Unable to add Ubuntu 13.10 to Multiboot System

[archp2009]

I find that when I choose "something else" I am unable to see the unallocated space that I previously created for Ubuntu. Only the main drives are listed (NTFS) and none of the smaller partitions can be seen. Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

[oldfred]

Have you used all 4 primary partitions in MBR partitioning?

sudo fdisk -lu
sudo parted /dev/sda unit s print

[archp2009]

Thanks for the prompt reply. Acronis Disk Manager is currently showing 2 primary partitions and 7 logical partitions on that drive. If necessary I can use Grub Superdisk to get back the old Grub loader and possibly gain access to Linux Mint but then I will lose access to Windows 8. I have erased my old Ubuntu partition. I had hoped that installing Ubuntu 13.1 where 13.04 used to be would create a new grub boot loader that would add Win8 to the list. Does it matter whether or not the unallocated free space is the rightmost partition on the disk? I shrunk the main partition and added Windows 8 before trying to add Ubuntu, so the unallocated free space is now in the middle somewhere rather than at the end. If it will help to make the partition show up in Ubuntu, I can swallow up that free space into the Win8 (make the Win8 partition larger)and then shrink the same Win8 partition so that this free space is at the end rather than at the beginning. I have never before had the problem of the Linux partitions not showing up during the installation of Ubuntu. I did not see an option to upgrade either.

[oldfred]

Grub2's os-prober should still had Windows to menu, but you have to make sure the always hibernation or fast boot is off and that you have rebooted after a resize so it can run chkdsk. After any resize to a NTFS partition Windows has to run chkdsk.
If hibernation or chkdsk flags are set on NTFS partition then the Linux NTFS driver will not mount it.

[archp2009]

Thanks again for your kind supporr.

From Live Disk

ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo fdisk -lu

Disk /dev/sda: 1000.2 GB, 1000204886016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 121601 cylinders, total 1953525168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x5d7d47e1

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 2048 99474479 49736216 7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda2 99474487 287547434 94036474 7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda3 287547435 778204664 245328615 7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda4 778204665 1953520064 587657700 7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT

Disk /dev/sdb: 640.1 GB, 640135028736 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 77825 cylinders, total 1250263728 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x500b9b3f

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1 * 203929110 1250258813 523164852 7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sdb2 16065 203922244 101953090 f W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/sdb5 16128 203922244 101953058+ 7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT

Partition table entries are not in disk order

Disk /dev/sdc: 320.1 GB, 320072933376 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 38913 cylinders, total 625142448 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x07510751

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdc1 * 32127 466623989 233295931+ 7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sdc2 466624512 569534463 51454976 7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sdc3 569536511 596211711 13337600+ f W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/sdc5 569536512 569927679 195584 83 Linux
/dev/sdc6 569929728 589459455 9764864 83 Linux
/dev/sdc7 589461504 593281023 1909760 83 Linux
/dev/sdc8 593281024 594257919 488448 83 Linux
/dev/sdc9 594259968 596211711 975872 82 Linux swap / Solaris
Warning: ignoring extra data in partition table 5
Warning: ignoring extra data in partition table 5
Warning: ignoring extra data in partition table 5
Warning: invalid flag 0x3319 of partition table 5 will be corrected by w(rite)

Disk /dev/sdd: 122.9 GB, 122942324736 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 14946 cylinders, total 240121728 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x12ec12ec

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdd1 * 63 240107489 120053713+ 7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sdd2 240091425 240107489 8032+ f W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/sdd5 ? 642637446 731883570 44623062+ 15 Unknown

Disk /dev/sdf: 31.9 GB, 31914983424 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 3880 cylinders, total 62333952 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x46dd9c46

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdf1 8192 62333951 31162880 c W95 FAT32 (LBA)
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo parted /dev/sda unit s print
Model: ATA ST31000340AS (scsi)
Disk /dev/sda: 1953525168s
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: msdos

Number Start End Size Type File system Flags
1 2048s 99474479s 99472432s primary ntfs boot
2 99474487s 287547434s 188072948s primary ntfs
3 287547435s 778204664s 490657230s primary ntfs
4 778204665s 1953520064s 1175315400s primary ntfs


You didn't comment regarding my question about putting the free space at the end of the disk. What do you think about the problem of my not seeing the unallocated space during installation attempt?

[oldfred]

You have some sort of partition table issue on sdc. That will cause issues until fixed.

Backup partition table to text file & save to external device.
sudo sfdisk -d /dev/sdc > PTsdc.txt


sudo fdisk /dev/sdc
x # enter expert mode
f # fix partition table
r # return
p # to print
v # to verify partition
if ok
w # write the changes to disk
q # quit

[archp2009]

Thanks again. From Live disk:

ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo sfdisk -d /dev/sdc > PTsdc.txt
Warning: extended partition does not start at a cylinder boundary.
DOS and Linux will interpret the contents differently.ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo fdisk /dev/sdc

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): p

Disk /dev/sdc: 320.1 GB, 320072933376 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 38913 cylinders, total 625142448 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x07510751

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdc1 * 32127 466623989 233295931+ 7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sdc2 466624512 569534463 51454976 7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sdc3 569536511 596211711 13337600+ f W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/sdc5 569536512 569927679 195584 83 Linux
/dev/sdc6 569929728 589459455 9764864 83 Linux
/dev/sdc7 589461504 593281023 1909760 83 Linux
/dev/sdc8 593281024 594257919 488448 83 Linux
/dev/sdc9 594259968 596211711 975872 82 Linux swap / Solaris

Command (m for help):

What now?

[oldfred]

It is not showing errors show you must w for write or the changes will not be saved.

Then in gparted or the installer you should see all your partitions.
I suggest the manual install or Something else so you can install the grub2 boot loader to the same drive as the install. Then set BIOS to boot from that drive.

You have a lot of NTFS partitions. The Linux NTFS driver exposes all the hidden files that Windows like to hide. I suggest mounting Windows system partitions as read only and data partitions as read/write. Also if hibernated or needing chkdsk, the driver will not mount the partition until that flag is cleared to prevent damage that chkdsk or writing into the hibernated system may cause.

[archp2009]

When you say, press "w to write changes," do you mean that one of those commands you gave me earlier made changes? I should have mentioned earlier that Windows has been going crazy running chkdsk on all the drives. I had it disabled because I was trying to do stuff with Windows 8. I re-enabled autocheck and a few changes have been made. I'm running another chkdsk on one of the disk that reported errors. It is jammed full with movies and takes forever to do the chkdsk. I don't understand what you mean by mounting Windows drives as read only, etc.

[oldfred]

If the fdisk command has run, you have to use w to save the changes.

Set windows boot partition Read only - Morbius1
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2043862:
After Ubuntu has done it's thing I usually go in and change the umask to 227 which will make the C Drive read only.
/dev/sda1 /media/sda1 ntfs nls=iso8859-1,ro,umask=227 0 0
UUID=xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx /WinC ntfs defaults,noauto,ro,umask=227 0 0


http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1983336
Mount & edit fstab from Morbius1 - suggest using templates instead. Post #6


Ownership and permissions of vfat / ntfs are set at the time of mounting. This is often a source of confusion.
HOWTO: Mount NTFS partitions with specific ownership/permissions - WorMzy
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1604251
http://www.psychocats.net/ubuntu/mountwindowsfstab