point not clear enough! Say I have a partition /dev/hda10 (logical drive). It is of type "Linux" and hold a reiserfs file system. I want to clean this drive by reformatting it and make sure the file system is ok. I don't need to change the partition table for this! -

There must be a tool with which you can
a) install a Linux file system (reiserfs, etx2, ext3 etc.) - I don't quite understand how this interferes with partition types!
b) format a partition (device)

Obviousely with the tools you mentioned this is not possible. Is there any better advice?

[Linunix]

Ok, I found a solution by use of "mkfs".