[SOLVED] installer not recognizing existing partitions

[dwaggoner]

I am trying to install kubuntu 8.04.1 on a dell latitude D620 laptop. The existing partitions, as reported by fdisk, are

Disk /dev/sda: 100.0 GB, 100030242816 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 12161 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 3421 6069 21278092+ c W95 FAT32 (LBA)
/dev/sda2 * 12 3420 27382792+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda3 1 12161 97683201 5 Extended
/dev/sda5 1 11 88294+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda6 6070 7343 10233373+ 83 Linux
/dev/sda7 7344 12161 38700553+ 83 Linux

Partition table entries are not in disk order

Currently, Windows XP and Mandriva 2007 are installed.

When trying to install kubuntu 8.04.1 from the live CD, at screen "Prepare disk space" where I should have several options, the only options presented are Guided-use entire disk and Manual. In other words,
the installer is not recognizing my existing partitions! On the other hand, when I boot from the live CD, all the partitions are recognized.

This has not happened when installing 8.04.1 on other machines. Also, I get the same problem when trying to install 8.10. From other posts in these forums, it seems that other users may be encountering similar problems, but I have seen no usable solutions.

Any help with why this is happing and a possible work around would be greatly appreciated.

Dan

[Pumalite]

Go 'Manual' and you'll probably see them all. You'll have to pick which ones you want to use. Don't forget the 4 primaries per disk rule.

[dwaggoner]

That was the second thing I tried, but it did not work. Normally, in manual mode the existing partitions are displayed and you have the option of keeping some and doing what you will with the others. It really does seem to be the case that the installer does not see any of the existing partitions. The question is why and can anything be done short of nuking the existing setup?

Thanks

Dan

[caljohnsmith]

Disk /dev/sda: 100.0 GB, 100030242816 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 12161 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 3421 6069 21278092+ c W95 FAT32 (LBA)
/dev/sda2 * 12 3420 27382792+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda3 1 12161 97683201 5 Extended
/dev/sda5 1 11 88294+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda6 6070 7343 10233373+ 83 Linux
/dev/sda7 7344 12161 38700553+ 83 Linux

Partition table entries are not in disk order

It looks to me like your partition table is unfortunately corrupted, and that's why the installer is having problems with it. Note that your sda3 extended partition starts at the 1st cylinder and ends at the end of the drive, so that means all the partitions in it should be logical partitions. But you have sda1 and sda2 which are primary partitions, so it looks like your extended partition boundaries are off. Fortunately though, I think the problem might be easy to correct with sfdisk, so if you want some help fixing your partition table, how about posting the output of:

sudo fdisk -lu
sudo sfdisk -d /dev/sda

Also, assuming you can still boot into your current Mandriva install, please also post:

sudo blkid -c /dev/null
cat /etc/fstab
And we can work from there.

[dwaggoner]

Thanks for the reply. The output of fdisk -lu is


Disk /dev/sda: 100.0 GB, 100030242816 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 12161 cylinders, total 195371568 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 54942300 97498484 21278092+ c W95 FAT32 (LBA)
/dev/sda2 * 176715 54942299 27382792+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda3 63 195366464 97683201 5 Extended
/dev/sda5 126 176714 88294+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda6 97498548 117965294 10233373+ 83 Linux
/dev/sda7 117965358 195366464 38700553+ 83 Linux

Partition table entries are not in disk order

The output of fsdisk -d /dev/sda is


Warning: extended partition does not start at a cylinder boundary.
DOS and Linux will interpret the contents differently.
# partition table of /dev/sda
unit: sectors

/dev/sda1 : start= 54942300, size= 42556185, Id= c
/dev/sda2 : start= 176715, size= 54765585, Id= 7, bootable
/dev/sda3 : start= 63, size=195366402, Id= 5
/dev/sda4 : start= 0, size= 0, Id= 0
/dev/sda5 : start= 126, size= 176589, Id=82
/dev/sda6 : start= 97498548, size= 20466747, Id=83
/dev/sda7 : start=117965358, size= 77401107, Id=83

The output of blkid -c /dev/null is


/dev/sda1: LABEL="hout delay." UUID="4547-4EA1" TYPE="vfat"
/dev/sda2: TYPE="ntfs"
/dev/sda5: TYPE="swap" UUID="ecd315f9-654d-41ef-afc4-616901a0e357"
/dev/sda6: UUID="03ff376b-412a-405d-9806-4e11d4dda504" SEC_TYPE="ext2" TYPE="ext3"
/dev/sda7: UUID="4c1dbf5b-46f7-43a4-9ccd-3002bbc77cfa" SEC_TYPE="ext2" TYPE="ext3"

The output of cat /etc/fstab is


/dev/sda6 / ext3 noatime 1 1
/dev/sda1 /common vfat umask=0,iocharset=utf8 0 0
/dev/sda7 /home ext3 noatime 1 2
/dev/sr0 /mnt/cdrom auto umask=0,users,iocharset=utf8,noauto,ro,exec 0 0
//192.168.1.5/Volume_1 /mnt/dlink smbfs noauto,users,username=%,uid=daniel,gid=daniel 0 0
none /proc proc defaults 0 0
/dev/sda2 /windows ntfs umask=0,nls=utf8,ro 0 0
/dev/sda5 swap swap defaults 0 0


I can boot into Mandriva and Windows just fine and when I use the live CD to boot into Kubuntu, it can read all of the hard drive partitions. To be perfectly honest, dealing with partitions makes me very cautious and I really appreciate the help you are giving me.

Dan

[caljohnsmith]

OK, to correct your partition table problem, we will need to make your swap sda5 partition a primary partition, and then correct the starting point of the sda3 extended partition. Fortunately it is not hard to do this with sfdisk, so how about downloading the attached "partition_table.txt" to your desktop, and then do:

sudo sfdisk --force /dev/sda < ~/Desktop/partition_table.txt
That will produce a lot of output, including some warnings, so don't be alarmed; please post the output though so I can check it. Next boot your Live CD, open a terminal (or Konsole in Kubuntu), and do:


sudo fdisk -lu
sudo sfdisk -d /dev/sda
sudo grub
grub> root (hd0,4)
grub> setup (hd0)
grub> quit
And please post the output of the all the above commands before doing the "quit". Next do:

sudo mount /dev/sda5 /mnt
gksudo gedit /mnt/etc/fstab
Or use "kdesu kate" instead instead of "gksudo gedit" in the command above if you are using your Kubuntu Live CD, and then change the fstab to:

/dev/sda5 / ext3 noatime 1 1
/dev/sda1 /common vfat umask=0,iocharset=utf8 0 0
/dev/sda6 /home ext3 noatime 1 2
/dev/sr0 /mnt/cdrom auto umask=0,users,iocharset=utf8,noauto,ro,exec 0 0
//192.168.1.5/Volume_1 /mnt/dlink smbfs noauto,users,username=%,uid=daniel,gid=daniel 0 0
none /proc proc defaults 0 0
/dev/sda2 /windows ntfs umask=0,nls=utf8,ro 0 0
/dev/sda4 swap swap defaults 0 0
Next open up your menu.lst:

gksudo gedit /mnt/boot/grub/menu.lst
And for all the Mandriva entries, change their "root" line to use (hd0,4) and not the current (hd0,5). Then reboot, and you should be able to boot into Mandriva again if all goes well. Let me know how it goes or if you run into problems. :)

[dwaggoner]

Wow, thanks for the really quick reply. It's getting late on the east coast, so I will probably try this tomorrow or Friday. To understand what is going on, it seems the the info for the extended partition (which is the partition that gets subdivided into smaller partitions?) somehow got corrupted and sfdisk can be used to fix this. After this fix the two linux partitions will be the pieces in the extended partitions and we will have to fix all the names. Who knows what is going on with sda4?

As I said before, dealing with partitions makes me cautious. Of course, I have backed up all my data and I do not really care if the Mandriva or the fat32 partitions get hosed since they may well be used for the Kubuntu installation, but the Windows XP partition is a different matter. If this partition is damaged, then I will have to grovel before a coworker to get Windows, and some Windows applications, reinstalled. While I know that you cannot guarantee that this will work, I am curious -- if this were your machine and the cost of failure is some groveling, would you attempt this?

Again, thanks much for your time.

Dan

[caljohnsmith]

While I know that you cannot guarantee that this will work, I am curious -- if this were your machine and the cost of failure is some groveling, would you attempt this?

Again, thanks much for your time.

Dan
I can understand and respect your cautiousness about changing your HDD's partition table; but to answer your question, yes, I would not hesitate to do it if it were my own machine, because in fact I have done the exact same type of repartitioning with sfdisk on my own computer just recently. I changed my swap partition, which was a primary partition, into a logical partition inside my extended partition, so I can resize one of my linux partitions to make room for another primary partition. And in case it makes you feel at little more at ease, I've helped several people in the forums to correct their partition tables using the same sfdisk technique with no problems. Keep in mind that when we use sfdisk, we are just changing the partition table in the MBR (Master Boot Record) and the partition table in each of the EBRs (Extended Boot Records) associated with each logical partition, so it's not like we are moving/resizing/formatting partitions; we are just changing a few numbers in the partition tables. Also, because you posted the output of "sfdisk -d", we have a perfect online backup of your present partition table. So the bottom line is I don't think you will have to grovel to your coworker for another copy of Windows; but like I said, I totally respect your wanting to exercise caution, yet I think you will be just fine. :)

[dwaggoner]

I decided to try to repair the partition table. The outcome was good, but not perfect. First the output you requested:


[root@localhost daniel]# sfdisk --force /dev/sda < /home/daniel/Desktop/partition_table.txt
Checking that no-one is using this disk right now ...
BLKRRPART: Device or resource busy

This disk is currently in use - repartitioning is probably a bad idea.
Umount all file systems, and swapoff all swap partitions on this disk.
Use the --no-reread flag to suppress this check.

Disk /dev/sda: 12161 cylinders, 255 heads, 63 sectors/track
Warning: extended partition does not start at a cylinder boundary.
DOS and Linux will interpret the contents differently.
Old situation:
Units = cylinders of 8225280 bytes, blocks of 1024 bytes, counting from 0

Device Boot Start End #cyls #blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 3420 6068 2649 21278092+ c W95 FAT32 (LBA)
/dev/sda2 * 11 3419 3409 27382792+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda3 0+ 12160 12161- 97683201 5 Extended
/dev/sda4 0 - 0 0 0 Empty
/dev/sda5 0+ 10 11- 88294+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda6 6069+ 7342 1274- 10233373+ 83 Linux
/dev/sda7 7343+ 12160 4818- 38700553+ 83 Linux
New situation:
Units = sectors of 512 bytes, counting from 0

Device Boot Start End #sectors Id System
/dev/sda1 54942300 97498484 42556185 c W95 FAT32 (LBA)
/dev/sda2 * 176715 54942299 54765585 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda3 97498485 195366464 97867980 5 Extended
/dev/sda4 126 176714 176589 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda5 97498548 117965294 20466747 83 Linux
/dev/sda6 117965358 195366464 77401107 83 Linux
Successfully wrote the new partition table

Re-reading the partition table ...
BLKRRPART: Device or resource busy
The command to re-read the partition table failed
Reboot your system now, before using mkfs

If you created or changed a DOS partition, /dev/foo7, say, then use dd(1)
to zero the first 512 bytes: dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/foo7 bs=512 count=1
(See fdisk(8).)


ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo fdisk -lu

Disk /dev/sda: 100.0 GB, 100030242816 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 12161 cylinders, total 195371568 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x41ab2316

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 54942300 97498484 21278092+ c W95 FAT32 (LBA)
/dev/sda2 * 176715 54942299 27382792+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda3 97498485 195366464 48933990 5 Extended
/dev/sda4 126 176714 88294+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda5 97498548 117965294 10233373+ 83 Linux
/dev/sda6 117965358 195366464 38700553+ 83 Linux

Partition table entries are not in disk order
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo sfdisk -d /dev/sda
# partition table of /dev/sda
unit: sectors

/dev/sda1 : start= 54942300, size= 42556185, Id= c
/dev/sda2 : start= 176715, size= 54765585, Id= 7, bootable
/dev/sda3 : start= 97498485, size= 97867980, Id= 5
/dev/sda4 : start= 126, size= 176589, Id=82
/dev/sda5 : start= 97498548, size= 20466747, Id=83
/dev/sda6 : start=117965358, size= 77401107, Id=83
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo grub
Probing devices to guess BIOS drives. This may take a long time.
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$

These two proceedures went well, but


grub> root (hd0,4)

grub> setup (hd0)
Checking if "/boot/grub/stage1" exists... no
Checking if "/grub/stage1" exists... no

Error 15: File not found

grub>

Also, the file /boot/grub/menu.lst does not exist and I could not boot into Mandriva. I am not sure if Mandriva used grub as its boot loader.

On the good side, I could boot into Windows -- no groveling for me! Unless you have a better idea, I plan to install Kubuntu over the FAT32 partition and after that I may be able to boot into either Kubuntu or Mandriva or Windows. However, I will not do that until the weekend.

Again, I thank you for all your expert help.

Dan

[caljohnsmith]

When you ran the Grub commands, did you make sure to do it as root user, i.e. with "sudo grub"? That is often a cause of getting that file not found error when actually the Grub files exist. I looked over your new partition table, and it looks like everything went as planned; all the partition start/end points are what they should be. So in order to get a better idea of which steps we need to do to get Grub working again and booting all your OSes, how about doing:

cd ~/Desktop && wget 'http://home.comcast.net/~ubuntu_grub/boot_info_script.txt' && sudo bash boot_info_script.txt
That will create a "RESULTS.txt" file in the same directory from where the script is run, namely your desktop; please copy/paste the contents of that file to your next post and we can work from there.

[dwaggoner]

Attached are the results of the script.

Thanks,

Dan

[caljohnsmith]

Great, it looks like all your partitions are just fine since they all mounted OK and are readable; but you were right about Mandriva using Lilo instead of Grub it appears. How about trying the following:

sudo mount /dev/sda5 /mnt
sudo mount --bind /dev /mnt/dev
sudo mount --bind /proc /mnt/proc
sudo chroot /mnt /bin/bash
liloconfig
exit
And see if you can get through the "liloconfig" prompts OK in order to reinstall Lilo to your MBR for Mandriva. If you run into problems, please let me know exactly what errors you might receive. We can work from there.

[dwaggoner]

Here is the output of the commands you suggested I run.


ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo mount /dev/sda5 /mnt
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo mount --bind /dev /mnt/dev
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo mount --bind /proc /mnt/proc
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo chroot /mnt /bin/bash
bash-3.1# liloconfig
bash: liloconfig: command not found
bash-3.1# liloconfig
bash: liloconfig: command not found
bash-3.1# sudo liloconfig
sudo: liloconfig: command not found
bash-3.1# exit


After some poking around, it seems that the file liloconfig should be in the /usr/sbin directory, at least in ubuntu. That file is not in the Mandriva installation. Below is the contents of the Mandriva lilo.config file


# File generated by DrakX/drakboot
# WARNING: do not forget to run lilo after modifying this file

default="linux"
boot=/dev/sda
map=/boot/map
keytable=/boot/us.klt
menu-scheme=wb:bw:wb:bw
compact
prompt
nowarn
timeout=6000
message=/boot/message
image=/boot/vmlinuz
label="linux"
root=/dev/sda6
initrd=/boot/initrd.img
append=" splash=verbose"
vga=788
image=/boot/vmlinuz
label="linux-nonfb"
root=/dev/sda6
initrd=/boot/initrd.img
append=" splash=verbose"
image=/boot/vmlinuz
label="failsafe"
root=/dev/sda6
initrd=/boot/initrd.img
append="failsafe"
other=/dev/sda2
label="windows"
table=/dev/sda

Surely the sda6 in this file should be sda5 now. What do you say about making this change, running lilo, and then seeing if I can boot into Mandriva.

Dan

[caljohnsmith]

Surely the sda6 in this file should be sda5 now. What do you say about making this change, running lilo, and then seeing if I can boot into Mandriva.

Dan
Yes, I agree, the references in the lilo config file should use sda5 now. I've never used lilo for anything other than as a replacement for a Windows MBR, so I'm sorry I can't be of more help about restoring lilo. I would have to research it, because I thought "liloconfig" was the way to reinstall lilo; but I must be wrong. Let me know how that goes.

[dwaggoner]

Success!

A million thanks. While I would not have been unhappy continuing with the Mandriva distro, it was getting long in the tooth. I've been using Ubuntu for a few months now on other machines and am very pleased with it. I have used linux for the last seven or so years and Ubuntu is the first distribution that I would recommend to a novice user - it is a really clean easy to use setup.

Dan

[caljohnsmith]

Success!

A million thanks. While I would not have been unhappy continuing with the Mandriva distro, it was getting long in the tooth. I've been using Ubuntu for a few months now on other machines and am very pleased with it. I have used linux for the last seven or so years and Ubuntu is the first distribution that I would recommend to a novice user - it is a really clean easy to use setup.

Dan
That's great news, Dan. Glad to hear it's working, so you should be able to install Kunbuntu/Ubuntu now without any partition table problems. Cheers and have fun with all your OSes. :)