10.4 Partition Disks Error Unable satisfy constraints, overlapping partitions

[Liam Proven]

On Tue, Apr 27, 2010 at 5:06 AM, giovanni_re <john_re at fastmail.us> wrote:
> Anyone seeing (seen) this error?
>
> This is on a laptop, 40GB, that has been running linux ok for 8 months.
>
> Compaq Evo N610c, maybe 2003-2006, 1GB RAM, 40G HD.
>
> Has a windows partition, then I shrunk that, made some partitions for OS, Data, swap, & put KUbuntu 9.04 on.  Worked fine.  Later I put 9.10 on, which booted, but I didn't use cause it had graphics problems that I was told there were a few fixes for (X fails with small graphics buffer), but I never had time to implement the fix, cause I only used the laptop rarely.
>
> But, there was some GRUB issue occurring about the time of the 9.10 install - weird, something about UUID's from 9.10 that 9.04 didn't have???  Like, the system would apt update, or add packages, but upon reboot it's the same unchanged 9.04 system.  Weird.  But, since I rarely used it, it still worked fine for all I needed basically, web browsing, so I never had time to fully investigate & fix that.
>
>
> So, now I want to try 10.4.  But I can't create a partition with the manual partitioner from the i386 alternate installer, the "rc" release candidate from April 19th ISO.
>
> There's about 10GB free in the logical extended partition, but when i try to create a 5GB partition, I get this error:
> "Partition Disks > Error: Unable to satisfy all constraints on the partition
>  : Can't have overlapping partitions."
>
> I didn't see an overlap. So, I deleted off the 9.10 partitions, & try to create a partition for 10.4, but get the same "overlap" error.
>
> Now it won't boot into anything, even when i tell it to boot into 9.04 - (so, I again conclude the 9.4 was somehow booting from/through the 9.10 partition - there was some kind of GRUB problem there.)  No problem, I merely want to get 10.4 on there, & will let that installer refind the 9.04 using GRUB.
>
> So, again I run the installer, use rescue mode, fdisk -l, all looks fine, no overlap.  fdisk -l has the detailed cyl/sector start/ends, but says it isn't for large drives. So, I used parted, created a 5GB partition, which the manual partitioner sees fine.
>
> Now the manual partitioner sees the 5GB new partition, but it isn't ext3 formatted.  so, in the manual partitioner I delete the 5GB partition I'd just created, & then try to create back a 5 GB partition - fails again with the overlap error.
>
>
> ==
> So, is there a way to force the manual installer partitioner to give more detailed info than "overlapping"?  Like, what are the numeric values it sees???
>
> Any suggestions of how to _debug_ this problem/situation - ie, to find out what the sw thinks the error is exactly, not just a work around like "use a rescue disk to partition it correctly, then install 10.4".
>
> Ie, if there is some bug (like overlap), I want to find out where that is.  If there is _not_ an overlap, & the installer partioner has a bug, how can that bug be tracked down??

Some good advice from others here; I'd try it.

Failing that, what I'd try:

- Boot into Windows
- Run Disk Management (Win+R, diskmgmt.msc)
- Check no trace of the old Linux partitions survives
- Create a single Extended partition containing all free space. Ensure
nothing is in it.
- Reboot to your Linux CD
- Use Gparted to create logical partitions inside the extended one.
- Ignore Ext4, use ext3 for now
- All you really need is 3: root, home and 2GB swap; root first, then
home, then swap. Split the free space 50:50 between root and home.

That ought to do it.

I think you might possibly have been trying to create primary
partitions instead of logical ones. You are only allowed 4 of those,
total, and that often includes a hidden recovery partition.

-- 
Liam Proven • Profile: http://www.linkedin.com/in/liamproven
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