Parted: unable to satisfy constraints...

[Andrea Giuliano]

Dear all,

I made something wrong with parted, probably trying to create a too big 
logical partition. Now this is all I can get from parted:

   Using /dev/hda
   Error: Unable to satisfy all constraints on the partition.

Nevertheless, the system is working properly. I have all relevant data 
on some logical volumes, which use physical volume very quite far from 
the end of the disk, so they should not be affected by problems there.

Here is what I get by sfdisk:

   # sfdisk -L -V /dev/hda
   Warning: extended partition does not start at a cylinder boundary.
   DOS and Linux will interpret the contents differently.
   Warning: partition 21 contains part of the partition table
   (sector 3180933), and will destroy it when filled

A more detailed output follows:

# sfdisk -l /dev/hda

Disk /dev/hda: 39813 cylinders, 16 heads, 63 sectors/track
Warning: extended partition does not start at a cylinder boundary.
DOS and Linux will interpret the contents differently.
Units = cylinders of 516096 bytes, blocks of 1024 bytes, counting from 0

    Device Boot Start     End   #cyls    #blocks   Id  System
/dev/hda1   *      0+     79-     80-     40131   8e  Linux LVM
                 end: (c,h,s) expected (79,10,63) found (4,254,63)
/dev/hda2         79+  39811-  39733-  20025022+   5  Extended
                 start: (c,h,s) expected (79,11,1) found (5,0,1)
                 end: (c,h,s) expected (1023,15,63) found (1023,254,63)
/dev/hda3          0       -       0          0    0  Empty
/dev/hda4          0       -       0          0    0  Empty
/dev/hda5   *     79+    605-    526-    265041   83  Linux
                 start: (c,h,s) expected (79,12,1) found (5,1,1)
                 end: (c,h,s) expected (605,9,63) found (37,254,63)
/dev/hda6        605+   1131-    526-    265041   8e  Linux LVM
                 start: (c,h,s) expected (605,11,1) found (38,1,1)
                 end: (c,h,s) expected (1023,15,63) found (70,254,63)
/dev/hda7      20431+  24607-   4176-   2104483+  8e  Linux LVM
                 start: (c,h,s) expected (1023,15,63) found (1023,254,63)
                 end: (c,h,s) expected (1023,15,63) found (1023,254,63)
/dev/hda8      24607+  26695-   2088-   1052226   8e  Linux LVM
                 start: (c,h,s) expected (1023,15,63) found (1023,254,63)
                 end: (c,h,s) expected (1023,15,63) found (1023,254,63)
/dev/hda9      26695+  28783-   2088-   1052226   8e  Linux LVM
                 start: (c,h,s) expected (1023,15,63) found (1023,254,63)
                 end: (c,h,s) expected (1023,15,63) found (1023,254,63)
/dev/hda10     28783+  30870-   2088-   1052226   8e  Linux LVM
                 start: (c,h,s) expected (1023,15,63) found (1023,254,63)
                 end: (c,h,s) expected (1023,15,63) found (1023,254,63)
/dev/hda11     12096+  14168-   2072-   1044193+  8e  Linux LVM
                 start: (c,h,s) expected (1023,15,63) found (759,1,1)
                 end: (c,h,s) expected (1023,15,63) found (888,254,63)
/dev/hda12     14168+  16256-   2088-   1052226   8e  Linux LVM
                 start: (c,h,s) expected (1023,15,63) found (889,1,1)
                 end: (c,h,s) expected (1023,15,63) found (1019,254,63)
/dev/hda13     16256+  18344-   2088-   1052226   8e  Linux LVM
                 start: (c,h,s) expected (1023,15,63) found (1020,1,1)
                 end: (c,h,s) expected (1023,15,63) found (1023,254,63)
/dev/hda14     18344+  20431-   2088-   1052226   8e  Linux LVM
                 start: (c,h,s) expected (1023,15,63) found (1023,254,63)
                 end: (c,h,s) expected (1023,15,63) found (1023,254,63)
/dev/hda15     30871   32958-   2088-   1052226   8e  Linux LVM
                 start: (c,h,s) expected (1023,15,63) found (1023,254,63)
                 end: (c,h,s) expected (1023,15,63) found (1023,254,63)
/dev/hda16     32958+  35030-   2072-   1044193+  8e  Linux LVM
                 start: (c,h,s) expected (1023,15,63) found (1023,254,63)
                 end: (c,h,s) expected (1023,15,63) found (1023,254,63)
/dev/hda17     35030+  37118-   2088-   1052226   8e  Linux LVM
                 start: (c,h,s) expected (1023,15,63) found (1023,254,63)
                 end: (c,h,s) expected (1023,15,63) found (1023,254,63)
/dev/hda18     37118+  39190-   2072-   1044193+  8e  Linux LVM
                 start: (c,h,s) expected (1023,15,63) found (1023,254,63)
                 end: (c,h,s) expected (1023,15,63) found (1023,254,63)
/dev/hda19     39190+  39811-    622-    313236   8e  Linux LVM
                 start: (c,h,s) expected (1023,15,63) found (1023,254,63)
                 end: (c,h,s) expected (1023,15,63) found (1023,254,63)
/dev/hda20      1131+   3155-   2024    1020096   83  Linux
                 start: (c,h,s) expected (1023,15,63) found (71,1,1)
                 end: (c,h,s) expected (1023,15,63) found (197,254,63)
/dev/hda21      3155+   5195-   2040-   1028128+  83  Linux
                 start: (c,h,s) expected (1023,15,63) found (198,1,1)
                 end: (c,h,s) expected (1023,15,63) found (325,254,63)
/dev/hda22      5195+   7219-   2024    1020096   83  Linux
                 start: (c,h,s) expected (1023,15,63) found (326,1,1)
                 end: (c,h,s) expected (1023,15,63) found (452,254,63)
/dev/hda23      5195+   5195-      1-        31+  83  Linux
                 start: (c,h,s) expected (1023,15,63) found (326,0,1)
                 end: (c,h,s) expected (1023,15,63) found (326,0,63)

What can I do to recover from this disaster?

Thanks a lot.

-- 
Andrea Giuliano, Ph. D.
ICCU - Istituto Centrale per il Catalogo Unico
Viale Castro Pretorio 105, Rome - ITALY
Tel. +39064989509, Fax +39064059302