[util-linux] cfdisk cannot read 1MiB-aligned partition tables

[Laurent Bonnaud]

I installed lucid from CD on a spare laptop. I chose the "Use entire disk" option.

The problem is that the created partition cannot be read by cfdisk:

# cfdisk /dev/sda
             FATAL ERROR: Bad primary partition 1: Partition ends in the final partial cylinder
                                        Press any key to exit cfdisk

[Laurent Bonnaud (laurent-bonnaud)]

Here is the partition table as seen by fdisk:

# fdisk -clu /dev/sda

Disk /dev/sda: 200.0 GB, 200049647616 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 24321 cylinders, total 390721968 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x000a8693

   Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 2048 378650623 189324288 83 Linux
/dev/sda2 378652671 390721535 6034432+ 5 Extended
/dev/sda5 378652672 390721535 6034432 82 Linux swap / Solaris

[Laurent Bonnaud (laurent-bonnaud)]

Here is the partition table as seen by gparted.

[Laurent Bonnaud (laurent-bonnaud)]

What is the point of having 2 small unallocated chunks ?

[ceg (ceg)]

I got the same fatal error stating cfdisk.

             FATAL ERROR: Bad primary partition 0: Partition ends in the final partial cylind
                                        Press any key to exit cfdisk

Installed manually, creating only logical partitions: 500M /boot, 3GB raid1 for /home, rest raid1 with lvm for swap and root (8GB virtualbox disks)

[ceg (ceg)]

mine was the RC, alternate CD

[Evan (ev)]

Can you please try with one of the latest daily images and let us know via this bug report whether or not it's still occurring? I believe this bug is a duplicate of bug 558382.

Alternate:
http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/daily/

Desktop:
http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/daily-live/

[Laurent Bonnaud (laurent-bonnaud)]

I think I have an answer for comment #3:

From https://wiki.ubuntu.com/LucidLynx/ReleaseNotes :

By default, Ubuntu 10.04 LTS aligns partitions on disk to 1 MiB (1048576 bytes) boundaries. This ensures maximum performance on many modern disks, particularly solid state drives but also new "Advanced Format" disks with physical sectors larger than the traditional 512 bytes. Very few systems nowadays need the old alignment, used in the days of MS-DOS when it was useful for partitions to start at the beginning of a cylinder.

This leaves the "partition unreadable by cfdisk" bug. I will try with the final lucid release...

[Laurent Bonnaud (laurent-bonnaud)]

I tested with the final lucid ISO and cfdisk is still unable to read the partition table created by ubiquity.

[Marti (intgr)]

So if cfdisk cannot read a partition table that's 1MiB-aligned, then surely it's a cfdisk bug, not the installer?

This also explains why cfdisk fails with disks formatted in Windows Vista.

[Steve (steve-redhat-bugs)]

Description of problem:
After installing F14-Alpha with the default full-disk partitioning, cfdisk reports:

FATAL ERROR: Bad primary partition 1: Partition ends in the final partial cylinder

fdisk reports the partitioning without complaint.

Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable):
util-linux-ng-2.18-4.fc14.x86_64
F14-Alpha net installer CD

How reproducible:
I believe this is an "always".

Steps to Reproduce:
Although I have seen the cfdisk error on disks, this method uses a VM image file.
1. Create an 8G VM disk image file:
$ qemu-img create f14-alpha.img 8G
2. Install F14-Alpha to it after choosing the full-disk partition option.
3. After installation reboot the VM and run:
# cfdisk -P s /dev/sda

Actual results:
[root@fir log]# cfdisk -P s /dev/sda
FATAL ERROR: Bad primary partition 1: Partition ends in the final partial cylinder

Expected results:
cfdisk displays the partitions.

Additional info:

[root@fir tmp]# fdisk -lu /dev/sda

Disk /dev/sda: 8589 MB, 8589934592 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 1044 cylinders, total 16777216 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x0003a31f

   Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 2048 1026047 512000 83 Linux
/dev/sda2 1026048 16777215 7875584 8e Linux LVM
[root@fir tmp]#

The VM image file is exactly 8589934592 bytes.

When I attempted to use cfdisk on a disk that it could not read, the only option to get cfdisk working was to repartition using "cfdisk -z /dev/sdX" and let cfdisk figure where the last sector should be. Unfortunately, this wastes sectors at the end of the disk. The installer partitioning uses those last sectors.

[Karel (karel-redhat-bugs)]

The problem is that some parts of cfdisk are still based on CHS partitioning. For example the size of the device is expected as a multiple of the cylinder size.

I have fixed the problem in upstream repository:
http://git.kernel.org/?p=utils/util-linux-ng/util-linux-ng.git;a=commit;h=73356e0553bd9ac00f556891a4798064c0ee6849

fedora will be updated ASAP (probably next week)

[Steve (steve-redhat-bugs)]

(In reply to comment #1)
> The problem is that some parts of cfdisk are still based on CHS partitioning.
> For example the size of the device is expected as a multiple of the cylinder
> size.
>
> I have fixed the problem in upstream repository:
> http://git.kernel.org/?p=utils/util-linux-ng/util-linux-ng.git;a=commit;h=73356e0553bd9ac00f556891a4798064c0ee6849
>
> fedora will be updated ASAP (probably next week)

Thanks, Karel!

[Laurent Bonnaud (laurent-bonnaud)]

This bug still exists in maverick with:

 - a partition table created with the 10.10 beta installer
 - util-linux 2.17.2-0ubuntu1

[Fedora (fedora-redhat-bugs)]

util-linux-ng-2.18-4.2.fc14 has been submitted as an update for Fedora 14.
https://admin.fedoraproject.org/updates/util-linux-ng-2.18-4.2.fc14

[Fedora (fedora-redhat-bugs)]

util-linux-ng-2.18-4.2.fc14 has been pushed to the Fedora 14 testing repository. If problems still persist, please make note of it in this bug report.
 If you want to test the update, you can install it with
 su -c 'yum --enablerepo=updates-testing update util-linux-ng'. You can provide feedback for this update here: https://admin.fedoraproject.org/updates/util-linux-ng-2.18-4.2.fc14

[Fedora (fedora-redhat-bugs)]

util-linux-ng-2.18-4.3.fc14 has been submitted as an update for Fedora 14.
https://admin.fedoraproject.org/updates/util-linux-ng-2.18-4.3.fc14

[Fedora (fedora-redhat-bugs)]

util-linux-ng-2.18-4.3.fc14 has been pushed to the Fedora 14 stable repository. If problems still persist, please make note of it in this bug report.

[Marti (intgr)]

I have updated the summary because 1MiB-aligning partitions is the *intended* behavior. cfdisk is at fault here -- it fails with partitions created by recent Windows releases as well as newer Linux partitioning tools.

The statuses on partman-base/ubiquity should be marked as invalid as far as I can tell.

[Marcos Felipe Mello (marcosfrm)]

Fixed upstream (pos-2.18 fix).

http://git.kernel.org/?p=utils/util-linux-ng/util-linux-ng.git;a=commit;h=73356e0553bd9ac00f556891a4798064c0ee6849

Reference (Fedora):
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=630340

And what about Ubuntu push util-linux 2.19 (currently rc3) into Natty? Lots and lots of bug fixes and enhancements since 2.17.2.

[Marcos Felipe Mello (marcosfrm)]

Marti is right. Not a partman-base/ubiquity bug.

[Marcos Felipe Mello (marcosfrm)]

util-linux 2.19 stable (10-Feb-2011)
https://lkml.org/lkml/2011/2/10/72
http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/util-linux/v2.19/v2.19-ReleaseNotes

Let's hope Debian update its package soon.

[Laurent Bonnaud (laurent-bonnaud)]

This bug is fixed in oneiric. Thanks!