10.04 installer failed to install on HDD with four partitions.

[ikta]

Hello,

HDD with four partitions:
Three DOS bootable primary partitions are located in the head, and the residual
extended partition is divided into several logical drives.

1st trial:
10.04 installer recognized the last largest logical drive for system installation, but
installer truncated the extended partition, and created the "terrible" 5th primary partition at the end of the HDD.
GParted and other utilities cannot access to this 5th primary partition.
(So, I restored the lost partition table on the HDD manually by MBM. But
several OS were broken.)

2nd trial:
To avoid making this "terrible" 5th primary partition,
I located the largest logical drive for installation at not of the end.
10.04 installer recognized this logical drive, but failed again.
I tried GParted. but also failed to formating to ext4.
Maybe, 10.04 installer failed at this formating step.

Please help about installation steps.

Logical drives are not supported in 10.04 ??

[darkod]

Because you already have 3 primary and 1 extended partitions, you should better use the Manual Partitioning option, not the guided methods. It gives you more control over where will the partitions be created.

First, do you have unallocated space (not belonging to any partition) next to the extended partition? It needs to be next to it, because all logical partitions have to be next ot each other, inside the extended.

If you don't have unallocated space, first shrink the partition you plan to shrink, and how you do it depends on which version of windows you are running. For vista and 7, use windows Disk Management. Boot windows few times to do its disk checks.

After that create the logical partitions from the unallocated space using the Manual Partitioning option in the ubuntu installer. Or first expand the extended partition to include the unallocated space, and then create them. But this step shouldn't be necessary.

[ikta]

Hello, darkod san

The unallocated space next to the extended partition was maked by the 10.04 installer,
not by me.

[darkod]

Hello, darkod san

The unallocated space next to the extended partition was maked by the 10.04 installer,
not by me.

But when you restored the partition table the changes got canceled. Or there were other changes after that?

Can you post a screenshot of Gparted? I don't understand what is the current status, because when you said you tried to move the logical partition, you can't split the logical partitions, they all need to be grouped together so they can be included in the extended partition.

[ikta]

But when you restored the partition table the changes got canceled. Or there were other changes after that?

Can you post a screenshot of Gparted? I don't understand what is the current status, because when you said you tried to move the logical partition, you can't split the logical partitions, they all need to be grouped together so they can be included in the extended partition.

I restored partition table of the extended partition without GParted.

Not only GParted, other usual utilities could not operate this partition.
Maybe, because 5th partition is illegal in AT compatible, so not within the consideration of these software.

I used MBM R0.39 in DOS for fix the partition table.

MBM can edit the partition table, but in this case, partition table was almost lost in instllation. And MBM couldnot open extended partition. So, I wrote blank tabel at first and restored cylinder numbers of partitions by the memory in my brain.
But my memory was incomplete, so some OS was broken.
I think, 10.04 installer could not manipulate some pattern of the partition.
Maybe, more than one primary partition, or more than one primary partition before extended partition.

Maybe, I think, in these case, illegal connection of logical drive was wrote in MBR, so failed installation.
I think, GParted also failed manipulation in these case, maybe same reason.

[darkod]

We can only assume. That's why you need to post a screenshot of Gparted to see the current layout of the disk. Or at least boot the ubuntu cd in live mode and post the output of:

sudo fdisk -l (small L)

[ikta]

We can only assume. That's why you need to post a screenshot of Gparted to see the current layout of the disk. Or at least boot the ubuntu cd in live mode and post the output of:

sudo fdisk -l (small L)

I already restored HDD.

So I cannot get screenshot of GParted in illegal status.

And this fix is not comfortable.
So, I don't want to do same.
I don't have HDD for test.

I will go to sleep, because about 4:20 a.m. in Japan.
Sorry, and thanks.

See you again, after wake up.

[oldfred]

Just for your info:

You can use sfdisk to edit partitions:
Use sfdisk to edit partitions
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1192598
Caljohnsmith using sfdisk to edit partition table from text file
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1036600


You can use testdisk to recover old partitions. History of partitions must be saved somewhere as it finds many old versions and lets you recreate them.

enable the "universe" repository to download testdisk
System>Administration>Software Sources>Ubuntu Software.
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/DataRecovery
http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk
repairs including testdisk info & links
http://members.iinet.net.au/~herman546/p21.html
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/DataRecovery#Lost%20Partition

[ikta]

Just for your info:

You can use sfdisk to edit partitions:
Use sfdisk to edit partitions
Caljohnsmith using sfdisk to edit partition table from text file


You can use testdisk to recover old partitions. History of partitions must be saved somewhere as it finds many old versions and lets you recreate them.

enable the "universe" repository to download testdisk
System>Administration>Software Sources>Ubuntu Software.
repairs including testdisk info & links

Thanks,

But the fix of the logical drives were done, already.
So, fix of partitions is not my question.

Again, my problem is how to control 10.04 installer for the right install.

10.04 installer cannot recognize the partitions on the HDD correctly, and
maybe, the installer makes illegal partition table of extended partition.
maybe, because there are three primary partitions before extended partition.
This partitioning is maybe unusual, but not illegal for AT compatible.

[RJARRRPCGP]

I believe that up to 4 primary partitions are fine.

Also, making the swap partition a primary is OK.

[oldfred]

If you do partitions in advance which I prefer, then you have to do manual install and choose which partition is / (root), which is swap and if you have a separate /home. You also choose format and whether you want it formated or not.

Herman has lots of examples of installs.
http://members.iinet.net.au/~herman546/index.html

[darkod]

Thanks,

But the fix of the logical drives were done, already.
So, fix of partitions is not my question.

Again, my problem is how to control 10.04 installer for the right install.

10.04 installer cannot recognize the partitions on the HDD correctly, and
maybe, the installer makes illegal partition table of extended partition.
maybe, because there are three primary partitions before extended partition.
This partitioning is maybe unusual, but not illegal for AT compatible.

Do you want help or not? Why are you not listening to us?

We can't know what is the status just according to what you say. First of all you might be wrong in your assumptions. Even if you can't open Gparted now to make a screenshot, you can at least run fdisk from ubuntu live mode. That command doesn't do anything to your hdd, it just displays info about the partitions. After your "restore" which shouldn't have been done "from memory" but instead with proper procedure, and after moving the partitions around, you keep mentioning some moving front/back, who knows how the layout looks like.

Just boot the ubuntu cd in live mode, and post the results of:

sudo fdisk -l (small L)

as first step. Lets see what it says about the partitions.