On 05.03.15 11:25, Toby Corkindale wrote: > Clicking "Something else" takes me into the GUI partitioner. > Using this, I was able to "Create a new partition label" for the > second disk.
If I could somehow reach that point, I'd be home free. At no point was that option offered, so we'll have to work around it. > After that I made sure I had selected the second disk, > then hit the "+" button to create a new partition. I saw +/- buttons on the LHS, but they were greyed out. ... > Not sure what was going on differently for Erik, but I couldn't > trivially reproduce the problem. > > However I wouldn't be surprised if the partitioner was getting > confused by an existing exotic partition layout. I don't get the > feeling it's very robust. Even parted says: (parted) p Error: /dev/sdc: unrecognised disk label for the new drive. I.e. I very much needed a "Create a new partition label" option - if it had been presented at any stage, I'd have leapt at it. Once I decide whether to go for a bsd or sun partition table (or even flop back to msdos, if there's trouble), I suspect that the installer might be able to take it from there. But since parted will sanitised partition boundaries if I specify partition sizes in % or GB, I can't see a lot of risk in just whacking in a boot partition, a swap, and one for the rest, using parted, so the installer has little or nothing to trip it up. > Suggestions: > > 1) Unplug other disks, or at least move them to low-priority slots, so > that you're installing to your new disk with it as the highest > priority item in the boot order. You were intending on replacing them > shortly anyway, right? Yup. They're a decade old, and one is occasionally wobbly at boot. > 2) If you really must leave things as they are, then try blanking the > partition table (and MBR) on the new disk before use. > >From a command line prompt (in existing linux, or trial mode of the > ubuntu ISO), run dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/XXX bs=1M count=1 where XXX > is replaced by the id for the disk - probably sdb or sdc, but for the > love of god, check that first. You did make me chuckle there. Decades ago I did "rm -rf /XXX/YYY", but fat-fingered a space after the first '/'. I suspect it takes precisely one such experience to make a hardened unix user. > You can id the disks by running "fdisk -l /dev/XXX" first. (It's safe, > it'll just print out some details and existing partitions for the > disk) That confirms what we know: $ sudo fdisk -l /dev/sdc Disk /dev/sdc: 320.1 GB, 320072933376 bytes 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 38913 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: 0x00000000 Disk /dev/sdc doesn't contain a valid partition table (I'd used fdisk -s to quickly find the device for the new drive, to use with parted, but hadn't tried the -l.) > 3) Try a later version of Ubuntu, eg. 14.10, as the installer has > probably improved a little. I don't think there's any point trying > alternatives such as Kubuntu or Mint, as they just use the same base > with different packages loaded later. Sorry, kan't kstand Kubuntu. Will probably go with Debian, as I have it on the laptop. (Also might then not have to hoik out NetworkManager before being able to get the network up. :) Many thanks for trying to replicate, and the useful hints. I think this one is twice conquered now, since either parted or Debian will do the trick once I have enough consecutive moments to whip up a partition table, and run through the install. I could disconnect the old drives, for amusement, but I'm not going to work on a patch to fix the installer in any event, so I'd rather spend a little time trying out parted on an empty disk, in case I ever need to use it on a populated one. Erik -- Leibowitz's Rule: When hammering a nail, you will never hit your finger if you hold the hammer with both hands. _______________________________________________ luv-main mailing list [email protected] http://lists.luv.asn.au/listinfo/luv-main
