Partitions are not recognized by installation process

[whitelightme]

Software: Ubuntu 6.10

The installer does not recognize the partitions on my hd.
It recognizes my hd as whole free space... Firstly i thought the problem was the high fragmentation of the hd but after a good defrag, the problem doesn't solve. So i tryed to check the partition table of the hd, but no errors were found (only some duplicated links: fixed). I retryed but unsuccessfully.
I still can't see partitions during the install, so i can't install ubuntu. (i've tryied the live cd: the best distro ever! I love it!) Ah, when i tryied mandrake 10.0, it didn't have this problem, it recognized the space used by Windows correctly... i don't understand why.
I can reproduce this problem every time.
I'll be happy to give more infos, if needed!

[Brian Murray (brian-murray)]

Thanks for your bug report. Could you please add the output of 'lspci -vv', 'lspci -vvn' and 'dmesg' when running the Live CD to your bug report as separate attachments? Thanks in advance.

[whitelightme (inspheration-deactivatedaccount)]

Thanks to you, Brian! Sorry for the delay but i wasn't able to save the output data on a floppy due to mounting problems, but now here's the data you need:

See the three next posts.

[whitelightme (inspheration-deactivatedaccount)]

P.S. This time I used Xubuntu (live) to get output data.

[Brian Murray (brian-murray)]

Your kernel log, dmesg, shows these messages:

[ 98.905709] end_request: I/O error, dev hdb, sector 240121600
[ 98.905733] Buffer I/O error on device hdb, logical block 30015200

These are usually indicative of hardware failure or imminent failure. I recommend using smartctl from the smartmontools package to test your hard drive. I believe a test would look like 'smartctl -t short /dev/hdb' and then you check the output via 'smartctl -a /dev/hdb'.

[Brian Murray (brian-murray)]

We are closing this bug report as it lacks the information, described in the previous comments, we need to investigate the problem further. However, please reopen it if you can give us the missing information and feel free to submit bug reports in the future.

[whitelightme (inspheration-deactivatedaccount)]

Hi Brian Murray, i am so sorry for the so long delay, but i got frustrating problems to my internet connection for months! Everything is working now and i can give more info about this problem.
I didn't tried the smartmontools because i already tried a lot of testing programs in windows (scandisk, disk doctor, chkdsk, parttion magic, etc...) but nothing seems to report an hardware failure.. Rather, i think it's an hardware incompatibility that could be corrected. I'll explain you why i think so:

- the mobo is an old Asus P5A Socket 7 (AMD K6-2 400Mhz)
- the hd is a 160gb maxtor PATA
- bios auto-detecs about 31 or 34gb (it has the last firware: year 2002)

tryng installing other OSes (like windows, or the old mandrake 10.0), they detect only the bios size but they can install..
insted, ubuntu detecs about 120gb (good thing!) but can't see any formatted type of space (not even the bios size that works with the other OSes) so i can't install :(
i thought that ubuntu does not care about the bios when installing, but in this way, it can't recognize and manage old hardware properly.
Here, i hope i've been clear and i hope to gave you enought info about this problem, but if you need more explanations feel free to ask everything info you need!
I thank you again a lot for your availability!

P.S. i've not tried ubu 7.04 yet, however i think my problem hasn't been corrected.

[Brian Murray (brian-murray)]

Could you please try installing Ubuntu 7.04 (Feisty Fawn) and capture '/var/log/partman' and '/var/log/syslog' from the environment if it fails? Thanks in advance.

[whitelightme (inspheration-deactivatedaccount)]

Hi Brian,
sorry again for the long delay but i couldn't get a copy of Feisty Fawn; now i hope there'll be no problems anymore so i'll give you all the info you need for the bug.
In the attach, you can find the partman log and in the next post there's the syslog.

[whitelightme (inspheration-deactivatedaccount)]

I think the problem is due to the mobo that it's too old and has the 32gb limit (not the hd, the mobo itself).
So, i'm changing the bug status to: Invalid.

[whitelightme (inspheration-deactivatedaccount)]

Ok. Sorry, but i must now confirm that the bug really exists. I thought everything was due to the mobo's limitation, but i've tried using GParted Live CD (v0.3) and IT RECOGNIZES the partitions! Even if it can't manage beyond the 32gb (can only create an extended partition there, but windows 2000 crashes on reboot), however it can see the partitions that are on the hd. Ubuntu's installer can't, so i definitively confirm the bug.

[Brian Murray (brian-murray)]

We are currently testing ISO images for Gutsy Gibbon, the next release of Ubuntu, and it would be quite helpful if you could test this issue with it. You can find the latest release of Gutsy at http://www.ubuntu.com/testing/ . Thanks in advance.

[whitelightme (inspheration-deactivatedaccount)]

Hi Brian,
i've done a test with Gutsy Gibbon (Tribe 5) in order to control if the bug had been already fixed but unfortunately the problem persists, as i imagined.
Tell me what can i do, if you need more info don't hesitate to ask.

[whitelightme (inspheration-deactivatedaccount)]

Update:

today i used GParted a bit again and i've seen that it is also able to access data on the partitions! (read/write)
So, if you think that could be helpful, i could take some system files used by GParted and attach them here, in order to understand why GParted manages my hard-disk so fine and why Ubuntu installer does not.
What do you think about? Which files from GParted do you need? Let me know.
Thanks,
Dany.

[nanaki (redxiii-libero)]

Hello,
i have the same problem, and only with the gutsy tribe 5 because i have installed feisty normally.
excuse me for my english, if you want some information tell me.

Carlo

[nanaki (redxiii-libero)]

Update:

i'm sorry, but i restart my computer and i saw that gparted don't see my partition, it see unallocated all my hd.
cfdisk: FATAL ERROR: Bad primary partition 1: logical partitions overlap

I know that is my problem, i'm sorry for the post.
Thanks

Carlo

[FatalDaemon (fataldaemon)]

I had the same issue while trying to install Gutsy Gibbon. Any fix or workaround for this?

[whitelightme (inspheration-deactivatedaccount)]

I've find out the way to make partitions to be recognized (thanks Jack_Sparrow, in #ubuntu :))
Just add to the kernel string the parameter "all_generic_ide", at the boot.
However i think Ubuntu should be able to recognize when the system is an old ide-related-issues one, by itself.
So, this is, actually, a bug.

[Brian Murray (brian-murray)]

Fix Committed indicates that the bug has been fixed in the version control system for this package which is not the case, subsequently I am setting the status back to Confirmed. You can learn more about how to use bug statuses's at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Bugs/Status.

[whitelightme (inspheration-deactivatedaccount)]

Ah ok, thanks.
However, do you think should a new bug saying "should be able to detect when all_generic_ide parameter is needed" be reported?
And, in that, then add the link that see to this one?

[whitelightme (inspheration-deactivatedaccount)]

Have you read my last post, Brian?
What do you think about?

[whitelightme (inspheration-deactivatedaccount)]

p.s. Now i installed xubuntu without problems (even if the boot partition must be <34gb).
And it can manage with the entire disk.
A clarification: GRUB must be modified adding that string to make it able to load the system correctly.

[Marcel (marcel-vd-berg)]

I found a workaround for this bug!

If your disk has already a linux-swap partition, the Live-CD will automatic mount the existing linux-swap!

By unmounting the swap partition before running the installer (ubiquity), the install process will find and display all partitions!

To turn off the swap; right-click "Swap Off" for the linux-swap in GParted.

[Marcel (marcel-vd-berg)]

Also make sure you don't mount any other partitions during the Live-CD session!

[allxk (allxk)]

 Installing Ubuntu 10.10 64-bit
Is this a bug?
Please see attached image:
The disk partitioned with gparted.
Ubuntu 10.10 x64 Installation window will not show any partitions, and edit partition option.
Same thing with Ubuntu 10.10 x32.
Will somebody report it to developers?

[Phillip Susi (psusi)]

I believe this was fixed a long time ago. The installer now unmounts the swap partition when needed.