[Parted-maintainers] Bug#292111: installation-reports: FAILURE TO RECOGNIZE EXISTING PARTITIONS

[Gene Cooperman]

On Sun, Jan 30, 2005 at 07:10:37PM +0100, Sven Luther wrote:
> Heu, the above doesn't seem to fail in the diagnostic of what the new version
> should be fixing though. Gene, are you sure the disk actually had a partition
> table, and if so, what was it ? Also, could you see what the kernel has to say
> about it, by going to console 2, and looking at /proc/partitions.
> 
> Also, what parted has to say about it directly too. Go to console 2 and type
> parted, and then print, copy the info, and then quit.
> 
> Friendly,
> 
> Sven Luther
> 

Here is some more data, below.  I should explain that the data I sent 12
hours ago, was taken using 'linux26'.  In the new data, I've
run 'linux26 noscsi', 'linux' and 'linux noscsi'.

as you'll see, linux (2.4 kernel) reports the disk and partitions as
a different device than linux26.  The 2.4 kernel produces more information
about the partitions.  In addition, 'linux' and 'linux noscsi'
report almost the same information, but a few of the numbers are a
little different.

Finally, my BIOS reports that the disk is on "Channel 2", LBA, ATA 133
My motherboard is EPOX 8KDA.  My CPU is an Athlon 64.

The disk, as you know, is a SATA Maxtor:  (Maxtor 6Y160M0, 163 GB)

The previous data was based on 'linux26'.
The follownig three sets of data are:
'linux26 noscsi', 'linux' and 'linux noscsi'.

===========================================================================

    [ linux26 noscsi ]

> more /proc/partitions
major minor  #blocks  name

   8     0  160086528 sda
   8     1   61480723 sda1
   8     2          1 sda2
   8     3    2128581 sda3
   8     5   10723356 sda5
   8     6   31117873 sda6
   8     7   20265966 sda7
   8     8   34369839 sda8

===========================================================================

  [ linux  (without noscsi) ]

> more /proc/partitions
major minor  #blocks  name     rio rmerge rsect ruse wio wmerge wsect wuse runni
ng use aveq

  33     0  160086528 ide/host2/bus0/target0/lun0/disc 158 469 1241 220 0 0 0 0
-2 137330 42675212
  33     1   61480723 ide/host2/bus0/target0/lun0/part1 3 3 12 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
  33     2          1 ide/host2/bus0/target0/lun0/part2 3 0 6 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
  33     3    2128581 ide/host2/bus0/target0/lun0/part3 3 3 12 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
  33     5   10723356 ide/host2/bus0/target0/lun0/part5 105 15 227 40 0 0 0 0 0
40 40
  33     6   31117873 ide/host2/bus0/target0/lun0/part6 3 3 12 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
  33     7   20265966 ide/host2/bus0/target0/lun0/part7 3 3 12 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
  33     8   34369839 ide/host2/bus0/target0/lun0/part8 3 3 12 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
   3     0     660862 hda 982 2490 13954 11770 0 0 0 0 3 137180 200930

> parted
  [ Yields same result as in other cases ]

===========================================================================

                [ linux noscsi ]

> more /proc/partitions
major minor  #blocks  name     rio rmerge rsect ruse wio wmerge wsect wuse runni
ng use aveq

  33     0  160086528 ide/host2/bus0/target0/lun0/disc 105 1033 2263 240 0 0 0 0
 -2 459780 42030332
  33     1   61480723 ide/host2/bus0/target0/lun0/part1 3 3 12 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
  33     2          1 ide/host2/bus0/target0/lun0/part2 3 0 6 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
  33     3    2128581 ide/host2/bus0/target0/lun0/part3 3 3 12 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
  33     5   10723356 ide/host2/bus0/target0/lun0/part5 16 3 25 40 0 0 0 0 0 40
40
  33     6   31117873 ide/host2/bus0/target0/lun0/part6 3 3 12 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
  33     7   20265966 ide/host2/bus0/target0/lun0/part7 3 3 12 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
  33     8   34369839 ide/host2/bus0/target0/lun0/part8 3 3 12 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
   3     0     660862 hda 982 2490 13954 11810 0 0 0 0 3 459620 1168380
> ls -l /dev/ide/host2/bus0/target0/lun0/part5
brw-------    1 root     root      33,   5 Jan  1  1970 /dev/ide/host2/bus0/targ
et0/lun0/part5
> ls -l /dev/ide/host0/bus0/target0/lun0/cd
brw-rw-rw-    1 root     root       3,   0 Jan  1  1970 /dev/ide/host0/bus0/targ
et0/lun0/cd
> parted
GNU Parted 1.6.11 with HFS shrink patch 12.5
Copyright (C) 1998 - 2004 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
This program is free software, covered by the GNU General Public License.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY
WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A
PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the GNU General Public License for more details.

Using /dev/ide/host2/bus0/target0/lun0/disc
Warning: Unable to align partition properly.  This probably means that another
partitioning tool generated an incorrect partition table, because it didn't have
the correct BIOS geometry.  It is safe to ignore,but ignoring may cause
(fixable) problems with some boot loaders.
Information: The operating system thinks the geometry on
/dev/ide/host2/bus0/target0/lun0/disc is 19929/255/63.  Therefore, cylinder 1024
ends at 8032.499M.
Warning: Unable to align partition properly.  This probably means that another
partitioning tool generated an incorrect partition table, because it didn't have
the correct BIOS geometry.  It is safe to ignore,but ignoring may cause
(fixable) problems with some boot loaders.
Error: Unable to satisfy all constraints on the partition.
Information: Don't forget to update /etc/fstab, if necessary.