cannot format ext3 partition on laptop during installation

Bug #165320 reported by mlg7
4
Affects Status Importance Assigned to Milestone
ubiquity (Ubuntu)
Invalid
Undecided
Unassigned

Bug Description

Laptop: HP Compaq, namely, Evo n800v, 256M RAM, 40G HDD.

The normal installation process just hangs.
It hangs after you specify the partitions where to install the system.

reason: it cannot format an existing ext3 partition.

workaround:

1. using another linux distribution, for example, SUSE, create the desired partition.

2 using the text mode installer, specify the root and swap partitions you want to use.
Specify that you want to format the swap partition, and KEEP the root partition.
(root partition is the partition that will be mounted as / )
DO NOT try to format the ext3 partition

HINT
I remember once I have seen some mention of an error in some perl script.
I do ont know whether it is due to unexpected output or due to an error in the logic

Revision history for this message
Koen (koen-beek) wrote :

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. This bug did not have a package associated with it, which is important for ensuring that it gets looked at by the proper developers. You can learn more about finding the right package at [WWW] https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Bugs/FindRightPackage . I have classified this bug as a bug in ubiquity.

Revision history for this message
Evan (ev) wrote :

I'm afraid your current description is not enough to determine the cause of error. Can you please run the installer again and when it hangs, attach /var/log/syslog and /var/log/partman to this bug report following https://wiki.ubuntu.com/DebuggingUbiquity/AttachingLogs

Thanks!

Changed in ubiquity:
status: New → Incomplete
Revision history for this message
mlg7 (mlg7) wrote : Re: [Bug 165320] Re: cannot format ext3 partition on laptop during installation

The girl who owns the computer was very emotional about your proposal.
I'm afraid she's not willing to spend hours to destroy
the hard disk just for sake of obtaining a log...
And, by the way, where and how she would save this log?
(The live CD may be ejected and replaced with a CDRW?)

How can one revive the computer after the installer hangs?

If the installer had a button "mount a filesystem and save logs there",
that would be possible -- if the button still worked.

So:
1) there is no evident way to mount a storage media, especially
after the installer hangs (and the system does not react)
2) you should provide an UI to obtain these logs *at the moment that the problem happens*. People will always be unwilling to reproduce the
partitioner/installer bugs at their own equipment.

BTW, it _is_ an excellent recipe to get rid of bugs that you
don't want to fix: just ask the reporter to reinstall
the system and reproduce it.

30.11.07, 18:21, Evan Dandrea (<email address hidden>):

> I'm afraid your current description is not enough to determine the cause
> of error. Can you please run the installer again and when it hangs,
> attach /var/log/syslog and /var/log/partman to this bug report following
> https://wiki.ubuntu.com/DebuggingUbiquity/AttachingLogs
> Thanks!
> ** Changed in: ubiquity (Ubuntu)
> Status: New => Incomplete

Michael Losonsky (michl)
Changed in ubiquity:
status: Incomplete → Invalid
Revision history for this message
Michael Losonsky (michl) wrote :

Still no information -- triaged to invalid.

Revision history for this message
all_is_fair (mpolak3) wrote :

After install with Wubi in 8.10 I'm getting this problem as well.... I got it into the terminal and got the following error

[ 110.353084] crams: wrong magic
[ 110.405853] VFS: Can't find ext3 filesystem on dev sda2.

Hopefully that will help!!

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