I'm trying to install MCN Live (Toronto) to a 4 GB Toshiba flash drive. This drive has a silly little 4mb partition at the start which mandriva calls sr0. It then has a second partition of 3.97 GB called sda1. I can't delete the partion (sr0). In winXP disk management it shows as a cd-rom drive and can't be deleted! In mandrive fdisk I get the following:-

# fdisk /dev/sr0
You will not be able to write the partition table.
Note: sector size is 2048 (not 512)
Device contains neither a valid DOS partition table, nor Sun, SGI or OSF disklabel
Building a new DOS disklabel. Changes will remain in memory only,
until you decide to write them. After that, of course, the previous
content won't be recoverable.

You must set cylinders.
You can do this from the extra functions menu.
Warning: invalid flag 0x0000 of partition table 4 will be corrected by w(rite)

Command (m for help): m
Command action
a toggle a bootable flag
b edit bsd disklabel
c toggle the dos compatibility flag
d delete a partition
l list known partition types
m print this menu
n add a new partition
o create a new empty DOS partition table
p print the partition table
q quit without saving changes
s create a new empty Sun disklabel
t change a partition's system id
u change display/entry units
v verify the partition table
w write table to disk and exit
x extra functionality (experts only)

Command (m for help): d
No partition is defined yet!

Command (m for help): o
Building a new DOS disklabel. Changes will remain in memory only,
until you decide to write them. After that, of course, the previous
content won't be recoverable.

You must set cylinders.
You can do this from the extra functions menu.
Warning: invalid flag 0x0000 of partition table 4 will be corrected by w(rite)

Command (m for help): w

Unable to write /dev/sr0

I don't know how to set cylinders. How do I get rid of this silly little partition? How do I make 1 big partition filling the whole disk?
Why is nothing ever easy?

Try # fdisk /dev/sda

Thanks for the quick reply, I did as you said and deleted sda1, but sr0 is still there:-

# mount
/dev/hda5 on / type ext3 (rw,noatime)
none on /proc type proc (rw)
/dev/hda7 on /home type ext3 (rw,noatime)
/dev/hda1 on /mnt/windows type ntfs (ro,umask=0,nls=utf8)
none on /proc/sys/fs/binfmt_misc type binfmt_misc (rw)
sunrpc on /var/lib/nfs/rpc_pipefs type rpc_pipefs (rw)
nfsd on /proc/fs/nfsd type nfsd (rw)
/dev/sr0 on /media/cdrom2 type iso9660 (ro,nosuid,nodev,sync,users,iocharset=utf 8)

As you can see, it is now listed as cdrom2, the same as in XP disk management.

# fdisk /dev/sr0
You will not be able to write the partition table.
Note: sector size is 2048 (not 512)
Device contains neither a valid DOS partition table, nor Sun, SGI or OSF disklabel# mount
/dev/hda5 on / type ext3 (rw,noatime)
none on /proc type proc (rw)
/dev/hda7 on /home type ext3 (rw,noatime)
/dev/hda1 on /mnt/windows type ntfs (ro,umask=0,nls=utf8)
none on /proc/sys/fs/binfmt_misc type binfmt_misc (rw)
sunrpc on /var/lib/nfs/rpc_pipefs type rpc_pipefs (rw)
nfsd on /proc/fs/nfsd type nfsd (rw)
/dev/sr0 on /media/cdrom2 type iso9660 (ro,nosuid,nodev,sync,users,iocharset=utf 8)

Building a new DOS disklabel. Changes will remain in memory only,
until you decide to write them. After that, of course, the previous
content won't be recoverable.

You must set cylinders.
You can do this from the extra functions menu.
Warning: invalid flag 0x0000 of partition table 4 will be corrected by w(rite)

Command (m for help):

Any idea what I can do now? Thanks fo the assistance

This is not on your flash drive?

Please post the output of

# fdisk -l /dev/sda

Disk /dev/sda: 3993 MB, 3993304576 bytes
123 heads, 62 sectors/track, 1022 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 7626 * 512 = 3904512 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System

sr0 is definately on my flash drive, it contains 3 files which loads in XP:-

autorun.inf
Launchpad.zip
LaunchU3.exe

One option: Get rid of the U3 nonsense:

http://www.u3.com/uninstall/

Or wipe the partition table clean, the linux way:

http://mandrivausers.org/index.php?showtopic=42461
http://mandrivausers.org/index.php?s=&...st&p=316261

I just did a quick search and found this U3 stuff, and I agree with chris:b, get rid of it.

Yippee!! It's gone! I did as you both said, downloaded the uninstall prog, (has to run in windoze of course!)
and got rid of it. Would you believe I had to accept a license to get rid of THEIR crap off MY flash drive!
Never mind, it's gone now, now I've got 1 nice big 4GB /dev/sda1. Toronto here we come!

Many thanks to all for swift, accurate replies

Quick update, Toronto up and running, using it to send this. If anyone's interested, Acronis OS selector recognises MCNLive, calls it 'unknown operating system' (just rename it) and then boots straight into it! Bit slow to boot on my 3 year old laptop (usb 1.1), but quite responsive when loaded.

Your avatar: would love to have such a sweety!

Thankyou, I think your avatar would see mine off! She's a thoroughly pampered little Jack Russell terrier. I cropped the avatar from a larger pic, she's actually sitting on a cushion on our sofa having just been barking her head off at a German Shepherd that was walking by!