gutsy server installer doesn't detect partitions

After going back through the bugs you referenced, I got to bug 130124 that sounds similar.

Can you do a "sudo fdisk -l" and paste the output here. If fdisk can see the partitions then they look similar enough that this one should be marked a duplicate. (Unless of course you see something different about the situations)

I think I figured it out. And I SUSPECT this may be the culprit in all related bugs:

My partition table went something like this:

hda1 primary Ubuntu_Server
hda2 primary /home
hda3 extended

hda5 logical PCLinuxOS_2007
hda6 logical swap

Apparently (I wish I could find the forum post that I learned this form) extended partitions freak out some partition managers. I don't know why, but evidence supports this. I actually ended up in a Knoppix LiveCD, moved PCLOS to a directory under hda1, deleted the extended partition with fdisk (the only partition manager that could see it), then used gparted to create a two new primary partitions in it's place, moved stuff back, etc. Suddenly all partition managers (including the Ubuntu installer) could see the partitions. If I'm right, and this is the primary culprit in the other bugs, perhaps from here a patch or fix could be considered? Update the partition manager that it might be able to see extended partitions of this type or something? Anyway, sorry about not having the output you wanted, I had already pieced together a work around by the time I got your e- mail.

Marking as confirmed.

Note to Developers/Other Triagers:

Both bug 108562 and bug 130124 look similar to this bug but I do not know what to do to find out if they are.

Is there anything I can be doing to help with this?

If this is a server installer bug it can't be a ubiquity bug, so marking that task invalid. The debian-installer task remains open.

(If it's common to both, it's likely the fault of something else anyway, so there's still no need for two tasks.)

SATA vs. IDE is unlikely to be a real bug, by the way. IDE controllers are being migrated over to the new libata-based PATA drivers, which show up as /dev/sd*.

I'd like to get logs for this. If you can still reproduce this problem, could you attach /var/log/syslog and /var/log/partman from the running installer to this bug? (You can extract them by going back to the installer main menu and selecting "Save debug logs".)

The installer most definitely *does* support extended partitions, so I'm afraid the forum post that suggested that was a little confused. However, it's possible that there's some other change that happened at the same time as that rearrangement that meant that libparted could deal with your partition table again. In that case, failing logs ought to have a record of the exact problem.

Rejecting the task on the debian-installer project (as opposed to the debian-installer package in Ubuntu); we don't use this for Ubuntu bugs.

We are closing this bug report because it lacks the information we need to investigate the problem, as described in the previous comments. Please reopen it if you can give us the missing information, and don't hesitate to submit bug reports in the future. To reopen the bug report you can click on the current status, under the Status column, and change the Status back to "New". Thanks again!

hello. i have seen a bug.
also when i post this bug tracker has found these:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/342799
https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/69180
https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/297492 .

i installed ubuntu 8.04 dvd . to computer, which disk is seagate, processor is celeron. the disk has: 3 ntfs partitions and 1 swap and 1 ext3 . may be not 3 ntfs but 1 fat32 and 2 ntfs. may be swap and ext3 are last may be a ntfs is after them.

"hello. i have tried to install ubuntu 8.04 dvd. it said only sda(0,0,0), none partitions of it. when i have entered it, also no inner partitions, said "if you continue, we will write partition table! you are going to use the whole disk!". though sda really has something like sda1, sda2, sda5, sda6 ."

i have tried also from live cd ubuntu installer, it also behaves same way.

I didn't check out the bugs, but I have in previous versions run accross and
issue where the installer doesn't much like extended partitions, kinda
freaks out, pretends it can't see anything. Probably a traumatic bit-hood
experience.

On Sat, Mar 21, 2009 at 8:57 AM, q.dinar <email address hidden> wrote:

> hello. i have seen a bug.
> also when i post this bug tracker has found these:
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/342799
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/69180
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/297492 .
>
> i installed ubuntu 8.04 dvd . to computer, which disk is seagate,
> processor is celeron. the disk has: 3 ntfs partitions and 1 swap and 1
> ext3 . may be not 3 ntfs but 1 fat32 and 2 ntfs. may be swap and ext3
> are last may be a ntfs is after them.
>
> "hello. i have tried to install ubuntu 8.04 dvd. it said only
> sda(0,0,0), none partitions of it. when i have entered it, also no
> inner partitions, said "if you continue, we will write partition table!
> you are going to use the whole disk!". though sda really has something
> like sda1, sda2, sda5, sda6 ."
>
> i have tried also from live cd ubuntu installer, it also behaves same
> way.
>
> --
> gutsy server installer doesn't detect partitions
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/174669
> You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
> of the bug.
>