[Bug 543891] Re: Re-installing mint side-by-side with MS-W7S makes empty partition

[Phillip Susi]

** No longer affects: ubiquity (Ubuntu)

-- 
You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu
Foundations Bugs, which is subscribed to ubiquity in Ubuntu.
https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/543891

Title:
  Re-installing mint side-by-side with MS-W7S makes empty partition

Status in The Linux Mint Distribution:
  Triaged

Bug description:
  1. Installed Mint 8 Helena Main side-by-side with Windows 7 Starter
  (pre-installed). MS-W7S occupied partitions 1 and 2, taking up very
  little of disk. Mint created an extended partition 3 containing one
  Linux partition and one Linux swap partition, to occupy the remaining
  majority of the disk.

  2. Then, wanting Seamonkey-2.0.3 but not finding it in Mint's default
  list of available packages (or even in Mint Romeo), got it by adding
  debian unstable to sources.list, which ended up totally breaking
  Mint's package management (package manager, apt-get, dpkg-reconfigure
  -a all failed) - lesson learned there.

  3. Decided to re-install Mint on top of the existing Mint partition.
  Tried to do it using side-by-side install with MS-W7S.

  4. This time the Mint installation tool's partition creator insisted
  on creating two new partitions after, instead of on top of, the
  existing Linux and Linux swap partitions. There seemed to be no way to
  force it to re-use exactly the same extents as the existing Linux and
  Linux swap partitions. Is there a way to do that? Backed out of the
  installation process immediately, i.e. before the file installation
  stage.

  5. Using Mint LiveCD and fdisk, manually deleted the Linux and Linux
  swap partitions, and then the extended partition that had held both of
  them. At this point, the disk still had the two partitions for MS-W7S,
  occupying a small space at the start of the disk.

  6. Intended to re-install Mint side-by-side with the existing MS-W7S.
  This time, however, with the side-by-side option selected, the
  graphical partition tool insisted on allowing only a tiny range of
  partition sizes for Mint. Chose the "use maximum free space option"
  (or something like that) instead.

  7. This time the Mint installation tool created an extended partition
  (after the MS-W7S partitions) containing one empty partition, one
  Linux partition, and a Linux swap partition. Not sure why it created
  an empty partition (no warnings or errors seen), but proceeded anyway.

  8. Mint installation completed ok. The extended partition starts right
  after MS-W7S, with its first partition being an empty partition -
  literally zero cylinders long - and second partition being Linux, and
  the third, Linux swap.

  9. Why is there the empty partition in the extended partition? It causes no harm but it's unnecessary and untidy. What is the Mint-recommended way of removing it?
   
  10. What is the Mint-recommended way to re-install Mint onto exactly the same extents of Linux and Linux swap partitions from a previous Mint installation?

To manage notifications about this bug go to:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/linuxmint/+bug/543891/+subscriptions