Recall that parted was detecting my disk label as type "loop" instead of "msdos" and, as a consequence, treating my hard drive as a single partition:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/parted/+bug/209974/comments/7 I have found a way to work around this problem in my case that I will describe in case others are having the same problem. The file parted-1.7.1/libparted/labels/dos.c is apparently the one that tests a disk label to see if it is of type "msdos." It contains the test: /* if this is a FAT fs, fail here. Note that the Smart Boot Manager * Loader (SBML) signature indicates a partition table, not a file * system. */ if ((!strncmp (part_table.boot_code + 0x36, "FAT", 3) && strncmp (part_table.boot_code + 0x40, "SBML", 4) != 0) || !strncmp (part_table.boot_code + 0x52, "FAT", 3)) return 0; which says that a label is NOT of type "msdos" if the label contains the string "FAT" at offset 0x36 (but not "SMBL" at 0x40) or the string "FAT" at offset 0x52. When I dumped the first sector of my hard drive: sudo dd if=/dev/hdb of=mbr bs=512 count=1 ; od -Ax -t x1z mbr | head 000000 eb 5e 80 05 20 39 ff ff 00 00 00 00 02 10 5f 00 >.^.. 9........_.< 000010 02 00 00 00 00 f8 00 00 3f 00 ff 00 00 00 00 00 >........?.......< 000020 7a 0d 77 01 dc 2e 00 00 00 00 00 00 02 00 00 00 >z.w.............< 000030 01 00 06 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 >................< 000040 80 00 29 de 14 4d 3f 4e 4f 20 4e 41 4d 45 20 20 >..)..M?NO NAME < 000050 20 20 46 41 54 33 32 20 20 20 00 00 00 00 00 00 > FAT32 ......< 000060 e8 00 00 5b 81 eb 63 00 c1 eb 04 8c c8 01 c3 8e >...[..c.........< 000070 db 53 6a 75 cb f6 06 02 00 04 74 0f 31 c0 8e c0 >.Sju......t.1...< 000080 bf fc 05 66 b8 44 55 43 45 66 ab 68 00 20 17 bc >...f.DUCEf.h. ..< 000090 00 90 31 c9 51 ba 80 00 b4 08 e8 d8 00 58 16 07 >..1.Q........X..< I found "FAT" at offset 0x52. (This explains why the disk label was not classified as "msdos". I have been unable to explain why the label was classified as "loop".) I used hexedit to change offset 0x52 from 0x46 to 0x66 so the string became "fAT" instead of "FAT". Thereafter parted started recognizing my disk label as "msdos" and could see all of my partitions. I was able to complete a Ubuntu installation on my hard drive. I do not know the source of "FAT" at offset 0x52 of my disk label. It does not appear to have been placed there by bootlace.com from the grub4dos package http://download.gna.org/grub4dos/grub4dos-0.4.3-2008-03-14.zip which I used to install my boot loader. I have attached a copy of the first sector of my disk in case it would be useful to the developers. In summary, there is an inconsistency between the way fdisk and parted treat some disks with "msdos" labels. If your hard drive has multiple partitions when viewed by fdisk but only one partition when viewed by parted (which may be of type "loop"), dump the first sector of the drive to see if it contains "FAT" at offset 0x52 or 0x36. If you find "FAT" at one of those locations, changing it may fix your problem. USE THIS ADVICE AT YOUR OWN RISK; I AM NOT RESPONSIBLE IF YOU DESTROY THE INFORMATION ON YOUR DISK. ** Attachment added: "MBR That is Detected as Type LOOP" http://launchpadlibrarian.net/14051871/hdb.mbr -- Xubuntu Hardy live installer doesn't detect HDD partitions https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/209974 You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu Bugs, which is subscribed to Ubuntu. -- ubuntu-bugs mailing list [email protected] https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-bugs
