I don't know why, but I keep trying to install Fedora on my laptop. The last time I did it , it told me it had to initialize my HD, and I stupidly said YES. And it did. Wiped out my XP/Ubuntu setup. I reinstalled XP , and I tried AGAIN, and it still wants to initialize my HD. This is a Dell 100Gb HD laptop that has always been dual-boot, with lots of Linux distros EXCEPT Fedora.. If I say ignore, it tells me there are no partitions to install onto.
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1
On 07/31/2010 06:38 PM, Paul Cartwright wrote:
I don't know why, but I keep trying to install Fedora on my laptop. The last time I did it , it told me it had to initialize my HD, and I stupidly said YES. And it did. Wiped out my XP/Ubuntu setup. I reinstalled XP , and I tried AGAIN, and it still wants to initialize my HD. This is a Dell 100Gb HD laptop that has always been dual-boot, with lots of Linux distros EXCEPT Fedora.. If I say ignore, it tells me there are no partitions to install onto.
What is the output of fdisk -l
- -G
- -- +---------------------------------------------------------------------+
Please also check the log file at "/dev/null" for additional information. (from /var/log/Xorg.setup.log)
| Greg Hosler ghosler@redhat.com | +---------------------------------------------------------------------+
Paul Cartwright <ale <at> pcartwright.com> writes:
...
Hi Paul, I reset the thread to the left origin to make it easier to follow now.
I hope you are in a good mood and ready to help us and yourself debug the problem. We will try to save your Win XP installation, but we can not promise it to you -:). Let me know when you are ready, it should not take long time to arrive at a reasonable diagnosis.
To restart the debugging process, please give me output for: # fdisk -l and output or error message for: # cfdisk -Ps
Also I need to know what do you use to install your Fedora, version (this is important: Fedora 12 or 13 ?), live cd ?
In the meantime, please read some newly added comments from Tom and Gregory.
For the record (web-found diagnosis):
# cfdisk -Ps FATAL ERROR: Bad primary partition <number>: Partition ends in the final partial cylinder
Cause. The above error message occurs if the existing partitions are not in correct layout. cfdisk gives this error message when it detects hard drive partitions in bad order or overlapped.
Solution. To fix the above issue, you should correct the present disk layout. You can perform this by removing all the existing partitions and creating new ones.
Stay tuned. JB
On Sun August 1 2010, JB wrote:
Also I need to know what do you use to install your Fedora, version (this is important: Fedora 12 or 13 ?), live cd ?
Fedora 13 live cd
In the meantime, please read some newly added comments from Tom and Gregory.
yup.. did that!
Solution. To fix the above issue, you should correct the present disk layout. You can perform this by removing all the existing partitions and creating new ones.
not sure if that is possible. Live cd doesn't see any partitions using gparted. running ubuntu you can't change the sda3 extended partition, because it is mounted.. Not sure if windows will change an extended partition size....
Paul Cartwright <ale <at> pcartwright.com> writes:
... Fedora 13 live cd
Solution. To fix the above issue, you should correct the present disk layout. You can perform this by removing all the existing partitions and creating new ones.
not sure if that is possible. Live cd doesn't see any partitions using gparted. running ubuntu you can't change the sda3 extended partition, because it is mounted.. Not sure if windows will change an extended partition size....
Paul, I just started my f13 live cd on my second notebook. I would suggest forget gparted for now (except that you learned that the same utility sees different things on different distros ...).
I started 'fdisk /dev/sda' on my live cd, selected extended partition for deletion (it was accepted), but of course I stopped before hitting 'w' for writing the change permanently. I assume I could finalize it if I wanted.
So, because we removed sda7 and sda8, your hardisk should looke like: Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System /dev/sda1 * 1 4462 35840983+ 7 HPFS/NTFS /dev/sda3 4718 12162 59793409 5 Extended Partition 3 does not end on cylinder boundary. /dev/sda5 4718 5961 9989120 83 Linux /dev/sda6 5962 8094 17133291 83 Linux
so there is an unallocated space below sda6 and theoretically fedora installer should not complain about no space available, right ? We did more than what Gregory suggested to do with the reallocation of spaces between sda6/7/8 .
How about really firing off your f13 live cd, checking for youself 'fdisk -l' and 'fdisk /dev/sda' but ignoring writing the changes as I did above, starting Installation to Harddisk trying out the installer and seeing if the harddisk is yours to rearrange all space below your Win XP which you do not want to touch right now ? You can always interrupt installer and back off to think what you really want.
You can consider nuking everything except Win XP partition and then organize it properly for the next 10 years or so ... with smartly preallocated primary partitions and the extended one. Somehaow I hope that this would get rid of that cfdisk error message as well.
Try it and tell us what happened and what you are up to if you wish. JB
On Sun August 1 2010, JB wrote:
You can consider nuking everything except Win XP partition and then organize it properly for the next 10 years or so ... with smartly preallocated primary partitions and the extended one. Somehaow I hope that this would get rid of that cfdisk error message as well.
did that. Booted into windows, removed the linux partitions. booted liveCD, fdisk /dev/sda, nuked the sda5 that was still there, so I was left with just sda1 NTFS. doubled-clicked the INSTALL FEDORA icon... NOW I get to the custom install screen!!!!!! so I added a 2GB swap, 15GB / ext4, and, I forget, about 35GB /home ext4. Not gonna get into LVM right now.... installing as we speak. then, on to church, so I'll be away from my laptop for a while:)
Paul Cartwright <ale <at> pcartwright.com> writes:
On Sun August 1 2010, JB wrote:
You can consider nuking everything except Win XP partition and then organize it properly for the next 10 years or so ... with smartly preallocated primary partitions and the extended one. Somehaow I hope that this would get rid of that cfdisk error message as well.
did that. Booted into windows, removed the linux partitions. booted liveCD, fdisk /dev/sda, nuked the sda5 that was still there, so I was left with just sda1 NTFS. doubled-clicked the INSTALL FEDORA icon... NOW I get to the custom install screen!!!!!! so I added a 2GB swap, 15GB / ext4, and, I forget, about 35GB /home ext4. Not gonna get into LVM right now.... installing as we speak. then, on to church, so I'll be away from my laptop for a while:)
Oh my God, ... I mean wonders happen if you really try :-)))
Btw, settle down with regular partitions layout first. Forget LVM for now, it may get you into trouble again ...
Let us know about that 'cfdisk' FATAL ERROR too ...
Good luck. JB
On Sun August 1 2010, JB wrote:
... I mean wonders happen if you really try :-)))
I've BEEN trying, just took a while to get the RIGHT answer:)
Btw, settle down with regular partitions layout first. Forget LVM for now, it may get you into trouble again ...
Let us know about that 'cfdisk' FATAL ERROR too ...
now, with Fedora installed we have: # cfdisk -Ps Partition Table for /dev/sda
First Last # Type Sector Sector Offset Length Filesystem Type (ID) Flag -- ------- ----------- ----------- ------ ----------- -------------------- ---- 1 Primary 0 71682029 63 71682030 HPFS/NTFS (07) Boot 3 Primary 71682030 100978904* 0 29296875*Linux (83) None None 100978905* 100980735* 0 1831*Unusable None 2 Primary 100980736* 105076735* 0 4096000*Linux swap / So (82) None 4 Primary 105076736* 192425983* 0 87349248*Extended (05) None 5 Logical 105076736* 192425983* 2048# 87349248*Linux (83) None Logical 192425984* 192426569 0 586*Free Space None
# fdisk -l
Disk /dev/sda: 98.5 GB, 98522403840 bytes 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 11978 cylinders Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes Disk identifier: 0xa8a8a8a8
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System /dev/sda1 * 1 4462 35840983+ 7 HPFS/NTFS /dev/sda2 6286 6541 2048000 82 Linux swap / Solaris /dev/sda3 4463 6286 14648437+ 83 Linux Partition 3 does not end on cylinder boundary. /dev/sda4 6541 11978 43674624 5 Extended /dev/sda5 6541 11978 43673600 83 Linux
Partition table entries are not in disk order
Disk /dev/sdb: 2055 MB, 2055019520 bytes 64 heads, 62 sectors/track, 1011 cylinders Units = cylinders of 3968 * 512 = 2031616 bytes Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes Disk identifier: 0xb0bcd68e
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System /dev/sdb1 1 1011 2005793 b W95 FAT32
Paul Cartwright <fedora <at> pcartwright.com> writes:
...
Hi, what a nice and educational set of outputs.
I think some final thoughts are justified. Anybody who tries to diminish the value of cfdisk, also in diagnosing problems (by ignoring its warning/error messages), is misleading.
$ man fdisk # note the source ... There are several *fdisk programs around. Each has its problems and strengths. Try them in the order cfdisk, fdisk, sfdisk. (Indeed, cfdisk is a beautiful program that has strict requirements on the par- tition tables it accepts, and produces high quality partition tables. Use it if you can. ...
Example. Before:
# cfdisk -Ps FATAL ERROR: Bad primary partition <number>: Partition ends in the final partial cylinder
# fdisk -l ... /dev/sda7 11919 12162 1951744 82 Linux swap / Solaris /dev/sda8 8095 11918 30716248+ c W95 FAT32 (LBA)
After (anaconda delivered a working/error free disk):
# cfdisk -Ps Partition Table for /dev/sda ...
Also note the following in 'cfdisk -Ps' output: - entries are in disk order (as opposed to 'fdisk -l') - it shows Unusable (damaged space) - it shows Free Space OK.
There is something else in Paul's post us ... # fdisk -l ...
Disk /dev/sdb: 2055 MB, 2055019520 bytes 64 heads, 62 sectors/track, 1011 cylinders Units = cylinders of 3968 * 512 = 2031616 bytes Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes Disk identifier: 0xb0bcd68e
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System /dev/sdb1 1 1011 2005793 b W95 FAT32
What is it ? JB
JB <jb.123abc <at> yahoo.com> writes:
... Solution. To fix the above issue, you should correct the present disk layout. You can perform this by removing all the existing partitions and creating new ones.
Stay tuned. JB
Hi, this thread (investigation) proves that people should be more careful in generalizing solutions ("... removing all the existing partitions ..."). Time permitting, a step-by-step (partition-by-partition) approach to removal and reorganization (incl. resizing) can be effective and educational as well. JB
On Mon August 2 2010, JB wrote:
this thread (investigation) proves that people should be more careful in generalizing solutions ("... removing all the existing partitions ..."). Time permitting, a step-by-step (partition-by-partition) approach to removal and reorganization (incl. resizing) can be effective and educational as well. JB
yes, as in now how do I get my media-direct partition back:) or really, do I NEED it..
Paul Cartwright <fedora <at> pcartwright.com> writes:
On Mon August 2 2010, JB wrote:
this thread (investigation) proves that people should be more careful in generalizing solutions ("... removing all the existing partitions ..."). Time permitting, a step-by-step (partition-by-partition) approach to removal and reorganization (incl. resizing) can be effective and educational as well. JB
yes, as in now how do I get my media-direct partition back:) or really, do I NEED it..
Paul, in the other thread that evolved in the meantime under the same name, you said
... I never used much of the media center options, esPECIALLY Windows Media Player, I HATE it when it took over the entire screen! ...
I think your instict is telling you the right thing. Stick with us, Linux/UNIX boyz and girls, and soon you will forget there is anything like Windows on your hard disk. I did it looooooooong time ago -:)
JB
On Mon August 2 2010, JB wrote:
I think your instict is telling you the right thing. Stick with us, Linux/UNIX boyz and girls, and soon you will forget there is anything like Windows on your hard disk. I did it looooooooong time ago -:)
well, I've been using linux on my desktop for many years, I was installing UNIX back in 1985, so you are preaching to the choir:) I was installing Red Hat system for 3 years, I even setup my own CentOS server at home, but my desktop moved a few years back from SUSE to Debian. My wife likes stability, so I pretty much LEAVE IT ALONE! My laptop is another matter:) I travelled with it and it was dual-boot XP/Ubuntu for 3 years. I needed XP for Quickbooks, but I worked mainly in Ubuntu. SInce I installed RHEL, it just seems logical to have Fedora on my laptop, and maybe/eventually I'll move it to my desktop... for now at least I have Fedora 13 on my laptop, and I found the right list!
thanks for all the help! I'm sure I'l have more questions as I transition from apt-get to yum.. GUIs are fine, but I do most of my work on the command line.
On Mon, 2010-08-02 at 06:44 -0400, Paul Cartwright wrote:
now how do I get my media-direct partition back:) or really, do I NEED it..
Do you use it?
Is yours one of those computers with buttons that specially boot up the computer from the special partition, and get upset when it's not present, and the button is somewhere that you might accidentally press?
If you can answer no to both of them, then you can get rid of it.
On Mon August 2 2010, Tim wrote:
Do you use it?
Is yours one of those computers with buttons that specially boot up the computer from the special partition, and get upset when it's not present, and the button is somewhere that you might accidentally press?
yeah, I think I actually pressed it by mistake once.. what a waste!
If you can answer no to both of them, then you can get rid of it.
not a matter of getting RID of it, it's GONE, since I redid my partitions.. reclaimed space :) wonder what happens if I press that button NOW..."NO, DON'T DO IT :-0)"
On Mon, 2010-08-02 at 08:46 -0400, Paul Cartwright wrote:
wonder what happens if I press that button NOW..."NO, DON'T DO IT :-0)"
I wouldn't.
I've read tales of people who've pressed such buttons. The computer has some simple firmware that loads software from certain partitions. If your drive isn't laid as it was expecting, odd things happen. And I seem to recall horror stories about it helpfully rewriting some boot sectors, too.
On Monday, 02 August, 2010 @12:46 zulu, Paul Cartwright scribed:
not a matter of getting RID of it, it's GONE, since I redid my partitions.. reclaimed space :) wonder what happens if I press that button NOW..."NO, DON'T DO IT :-0)"
If that's the drive that came in your Dell, no - you didn't get rid of it.
MediaDirect 1 and 2 were installed in hidden partitions that partitioning utils simply cannot see.
Depending on who made your drive, you might be able to recover the space (seagate=yes; WD=no).
On Mon August 2 2010, Darr wrote:
not a matter of getting RID of it, it's GONE, since I redid my partitions.. reclaimed space :) wonder what happens if I press that button NOW..."NO, DON'T DO IT
:-0)"
If that's the drive that came in your Dell, no - you didn't get rid of it.
it IS the original drive from Dell.. Linux keeps telling me there are drive errors ( upper part of the screen) XP never says a thing..
MediaDirect 1 and 2 were installed in hidden partitions that partitioning utils simply cannot see.
Depending on who made your drive, you might be able to recover the space (seagate=yes; WD=no).
I pressed the mediadirect button, it gives me the mediadirect splash screen, then the grub menu.
On Mon, 2 Aug 2010 19:29:22 -0400 "Darr" darr@core.com wrote:
On Monday, 02 August, 2010 @12:46 zulu, Paul Cartwright scribed:
not a matter of getting RID of it, it's GONE, since I redid my partitions.. reclaimed space :) wonder what happens if I press that button NOW..."NO, DON'T DO IT :-0)"
If that's the drive that came in your Dell, no - you didn't get rid of it.
MediaDirect 1 and 2 were installed in hidden partitions that partitioning utils simply cannot see.
Depending on who made your drive, you might be able to recover the space (seagate=yes; WD=no).
I beg to differ on that. My Dell Studio 1745 which came with the "hidden" partition shows up clearly in Gparted (PartedMagic). Found that out the hard way when the windblows 7 blew up and the restore function failed. Something had creames that "hidden" partition. Had to argue with Dell until they finally sent me installation media as required by law.
There is no longer any "hidden" partition on my laptop which is running openSUSE 11.3, Fedora 13, FreeBSD 8, and windblows 7 for my wife to use.
Tom
On Tue August 3 2010, Thomas Taylor wrote:
I beg to differ on that. My Dell Studio 1745 which came with the "hidden" partition shows up clearly in Gparted (PartedMagic). Found that out the hard way when the windblows 7 blew up and the restore function failed. Something had creames that "hidden" partition. Had to argue with Dell until they finally sent me installation media as required by law.
I also had an sda2 that had the restore partition, it is long gone.. I seem to recall I also had an sda3 that also had some files on it.. maybe that was my desktop.. here is my Dell XPS desktops fdisk: fdisk -l
Disk /dev/sda: 320.1 GB, 320072933376 bytes 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 38913 cylinders Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes Disk identifier: 0xe686f016
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System /dev/sda1 1 8 64228+ de Dell Utility /dev/sda2 * 9 13661 109667722 7 HPFS/NTFS /dev/sda3 38308 38913 4867695 db CP/M / CTOS / ... /dev/sda4 13662 38307 197968995 f W95 Ext'd (LBA) /dev/sda5 13662 13923 2104483+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris /dev/sda6 * 13924 16534 20972826 83 Linux /dev/sda7 16535 38307 174891591 83 Linux
On Tue August 3 2010, JB wrote:
Hi Paul, could you please give me an output of: # cfdisk -Ps
cfdisk -Ps Partition Table for /dev/sda
First Last # Type Sector Sector Offset Length Filesystem Type (ID) Flag -- ------- ----------- ----------- ------ ----------- -------------------- ---- 1 Primary 0 128519 63 128520 Dell Utility (DE) None 2 Primary 128520 219463963* 0 219335444*HPFS/NTFS (07) Boot Logical 219463964* 219463964 0 1*Free Space None 4 Primary 219463965 615401954 0 395937990 W95 Ext'd (LBA) (0F) None 5 Logical 219463965 223672994 63 4209030 Linux swap / So (82) None 6 Logical 223672995 265618709 63 41945715 Linux (83) Boot 7 Logical 265618710 615401954 63 349783245 Linux (83) None 3 Primary 615401955 625137344 0 9735390 CP/M / CTOS / . (DB) None
cfdisk -Ps Partition Table for /dev/sda
First Last# Type Sector Sector Offset Length Filesystem Type (ID) Flag
1 Primary 0 128519 63 128520 Dell Utility (DE) None 2 Primary 128520 219463963* 0 219335444*HPFS/NTFS (07) Boot Logical 219463964* 219463964 0 1*Free Space None 4 Primary 219463965 615401954 0 395937990 W95 Ext'd (LBA) (0F) None 5 Logical 219463965 223672994 63 4209030 Linux swap / So (82) None 6 Logical 223672995 265618709 63 41945715 Linux (83) Boot 7 Logical 265618710 615401954 63 349783245 Linux (83) None 3 Primary 615401955 625137344 0 9735390 CP/M / CTOS / . (DB) None
What I find amazing in all of this is that no one has asked what 's on
sda3. I mean CPM/CTOS. That's pretty unlikely in 2010! What does that partition contain?
On Wed August 4 2010, Clive Hills wrote:
3 Primary 615401955 625137344 0 9735390 CP/M / CTOS / . (DB) None
What I find amazing in all of this is that no one has asked what 's on sda3. I mean CPM/CTOS. That's pretty unlikely in 2010! What does that partition contain? --
ls -l sda3 total 160 -rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 1871 Jul 7 2005 autoexec.bat drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 May 17 2004 bat drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Dec 27 2006 bin -r-xr-xr-x 1 root root 56403 Dec 1 2005 command.com -rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 117 May 17 2004 config.sys -r-xr-xr-x 1 root root 29343 Dec 1 2005 dellbio.bin -r-xr-xr-x 1 root root 32058 Dec 1 2005 dellrmk.bin drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 May 17 2004 img drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Dec 27 2006 src1 drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Dec 27 2006 src2 drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Dec 27 2006 src3 drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Dec 27 2006 src4 drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Dec 27 2006 src5 /mnt/sda3# ls -l bat total 8 -rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 64 May 17 2004 confirm.bat -rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 385 May 20 2004 recover.bat /mnt/sda3# ls -l bin total 1456 -rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 4661 Dec 27 2006 dsrcheck.exe -rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 5063 Dec 27 2006 dsrreset.exe -rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 15266 Nov 14 2005 himem.sys -rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 8321 Nov 3 2005 mouse.com -rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 1436176 Dec 5 2005 recover.exe -rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 6987 Dec 27 2006 restart.exe
Paul Cartwright wrote:
On Wed August 4 2010, Clive Hills wrote:
3 Primary 615401955 625137344 0 9735390 CP/M / CTOS / . (DB) None
What I find amazing in all of this is that no one has asked what 's on sda3. I mean CPM/CTOS. That's pretty unlikely in 2010! What does that partition contain? --
ls -l sda3
Looks like a Dell restore partition to me...
I have that on my workplace Dell, until I installed Windows Blister (er, Vista).
James McKenzie
On Mon, 2010-08-02 at 19:29 -0400, Darr wrote:
MediaDirect 1 and 2 were installed in hidden partitions that partitioning utils simply cannot see.
That would depend on the tools that you use.
Various tools can show hidden partitions. They're not hidden from drive prepping tools, they're just marked as not to be shown to the desktop interface (to desktop interfaces that look at partition types, and perhaps to prepping tools designed to hide things from the clueless).
Another option is to use something like zapdisk, which zeros out the beginning sectors of a drive, so all drive tools think it's a blank disc.
-
Clive Hills -
Darr -
Gregory Hosler -
James McKenzie -
JB -
Michael Schwendt -
Paul Cartwright -
PaulCartwright -
Thomas Taylor -
Tim