Can I abuse md like this?
I hope I can use the md code to solve a problem, although in a way probably not envisioned by the author(s).
I have a disk image, a physical dump of every sector from start to finish, including the partition table. What I hope I can do is to create a one drive RAID-1 partitionable array, and then access it with fdisk or similar. These partitions are not "nice" types such as FAT, VFAT, ext2, etc, this is an odd disk, and I "saved it" by saving everything. Now I'd like to start dismembering the information and putting it into useful pieces. I even dare to hope that I could get the original software running on a virtual machine at some point.
The other alternative is to loopback mount it, I'm somewhat reluctant to do that if I can avoid it.
Yes, the partition table is standard in format if not in content.
Signature · 3 lines
bill davidsen <[email protected]> CTO TMR Associates, Inc Doing interesting things with small computers since 1979
Quoted 12 lines · On Saturday December 23, [email protected] wrote:
I hope I can use the md code to solve a problem, although in a way probably not envisioned by the author(s).
I have a disk image, a physical dump of every sector from start to finish, including the partition table. What I hope I can do is to create a one drive RAID-1 partitionable array, and then access it with fdisk or similar. These partitions are not "nice" types such as FAT, VFAT, ext2, etc, this is an odd disk, and I "saved it" by saving everything. Now I'd like to start dismembering the information and putting it into useful pieces. I even dare to hope that I could get the original software running on a virtual machine at some point.
Quoted 4 lines
The other alternative is to loopback mount it, I'm somewhat reluctant to do that if I can avoid it.
Yes, the partition table is standard in format if not in content.
Maybe...
Is this image in a file?
md only works with block devices, so you would need to use the 'loop' driver to create a block-device "/dev/loopX".
But as loop devices cannot be partitioned, you could then
mdadm -Bf /dev/md/d9 -amdp8 -l1 -f -n1 /dev/loopX
and then look at the partitions in /dev/md/d9_*
Should work.
NeilBrown
Quoted 8 lines · Neil Brown
Quoted 6 lines · On Saturday December 23, [email protected] wrote:
I hope I can use the md code to solve a problem, although in a way probably not envisioned by the author(s).
I have a disk image, a physical dump of every sector from start to finish, including the partition table. What I hope I can do is to create a one drive RAID-1 partitionable array, and then access it with fdisk or similar. These partitions are not "nice" types such as FAT, VFAT, ext2, etc, this is an odd disk, and I "saved it" by saving everything. Now I'd like to start dismembering the information and putting it into useful pieces. I even dare to hope that I could get the original software running on a virtual machine at some point.
The other alternative is to loopback mount it, I'm somewhat reluctant to do that if I can avoid it.
Quoted 8 lines
Quoted 2 lines
Yes, the partition table is standard in format if not in content.
Maybe...
Is this image in a file?
md only works with block devices, so you would need to use the 'loop' driver to create a block-device "/dev/loopX".
I was thinking nbd, actually.
Quoted 6 lines
But as loop devices cannot be partitioned, you could then
mdadm -Bf/dev/md/d9-amdp8 -l1 -f -n1/dev/loopXand then look at the partitions in
/dev/md/d9_*Should work.
Sounds worth a try. Will be a learning experience if nothing else.
Signature · 3 lines
bill davidsen <[email protected]> CTO TMR Associates, Inc Doing interesting things with small computers since 1979
Quoted 17 lines · Bill Davidsen
Quoted 8 lines · Neil Brown
Quoted 6 lines · On Saturday December 23, [email protected] wrote:
I hope I can use the md code to solve a problem, although in a way probably not envisioned by the author(s).
I have a disk image, a physical dump of every sector from start to finish, including the partition table. What I hope I can do is to create a one drive RAID-1 partitionable array, and then access it with fdisk or similar. These partitions are not "nice" types such as FAT, VFAT, ext2, etc, this is an odd disk, and I "saved it" by saving everything. Now I'd like to start dismembering the information and putting it into useful pieces. I even dare to hope that I could get the original software running on a virtual machine at some point.
The other alternative is to loopback mount it, I'm somewhat reluctant to do that if I can avoid it.
Quoted 8 lines
Quoted 2 lines
Yes, the partition table is standard in format if not in content.
Maybe...
Is this image in a file?
md only works with block devices, so you would need to use the 'loop' driver to create a block-device "/dev/loopX".
Quoted 8 lines
I was thinking nbd, actually.
Quoted 5 lines
But as loop devices cannot be partitioned, you could then
mdadm -Bf/dev/md/d9-amdp8 -l1 -f -n1/dev/loopXand then look at the partitions in/dev/md/d9_*Should work.
Sounds worth a try. Will be a learning experience if nothing else.
Rather than setup nbd I did try a loop mount, and the whole process worked flawlessly. I was able to look at partitions, read the partition table, and generally do anything I could from a device. It worked so well I backed it up as an image, just in case I ever want to do something else with it.
Many thanks.
Signature · 3 lines
bill davidsen <[email protected]> CTO TMR Associates, Inc Doing interesting things with small computers since 1979