Comment 4 for bug 664275

Yes, that was the definitive answer, with GParted's default no longer being 'Round to cylinders' when 'Create new Partition' is selected in a Live session, the default now being 'Align to: MiB', for reasons given in the latest GParted Manual, and as explained by the attached JPEG image extract.

So, if creating persistent LinuxMint-10 on a USB stick using LiLi 2.6 (Final), first prepare it with a LinuxMint-10 Live disc session, using its GParted to Create Partitions with 'Align to: Cylinder' selected.

(I shall let other Forum members know about this, as well as Patrick Verner, to avoid similar problems with his recent versions of PartedMagic.)

So, thanks again to Curtis Gedak.