Disk detected as unallocated

[Mirrorball]

Binary package hint: gparted

It's an ordinary Maxtor ATA hdd. GParted and the installer detect it as unallocated. These are the partitions:

   Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hda1 * 1 685 5502231 b W95 FAT32
/dev/hda2 686 24792 193639447 5 Extended
/dev/hda3 2511 4335 14659281 83 Linux
/dev/hda5 686 698 104391 83 Linux
/dev/hda6 699 823 1004031 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/hda7 824 2510 13550796 83 Linux
/dev/hda8 4336 24792 164320821 83 Linux

When I run fdisk /dev/hda on Dapper live CD, I get: 'Unable to open /dev/hda.'

[Mirrorball (mirrorballu2)]

I can't partition my hdd with the text installer that comes with the alternate CD! I can't install Dapper at all. :(

[kycho (kycho)]

I have similar problem: partitioner is not able to read my partition table. I have 3 primary partitions + 1 extended with 6 logical partitions more.

During installation process 'Partitioner' does not see any partition, GParted (not surprising) does not see it as well, but Disk Management tool (or something like that) has no problems and shows all my partitions.

I used 'fdisk' to partition my harddisk for the particular installation successfully. Unfortunately, the installer says: "No root file systems" after assigning partitions to mount points (e.g. "/" root and swap).

I used 'desktop' and 'alternate' installers with the same effect - I cannot install Ubuntu on ma PC.
It looks like the most stable version of Ubuntu still needs some work. Of course, if you want to wipe all your data from your harddisk (surprise! ;), it will go smoothly ...

[Mirrorball (mirrorballu2)]

See this thread:
http://www.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=188532

[Henrik (neu242)]

I am experiencing this as well. Details here: http://gparted-forum.surf4.info/viewtopic.php?id=576

The bug is also seen here:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=188532
https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gparted/+bug/48412
http://gparted-forum.surf4.info/viewtopic.php?id=316
http://gparted-forum.surf4.info/viewtopic.php?id=438
http://gparted-forum.surf4.info/viewtopic.php?id=413
http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=353253

[Henrik (neu242)]

This really seems to be a libparted issue:

http://parted.alioth.debian.org/cgi-bin/trac.cgi/ticket/14

[Orlando (orlandorr-deactivatedaccount)]

As much as I like the idea of free software, it never fails to frustrate me. Linux for the desktop is still years behind... Windows 95!! It doesn't even have a decent Device Manager!! Come on!!

I can't install 7.04 (Feisty Fawn). Gparted says that the disk is unallocated, and fdisk says: "Warning: invalid flag 0x0000 of partition table 4 will be corrected by w(rite)". And it was working alright with the alpha builds! I have a Samsung SATA HD 120 GB on Asrock AM2NF6G with some NVidia NForce chipset.

I am dissapointed to see that Linux keeps being the usability nightmare that it's always been. As evil as Microsoft might be, I never had a problem like this in 12 years of installing Windows since 3.1.

[Orlando (orlandorr-deactivatedaccount)]

BTW, I have Windows XP x64 edition already installed plus the partitions that were left of a Ubuntu 6 intallation that I never used anymore because after an update it disabled the network connection forever. Talk about reasons to be MAD!!!

[Orlando (orlandorr-deactivatedaccount)]

The bug exists but I don't have the competence to tell in which package.

[Ari Torhamo (ari-torhamo)]

I'm trying to install Gutsy Tribe 5, but I also have this problem with partitions. Neither GParted or the installer partitioner (I suppose they are different nowadays?) can see them. Fdisk lists the partitions normally, and I can see them in Device Manager. I can acces the partitions normally from my current installation and the Gutsy Live CD - I have no problems reaching the contents of any of my partitions in any situation. It's just that GParted and the installer partitioner can't see them.

Fdisk output:

Levy /dev/sda: 250.0 Gt, 250059350016 tavua
255 päätä, 63 sektoria/ura, 30401 sylinteriä
Yksiköt = 16065 * 512 = 8225280 -tavuiset sylinterit

    Laite Käynn Alku Loppu Lohkot Id Järjestelmä
/dev/sda1 * 1 2805 22531131 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2 2806 4629 14651280 83 Linux
/dev/sda3 4630 30401 207013590 5 Laajennettu
/dev/sda4 7059 30401 187502647+ 83 Linux
/dev/sda5 4630 4872 1951834+ 82 Linux / Solaris heittovaihtotiedosto

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

[Expired for gparted (Ubuntu) because there has been no activity for 60 days.]

[Henrik (neu242)]

The ticket is now at a new URL in the parted ticket tracker: http://parted.alioth.debian.org/cgi-bin/trac.cgi/ticket/50

[Martin Albisetti (beuno)]

It seems to be happening in Intrepid as well

[Henrik (neu242)]

http://lists.alioth.debian.org/pipermail/parted-devel/2008-May/002243.html contains a proposed patch for this, I don't know if it's in gparted yet.

[Henrik (neu242)]

This might indeed be the same issue as https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/parted/+bug/232175

[VladimirCZ (vlabla)]

I have the same problem in Ubuntu 9.04 64bit.

I am booting from /dev/sdb1 ... BIOS (hd0,0)
The drive reported as unallocated is /dev/sda ... BIOS (hd1,0)

In fact the /dev/sda is partitioned as:
  Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 1 6527 52428096 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2 6920 38912 256983772+ f W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/sda5 6920 19320 99610969+ 83 Linux
/dev/sda3 19332 38912 157284351 83 Linux
And I can happily access both linux partitions sda3 and sda5 via Nautilus automounting (line a "removable drive").

What is wrong?

[Curtis Gedak (gedakc)]

GParted uses a library from the parted project (libparted) to manipulate partitions. If parted discovers a problem with the partition table, then GParted will similarly be unable to edit the partition table.

Unfortunately, GParted versions up to and including 0.5.0 do not display the problem in the GUI. The error is displayed in a terminal session if GParted is started from the command line.

You can also discover the error by running parted directly on the device:
For example:
     parted /path-to-your-disk-device unit s print
Where /path-to-your-disk-device is something like /dev/sda

This problem has been tracked under the following upstream bug report:
https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=337244

The fix for this problem will be included in the next upstream release of GParted.

[Sam Townsend (stownsend42)]

Amazingly, this issue still exists in karmic and lucid.

[Curtis Gedak (gedakc)]

Sam, which version of GParted are you using?

With GParted 0.5.1 and higher, an exclamation mark will be shown beside the single unallocated partition if there is a problem with recognizing the partition table. When you double-click on the exclamation point to view the error message text.

[Sam Townsend (stownsend42)]

I'm using 0.5.1. The Warning says "Can't have a partition outside the disk!"

[Curtis Gedak (gedakc)]

The warning comes from the libparted library. With GParted versions 0.5.0 and earlier you would not have seen this warning message. Now you know the cause of the problem and why GParted and Parted are unable to work with the partition table.

It appears that there is at least one disk partition that extends beyond the size of the disk. To fix this you will need to use other tools, such as fdisk to determine and repair the problem.

[Tom Louwrier (tom-louwrier)]

I'm seeing the same error/warning "Can't have a partition outside the disk!" on a striped (fakeraid 0) set behind a Promise Fasttrack100 controller. See bug 554582.
Running off a Lucid LiveCD (march 31, 2010) I could see and access the existing ntfs partition in Nautilus as /media/local disk, but Gparted would just see /dev/sda and /dev/sdb. Disk Utility reports the set as /dev/mapper/pdc_jcchiiab (80GB, no file system) and /dev/mapper/pdc_jcchiiab1 (80GB, not partitioned, but NTFS anyway).

I don't know if 'my' bug 554582 is specific to fakeraid set ups or related to this bug.

cheers
Tom

[Curtis Gedak (gedakc)]

Tom, I believe that you have encountered two separate problems.

1) "Can't have a partition outside the disk!".

To diagnose this problem, the output from the command "fdisk -l -u /dev/mapper/pdc_jcchiiab" would be useful. That way we can determine if one of the partitions (perhaps the extended partition) goes beyond the end of the disk.

2) GParted does not show the /dev/mapper/pdc_jcchiiab device (bug 554582)

I have been able to confirm this as a problem using the "ubuntu-10.04-beta2-desktop-i386.iso" disk image. My Intel software RAID (/dev/mapper/isw_cjbdddajhi_Vol0) does not display in the drop down list in GParted.

GParted Live 0.5.2-7, which uses parted-2.2, does work and successfully recognizes my Intel Software RAID.

It is possible that this problem might be fixed by a patch that has been applied to the Fedora copy of parted-2.2:
"Parted should not canonicalize symlinks under /dev/mapper (#577824)"
http://koji.fedoraproject.org/koji/buildinfo?buildID=165650

Since Ubuntu has also patched parted-2.2, it is also possible that this change has impacted the ability to recognize dmraid devices.

[Tom Louwrier (tom-louwrier)]

Curtis,

Sorry for not responding earlier. Been quite busy.
You are probably right that these are two separate issues.
ad 1) I will check you described asap and post the results here
ad 2) bug 554582 was mine to start with. I will follow up on that one too where possible

Just for a laugh: re-installing XP on a separate partition on same pc took me several tries (like 12) before I found out that all versions of the Promise driver (2001-2004 vintage, to be provided on a floppy after booting from CD) were incorrectly branded 'CHICAGO', which was Win95 family, instead of 'WindowsNT' making the installer fail silently loading it and thus not see any hard disk at all... :-)

cheers
Tom

[Tom Louwrier (tom-louwrier)]

Had some time today to collect information on this.
Booted from the same LiveCD as before (31 march 2010) into the 'try without installing' desktop.
Mounted both NTFS partitions, as they are now in use for XP (system and data). These partitions were made from this CD as well, but the installer crashed on trying to write the filesystems. I could use them for setting up XP but they had to be formatted.

Anyway, here's the requested output from 'fdisk -l -u /dev/mapper/pdc_jcchiiab':
==========
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo fdisk -l -u /dev/mapper/pdc_jcchiiab

Disk /dev/mapper/pdc_jcchiiab: 80.0 GB, 80041213952 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 9731 cylinders, total 156330496 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 65536 bytes / 131072 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xb63fe366

                   Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/mapper/pdc_jcchiiab1 * 256 39062755 19531250 7 HPFS/NTFS
Partition 1 does not end on cylinder boundary.
/dev/mapper/pdc_jcchiiab2 39062782 62593791 11765505 5 Extended
Partition 2 does not end on cylinder boundary.
Partition 2 does not start on physical sector boundary.
/dev/mapper/pdc_jcchiiab3 62593792 156330239 46868224 7 HPFS/NTFS
Partition 3 does not end on cylinder boundary.
/dev/mapper/pdc_jcchiiab5 39062784 48828159 4882688 83 Linux
/dev/mapper/pdc_jcchiiab6 48828416 58593791 4882688 83 Linux
/dev/mapper/pdc_jcchiiab7 58594048 62593791 1999872 82 Linux swap / Solaris
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$

==========
Remarks:
part 1 is the WinXP boot partition (primary, NTFS)
part 2 will be containing Linux (primary)
    part 5: Ubuntu / (extended / logical, ext4)
    part 6: Ubuntu /home (extended / logical, ext4)
    part 7: Ubuntu swap (extended / logical, swap)
part 3 is used as DATA for both OS's (primary, NTFS)

I'm attaching this output as a file, and adding mtab as well.
Hope it helps, I really want to install Lucid on this machine.

cheers
Tom

[Tom Louwrier (tom-louwrier)]

and mtab (why can't I ad more than 1 file per post?)

cheers
Tom

[Curtis Gedak (gedakc)]

Tom, from comment #21 you were seeing an error/warning "Can't have a partition outside the disk!"

From looking at the fdisk output, the partition furthest out on the disk is partition 2

156330239 sectors - End of partiton 2
156330496 sectors - Size of disk device

Partition 2 certainly does finish before the end of the disk. I do not see anything else obviously wrong with the partition table.

Hence this error message appears incorrect.

Would you be able to try GParted Live 0.5.2-8 (in the testing branch) to see if your motherboard BIOS RAID is recognized correctly?
http://gparted.sourceforge.net

This will help to determine if this problem is global in nature, or specific to Lucid.

[Tom Louwrier (tom-louwrier)]

(These comments also posted in 554582)
Booted Gparted LiveCD 0.5.2-9.
It recognized my striped drive just fine although I couldn't access or get details of the NTFS partitions.

I got the following partitions listed in numerical order:
1 - /dev/mapper/pdc_jcchiiabp1 / primary / NTFS / 18.63 GB
2 - /dev/mapper/pdc_jcchiiabp2 /11.22 GB / extended
3 - /dev/mapper/pdc_jcchiiabp3 /primary / NTFS / 44.70 GB
4 - (there ain't none)
5 - /dev/mapper/pdc_jcchiiabp5 / ext4 / 4.66 GB / corrupted or not formatted
6 - /dev/mapper/pdc_jcchiiabp6 / ext4 / 4.66 GB / corrupted or not formatted
7 - /dev/mapper/pdc_jcchiiabp7 / linux-swap / 1.91 GB / corrupted or not formatted

In the GUI the are as follows:
1 - /dev/mapper/pdc_jcchiiabp1 / primary / NTFS / 18.63 GB
2 - /dev/mapper/pdc_jcchiiabp2 /11.22 GB / extended
     5 - /dev/mapper/pdc_jcchiiabp5 / ext4 / 4.66 GB
     6 - /dev/mapper/pdc_jcchiiabp6 / ext4 / 4.66 GB
     7 - /dev/mapper/pdc_jcchiiabp7 / linux-swap / 1.91 GB
3 - /dev/mapper/pdc_jcchiiabp3 /primary / NTFS / 44.70 GB

Partitions 2 and 5,6,7 are reported as having 0 free space before and after. They should fill up the allocated space nicely.
Partitions 5,6,7 obviously are not formatted (correctly) as the installer crashed at that point last time. If formatted correctly, I think I can finish the Lucid installation as planned, so I decided to format them as ext4, ext4 and linux-swap. Three actions were lined up and then applied.

Alas, that crashed right at the first action. I couldn't retrieve the details of log, but I saw an error that the requested device wasn't found in /dev/mapper.
After that Gparted became unresponsive and I stopped it. Couldn't start it again (it hung) and neither the rest of the apps on the desktop. Got a terminal session but not much fun in that either, due to lack of cli-skills.

Machine wouldn't reboot correctly; it got stuck in a loop of I/O error messages. Gave it a hard reset.

I can do this again and get better information from logs if you want, but plz give me the commands you need output from. I'll be writing down whatever and re-type it here (oh the days of sneaker networks and chinese interfaces :-) ) unless you help me mount a usb-drive and copy the output you need onto that.

cheers
Tom

[Krister Swenson (thekswenson)]

I have another problem with the same consequences for installing 10.4...
  when i start gparted it tells me "Unable to satisfy all constraints on the partition."

Disk /dev/sda: 200.0 GB, 200049647616 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 24321 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xf8000000

   Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 1 14 112423+ de Dell Utility
/dev/sda2 * 15 1320 10485760 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda3 1320 13364 96740352 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda4 13365 24322 88013383+ f W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/sda5 * 13365 14214 6827593+ 83 Linux
/dev/sda6 14215 23884 77674243+ 83 Linux
/dev/sda7 23885 24321 3510202+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris

[Phillip Susi (psusi)]

This bug report is devolving a bit into a general help forum for gparted. It seems that the core issue of gparted showing disks as being unallocated when there is an error in the partition table has been fixed and it now indicates an error with an exclamation mark, and provides details on what the error is. Therefore, I am marking this bug as fixed.