Intrepid Ibex installer does not recognize partition table on SATA drives

[zosX]

When I install the new beta and get to the manual partition editor it shoes my SATA drive as having no partition table. When I open the same partition in fdisk from the installer CD it shows the partition map. The chipset is the sis180 raid SATA controller (though I suspect the hardware driver is not at issue). It looks like there is just something in my partition table that the installer does not like. I tried rewriting the table from fdisk to no avail. It still refuses to show me the existing partitions in the installer. My drive is mapped like this:

Primary Partition --> Windows XP
Extended partition -

     1. Ubuntu 8.04
     2. Swap

Pretty basic.....

I didn't see that anyone else was having this probem with Ibex and I specifically remember 8.04 seeing my windows partition when I installed last on this drive. Any help would be appreciated. Sorry for the lack of logs or screen shots as I don't have many good ways to capture from the installer CD.

-zosX

[RC Howe (rchowe1)]

I'm having this problem too.

Both of the partitions on my disk show up in the places menu and when I do mount -a; however, the partition editor in ubiquity, gparted, and partman all report it as being unpartitioned space.

[Rob (rob-fugina)]

I'm having a similar/related problem. I used yesterday's (10/7) snapshot install CD, amd64 server (text installer), and the install process fails at the partitioning step. I was able to use a shell on another tty to partition my hd (/dev/sda), but even once partitioned, the installer doesn't see them, won't do anything with them. They are visible in /proc/partitions.

I have the 10/8 snapshot and will try again tonight.

This is to be a fresh installation.

[zosX (zosxavius)]

Did the 10/08 snapshot fix it yet? Seems like they had this bug before in 7.04 from reading through the bug reports. Perhaps it is the same bug rearing its ugly head again.

[Rob (rob-fugina)]

I didn't get a chance to try 20081008, but it the 20081009.1 snapshot worked fine.

[zosX (zosxavius)]

The latest snapshot still does not show my partitions. Ubuntu's console fdisk shows them fine while the installer and gparted do not. Seeing as how I made the partitions with gparted in the first place, there should not be a conflict here. Writing the table from the console fdisk does nothing to alleviate the problem. I went to attach a screenshot, but apparently it was never saved to my NTFS partition. (Probably mounted read only) Though the file manager showed it as being saved on the partition. (another bug? ;) Oh yeah, the NTFS partition I mounted was on the drive that does not show the partition table under gparted. So I guess it shows up in /proc/partitions, which means that there is a bug in gparted and by extension ubuntu's installer. If I remember correctly I tried the text installer to no avail as well. Kind of a bummer for sure. If someone needs a screenshot to confirm, I'd be happy to go back and produce one.

[zosX (zosxavius)]

Scratch that. I just didn't see the file. Here you go:

[zosX (zosxavius)]

Stupid windows....here is the file :)

[RimasK (dr-rimzi)]

Confirmed on Kubuntu Intrepid RC, and this time, it shows only white blank space (as if there are no hdd's).

This is on a HP Pavilion dv6018ea laptop, the HDD is SATA, and is partitioned into two partitions: one for WinXP, one for WinVista.

Haven't had this problem on this laptop in any previous version of Ubuntu/Kubuntu.

[RC Howe (rchowe1)]

This works for me now that I downloaded the latest version. Yay.

[zosX (zosxavius)]

Same problem on the release candidate. cfdisk is now on the iso, and that also seems to report the correct table information. I think I can safely rule out that there is something wrong with my partition table. Isn't the installer partitioning utility based on gparted? Both show nothing just an empty drive of unallocated space.

[zosX (zosxavius)]

Sorry for all the comments (squeaky wheel, hehe). Also you might want to notice that the drive sizes are listed differently between cfdisk/fdisk and gparted. I think therein lies a clue. The ONLY software that refuses to correctly report the drive capacity and the partition table so far is gparted and the ubuntu installer. This is with the 32-bit installer. Haven't tried the 64-bit, nor would I really care to be honest. Athlon64-3000,sis raid180 serial ata, with the not so hot, not so bad sis (740?) AMD64 chipset. Any input would be appreciated as I really don't know where to begin to look when the core utilities and the kernel are giving me the results I would expet................

Ok, so I just open parted from the command line, and here is what I get:

ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo parted /dev/sdb
GNU Parted 1.8.9
Using /dev/sdb
Welcome to GNU Parted! Type 'help' to view a list of commands.
(parted) print
Error: Can't have overlapping partitions.

well.... I created the table with the 8.04 installer...why the hell would I have overlapping partitions now? Any way I could fix this? I could grow the NTFS partition the encompass the whole disk and then just shrink it......IF gparted worked.... Don't tell me I'm going to have whip out the trusty partition magic. what is this the year 2000 again?

[zosX (zosxavius)]

Partition Table for /dev/sdb

               First Last
 # Type Sector Sector Offset Length Filesystem Type (ID) Flag
-- ------- ----------- ----------- ------ ----------- -------------------- ----
 1 Primary 0 139588784 63 139588785 HPFS/NTFS (07) Boot
 2 Primary 139588785 160071659 0 20482875 Extended (05) None
 5 Logical 139588785 156874724 126# 17285940 Linux (83) None
 3 Primary 156874725 160071659 0 3196935 Linux swap / So (82) None

I fail to see overlap here.

[zosX (zosxavius)]

Actuall I fail altogether. You cannot have a primary partition existing in a extended partition. Don't know why I didn't see that right away. I also have no clue as to how that happened. Partition table corruption? Strange. Deleting the partition in cfdisk makes it readable in gparted. Issue solved. Perhaps the devs at gparted should give an error in the gui if the table somehow seems to overlap. Sorry to be a bother at such a busy time for ubuntu devs. I'm really looking foward to intrepid ibex though!

[RimasK (dr-rimzi)]

Problem does not exist for me in kubuntu 8.10 final.

--
Cheers,
Doctor Rimzi

[Stefano Lampis (slampis)]

still affects 8.10 final release. this is a very unlikely bug

[Milan (milan-skocic)]

I have the same problem with the final release of Intrepid Ibex.

[BrianS (brians200)]

Has anybody figured out a way around this? I royally screwed up my sound driver and decided I would just install Intrepid. I had been using hardy. I just formatted the partition that that hardy was on and now I have it as free space. Yet when I go to install, the only option is to format the entire drive. Is there a way to keep the existing partitions and install to the free space? My computer seems so empty without ubuntu :(

[BrianS (brians200)]

Looking at what zosX has said about the overlapping, I am wondering which one of these do I delete and how do I do that? Thank you very much.

I have a dell XPS m1530 with one partition being 10gb of recovery. one partition being 2.5gb for media direct and the other is vista. I would like to keep these 3, but am not sure how to determine which one i don't need. The rest of my harddrive is either free space or unallocated.

[BrianS (brians200)]

Sorry for the many posts. This is what vista displays all my drives as, if it helps with what I stated before. I would like to put ubuntu back on the free space + unallocated, but keep vista,media direct, and recovery. Thank you very much

[zosX (zosxavius)]

Sure. Make sure that your file table is correct and in proper order. That
was my initial problem. I believe that I used cfdisk to show the partitions.
Make sure that any extended partitions only contain logical drives. I had a
logical drive somehow marked as a primary partition. Changing the bit
allowed gparted to read the table correctly. It should throw a warning on
such problems versus the silent approach, but I guess that doesn't really
make it a bug. I'm looking at your partition table now and the first
partition seems to just be unused (that 87megs), you can leave that. It is
pretty normal to have slack or unallocated space at the beginning or ending
of a drive, though 87 megs is kind of a large chunk. I'm guessing that grub
at least works off the boot partition. First of all the windows logical
volume manager is showing you all of your partitions and unallocated space.
The fdisk from linux is only showing you partitions that are actually
formatted and allocated. Thus the FAT partition at the end shows up. That
2.5 gig partition surely could be backed up to another partition can it
not? I would suggest just trying to reduce the partitions at the end to 0
and simply deleting the whole extended partition, leaving just your dell
recovery partition and the vista install intact. It will at least reduce the
number of partitions that may be causing you problems. What does parted from
the command line say? Overlapping partitions? Try opening the drive in
cfdisk and doing a print (key P). It will tell you what the type of
partition is and everything. Having that blank space with an extended
partition following with more blank space and then a logical partition just
might be compounding your issues. Why not make an extended partition to
encompass everything after Vista and then break it into logical partitions?
Three logical partitions, linux, swap, media. You can boot linux from any
partition with grub or lilo. Cfdisk is probably going to really become your
good friend here.

[BrianS (brians200)]

when i type cfdisk into the terminal, it gives FATAL ERROR: Cannot open disk drive. Press any key to exit cfdisk. That first 87MB partition appeared a few days ago, I am not sure why. The media direct has to be on a seperate partition as it allows you to play music and videos without having to load an entire operating system. Parted tells me "Error: Can't have overlapping partitions. " again, cfdisk just tells me FATAL ERROR

[zosX (zosxavius)]

I'd still try to delete that extended partition and recreate it. Sounds like
your partition table is pretty screwed to me. Rewriting it with windows or
something might help. I don't think anything will work for you without
changes to the table somehow. Unallocated space doesn't just suddenly appear
or your table became suddenly corrupt. :P You can always recreate the FAT32
partition at the end for the media you might need to make the volume label
the same, but I doubt the size matters as long as it is FAT32......have you
thought about installing ubuntu on your windows partiton and boot selected
with windows? :)

[BrianS (brians200)]

If you could tell me how to delete it, I would be more than willing to. The only thing on the hard drive that I do not want to lose is the recovery partition. As for the others, I have nothing on them that I want to keep that badly, and the recovery makes it easy for reinstalling windows. If you are talking about wubi, I would rather just not deal with windows except for when I need it for using visual studio for school assignments.

[zosX (zosxavius)]

Yeah I meant Wubi. Try deleting them in windows since it sees all the
partitions and can probably manipulate them without issue. I'm guessing that
it was a windows install on that disk anyways to begin with. I've never seen
a partition table that cfdisk couldn't mangle back together so all I can
wish you really is luck. Hope you have a big external you can make images to
just in case..... =)

On Tue, Dec 30, 2008 at 11:23 PM, BrianS <email address hidden> wrote:

> If you could tell me how to delete it, I would be more than willing to.
> The only thing on the hard drive that I do not want to lose is the
> recovery partition. As for the others, I have nothing on them that I
> want to keep that badly, and the recovery makes it easy for reinstalling
> windows. If you are talking about wubi, I would rather just not deal
> with windows except for when I need it for using visual studio for
> school assignments.
>
> --
> Intrepid Ibex installer does not recognize partition table on SATA drives
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/278159
> You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
> of the bug.
>
> Status in Ubuntu: New
>
> Bug description:
> When I install the new beta and get to the manual partition editor it shoes
> my SATA drive as having no partition table. When I open the same partition
> in fdisk from the installer CD it shows the partition map. The chipset is
> the sis180 raid SATA controller (though I suspect the hardware driver is not
> at issue). It looks like there is just something in my partition table that
> the installer does not like. I tried rewriting the table from fdisk to no
> avail. It still refuses to show me the existing partitions in the installer.
> My drive is mapped like this:
>
> Primary Partition --> Windows XP
> Extended partition -
>
> 1. Ubuntu 8.04
> 2. Swap
>
> Pretty basic.....
>
> I didn't see that anyone else was having this probem with Ibex and I
> specifically remember 8.04 seeing my windows partition when I installed last
> on this drive. Any help would be appreciated. Sorry for the lack of logs or
> screen shots as I don't have many good ways to capture from the installer
> CD.
>
> -zosX
>

[zosX (zosxavius)]

Oh....partition magic may be able to straighten that out too. Don't know if
the DOS version will see your drive but the windows install should be able
too....

On Tue, Dec 30, 2008 at 11:42 PM, Mark Bassett <email address hidden> wrote:

> Yeah I meant Wubi. Try deleting them in windows since it sees all the
> partitions and can probably manipulate them without issue. I'm guessing that
> it was a windows install on that disk anyways to begin with. I've never seen
> a partition table that cfdisk couldn't mangle back together so all I can
> wish you really is luck. Hope you have a big external you can make images to
> just in case..... =)
>
>
> On Tue, Dec 30, 2008 at 11:23 PM, BrianS <email address hidden> wrote:
>
>> If you could tell me how to delete it, I would be more than willing to.
>> The only thing on the hard drive that I do not want to lose is the
>> recovery partition. As for the others, I have nothing on them that I
>> want to keep that badly, and the recovery makes it easy for reinstalling
>> windows. If you are talking about wubi, I would rather just not deal
>> with windows except for when I need it for using visual studio for
>> school assignments.
>>
>> --
>> Intrepid Ibex installer does not recognize partition table on SATA drives
>> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/278159
>> You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
>> of the bug.
>>
>> Status in Ubuntu: New
>>
>> Bug description:
>> When I install the new beta and get to the manual partition editor it
>> shoes my SATA drive as having no partition table. When I open the same
>> partition in fdisk from the installer CD it shows the partition map. The
>> chipset is the sis180 raid SATA controller (though I suspect the hardware
>> driver is not at issue). It looks like there is just something in my
>> partition table that the installer does not like. I tried rewriting the
>> table from fdisk to no avail. It still refuses to show me the existing
>> partitions in the installer. My drive is mapped like this:
>>
>> Primary Partition --> Windows XP
>> Extended partition -
>>
>> 1. Ubuntu 8.04
>> 2. Swap
>>
>> Pretty basic.....
>>
>> I didn't see that anyone else was having this probem with Ibex and I
>> specifically remember 8.04 seeing my windows partition when I installed last
>> on this drive. Any help would be appreciated. Sorry for the lack of logs or
>> screen shots as I don't have many good ways to capture from the installer
>> CD.
>>
>> -zosX
>>
>
>

[BrianS (brians200)]

I tried partition magic, but it does not work with vista unfortunately. Then I realized you need to use sudo in front of cfdisk. using that, I get FATAL ERROR: Bad primary partition 2: Partition ends in the final partial cylinder

[BrianS (brians200)]

also, fdisk shows this.

Disk /dev/sda: 200.0 GB, 200049647616 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 24321 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x60000000

   Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 12 1317 10485760 de Dell Utility
/dev/sda2 * 1317 12875 92838880 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda3 16475 24322 63032308+ f W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/sda4 * 23995 24322 2620416 c W95 FAT32 (LBA)

Disk /dev/sdb: 4043 MB, 4043309056 bytes
125 heads, 62 sectors/track, 1018 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 7750 * 512 = 3968000 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xb0bcd68e

This doesn't look like a partition table
Probably you selected the wrong device.

   Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1 ? 415919 447748 123339962 78 Unknown
Partition 1 has different physical/logical beginnings (non-Linux?):
     phys=(518, 102, 15) logical=(415918, 36, 50)
Partition 1 has different physical/logical endings:
     phys=(743, 0, 62) logical=(447747, 120, 15)
Partition 1 does not end on cylinder boundary.
/dev/sdb2 ? 55855 155943 387841909+ 10 OPUS
Partition 2 has different physical/logical beginnings (non-Linux?):
     phys=(205, 7, 0) logical=(55854, 42, 14)
Partition 2 has different physical/logical endings:
     phys=(920, 235, 50) logical=(155942, 71, 34)
Partition 2 does not end on cylinder boundary.
/dev/sdb3 ? 241234 488877 959615034 8b Unknown
Partition 3 has different physical/logical beginnings (non-Linux?):
     phys=(260, 125, 54) logical=(241233, 109, 56)
Partition 3 has different physical/logical endings:
     phys=(893, 46, 60) logical=(488876, 58, 35)
Partition 3 does not end on cylinder boundary.
/dev/sdb4 ? 4398 4406 32768 a OS/2 Boot Manager
Partition 4 has different physical/logical beginnings (non-Linux?):
     phys=(269, 111, 50) logical=(4397, 31, 49)
Partition 4 has different physical/logical endings:
     phys=(0, 0, 0) logical=(4405, 88, 50)
Partition 4 does not end on cylinder boundary.

Partition table entries are not in disk order

[John O'Neall (joneall)]

I also cannot access my Windows partition. It is reported correctly by fdisk

$ sudo fdisk -l

Disk /dev/sda: 320.0 GB, 320072933376 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 38913 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x0000c435

   Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 1 65 522081 83 Linux
/dev/sda2 66 1370 10482412+ 83 Linux
/dev/sda3 1371 1892 4192965 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda4 1893 33744 255851190 5 Extended
/dev/sda5 1893 8419 52428096 83 Linux
/dev/sda6 8420 8680 2096451 83 Linux
/dev/sda7 8681 17035 67111506 83 Linux
/dev/sda8 17036 33744 134215011 83 Linux

Disk /dev/sdb: 120.0 GB, 120000000000 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 14589 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x9dc96e9e

   Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1 1 7 56196 6 FAT16
/dev/sdb2 * 8 8166 65537167+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sdb3 8167 14589 51592747+ 5 Extended
/dev/sdb5 8167 11353 25599546 83 Linux
/dev/sdb6 11354 12883 12289693+ 83 Linux
/dev/sdb7 12884 14413 12289693+ 83 Linux
/dev/sdb8 14414 14589 1413688+ 83 Linux

as /dev/sdb2, and parted sees it ok, with no obvious problems with primary partitions:

(parted) print all
Model: ATA WDC WD1200JD-75G (scsi)
Disk /dev/sdb: 120GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: msdos

Number Start End Size Type File system Flags
 1 32.3kB 57.6MB 57.5MB primary fat16
 2 57.6MB 67.2GB 67.1GB primary ntfs boot
 3 67.2GB 120GB 52.8GB extended
 5 67.2GB 93.4GB 26.2GB logical ext3
 6 93.4GB 106GB 12.6GB logical ext3
 7 106GB 119GB 12.6GB logical ext3
 8 119GB 120GB 1448MB logical ext3

Model: ATA ST3320620A (scsi)
Disk /dev/sda: 320GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: msdos

Number Start End Size Type File system Flags
 1 32.3kB 535MB 535MB primary ext3 boot
 2 535MB 11.3GB 10.7GB primary ext3
 3 11.3GB 15.6GB 4294MB primary linux-swap
 4 15.6GB 278GB 262GB extended
 5 15.6GB 69.2GB 53.7GB logical ext3
 6 69.2GB 71.4GB 2147MB logical ext3
 7 71.4GB 140GB 68.7GB logical ext3
 8 140GB 278GB 137GB logical ext3

I am using the current (31 Jan 2009) release

$ lsb_release -a
No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID: Ubuntu
Description: Ubuntu 8.10
Release: 8.10
Codename: intrepid

So is there a solution for this or not? I am a recent immigrant from ...

[zosX (zosxavius)]

I hate to say it but your problem has nothing to do with the partition
table problems people were having. It seems like your table is fine.
Have you tried manually adding the partition to fstab? I mean why is
it failing? Does a mount -t ntfs /dev/sdb2 /mount/Windows work for
instance? Just saying something doesn't work really doesn't give any
insight into the problem. I think like a help forum would be a better
place to go or perhaps finding someone with a similar problem in the
bugtraq as yours.

On Sat, Jan 31, 2009 at 6:11 AM, John O'Neall <email address hidden> wrote:
> I also cannot access my Windows partition. It is reported correctly by
> fdisk
>
> $ sudo fdisk -l
>
> Disk /dev/sda: 320.0 GB, 320072933376 bytes
> 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 38913 cylinders
> Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
> Disk identifier: 0x0000c435
>
> Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
> /dev/sda1 * 1 65 522081 83 Linux
> /dev/sda2 66 1370 10482412+ 83 Linux
> /dev/sda3 1371 1892 4192965 82 Linux swap / Solaris
> /dev/sda4 1893 33744 255851190 5 Extended
> /dev/sda5 1893 8419 52428096 83 Linux
> /dev/sda6 8420 8680 2096451 83 Linux
> /dev/sda7 8681 17035 67111506 83 Linux
> /dev/sda8 17036 33744 134215011 83 Linux
>
> Disk /dev/sdb: 120.0 GB, 120000000000 bytes
> 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 14589 cylinders
> Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
> Disk identifier: 0x9dc96e9e
>
> Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
> /dev/sdb1 1 7 56196 6 FAT16
> /dev/sdb2 * 8 8166 65537167+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
> /dev/sdb3 8167 14589 51592747+ 5 Extended
> /dev/sdb5 8167 11353 25599546 83 Linux
> /dev/sdb6 11354 12883 12289693+ 83 Linux
> /dev/sdb7 12884 14413 12289693+ 83 Linux
> /dev/sdb8 14414 14589 1413688+ 83 Linux
>
>
> as /dev/sdb2, and parted sees it ok, with no obvious problems with
> primary partitions:
>
> (parted) print all
> Model: ATA WDC WD1200JD-75G (scsi)
> Disk /dev/sdb: 120GB
> Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
> Partition Table: msdos
>
> Number Start End Size Type File system Flags
> 1 32.3kB 57.6MB 57.5MB primary fat16
> 2 57.6MB 67.2GB 67.1GB primary ntfs boot
> 3 67.2GB 120GB 52.8GB extended
> 5 67.2GB 93.4GB 26.2GB logical ext3
> 6 93.4GB 106GB 12.6GB logical ext3
> 7 106GB 119GB 12.6GB logical ext3
> 8 119GB 120GB 1448MB logical ext3
>
>
> Model: ATA ST3320620A (scsi)
> Disk /dev/sda: 320GB
> Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
> Partition Table: msdos
>
> Number Start End Size Type File system Flags
> 1 32.3kB 535MB 535MB primary ext3 boot
> 2 535MB 11.3GB 10.7GB primary ext3
> 3 11.3GB 15.6GB 4294MB primary linux-swap
> 4 15.6GB 278GB 262GB ...

[John O'Neall (joneall)]

Oops, zosX is correct. My problem is a much simpler one. I didn't have the directory created for the mount point. Don't know how that was forgotten.

My bad. Sorry. And thanks.

[Dimitrios Symeonidis (azimout)]

zosx, from the comments it seems your problem has been resolved. can we close this bug report?

[zosX (zosxavius)]

Yes. Please close this bug report. I don't want to help any more
people troubleshoot their messed up partition tables. :P

[Dimitrios Symeonidis (azimout)]

This bug report is being closed due to your last comment. For future reference you can manage the status of your own bugs by clicking on the current status in the yellow line and then choosing a new status in the revealed drop down box. You can learn more about bug statuses at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Bugs/Status . Thank you again for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. Feel free to submit any future bugs you may find.