Lucid Default live-cd install fails with 4K sector / Advanced Format drives
Affects | Status | Importance | Assigned to | Milestone | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
e2fsprogs (Ubuntu) |
Fix Released
|
Undecided
|
Unassigned | ||
Lucid |
Fix Released
|
Undecided
|
Unassigned | ||
partman-base (Ubuntu) |
Fix Released
|
High
|
Colin Watson | ||
Lucid |
Fix Released
|
High
|
Colin Watson | ||
partman-ext3 (Ubuntu) |
Fix Released
|
High
|
Colin Watson | ||
Lucid |
Fix Released
|
High
|
Colin Watson | ||
ubiquity (Ubuntu) |
Invalid
|
Undecided
|
Unassigned | ||
Lucid |
Invalid
|
Undecided
|
Unassigned | ||
util-linux (Ubuntu) |
Fix Released
|
Undecided
|
Unassigned | ||
Lucid |
Fix Released
|
Undecided
|
Unassigned |
Bug Description
Binary package hint: ubiquity
Use default partition layout for Lucid Allpha 3 on new hard disk fails to account for 4K sector / Advanced Format drives. For example WD10-EARS which reports sector alignment in Identify Drive as 4KB internal sectors, 512 external.
Ubiquity hangs during "Partition Formatting" at 5% with "Creating ext4 file system for / in partition #1 of SCSI1 (0,0,0) (sda)...".
Open terminal and fdisk -l shows partitions are created correctly but don't "start on optimal I/O boundary". Shut down ubiquity and attempt a manual mkfs.ext4 and I get a warning:
/dev/sda1 alignment is offset by 512 bytes.
This may result in very poor performance, (re)-partitioning suggested.
Proceed anyway? (y,n)
So the tools here (fdisk, mkfs) are correctly picking up that the drive has a prefered alignment but Ubiquity installation does not. I presume that the warning question from mkfs.ext4 asking for y/n confirmation is not catered for in the installation scripts which presumably expect a completion on mkfs.ext4.
If a manual partition set is created based on correct alignment and mkfs.ext4 run, the ubiquity installation can complete correctly if manual use of existing partitions is selected. Fdisk can be used here as long as care is taken with the boundaries. The --align options under parted 2.1 would make this simpler to configure but I think there is already a plan to include parted 2.1 in Lucid if possible.
The best solution would entail the installation tools aligning partitons to the optimum alignment for the drive which would make sure the best performance is obtained in the OS. Failing this, at least the installation needs to allow for the mkfs changes (warning message) or the default installation can not be used on the new drives.
Changed in ubiquity (Ubuntu): | |
status: | New → Triaged |
importance: | Undecided → High |
assignee: | nobody → Colin Watson (cjwatson) |
Changed in partman-ext3 (Ubuntu Lucid): | |
assignee: | nobody → Colin Watson (cjwatson) |
importance: | Undecided → High |
milestone: | none → ubuntu-10.04-beta-2 |
status: | New → In Progress |
util-linux-ng (Ubuntu's "util-linux" package) could also be updated to version 2.17.1 (lucid currently uses 2.17) to better support 4k sectors disks.
ftp://ftp. kernel. org/pub/ linux/utils/ util-linux- ng/v2.17/ v2.17.1- ReleaseNotes