partitioning 4K 3 TB USB hd for 64 bit Ubuntu 11.10

[Steven Davies-Morris]

On 03/04/2012 06:26 PM, CJ Tres wrote:
> This install episode has been rather convoluted but I believe I've
> included all relevant info. I've been going 'round and 'round for a
> couple days now.
>
> I have, several times, tried to partition and install on this disc.
> I've used gparted and Parted Magic which are two programs that handle
> gpt partition tables to partition the drive before install every time.
>
> Last time, I made a 1 MB partition and set the grub_bios flag as I was
> told that Ubuntu would use the partition if necessary.
> The / partition was about 74 GB, 2 GB for /swap and the remaining 2.3
> (or so) TB dedicated to /home and I made a small /boot of about 256 MB.
>
> On running the installer partitioner it reports the wrong sizes:
>
> SCSI9 (0,0,0) (sdc) - 375.1 GB Seagate GoFlex Desk
> 128.0 kB FREE SPACE
> #1 131.1 kB K biosgrub
> #4 33.8 MB
> #5 9.9 GB
> #2 366.9 MB
> #3 364.8 GB
> 57.3 kB FREE SPACE
>
> Rebooting into my Natty install I issued df -h and see:
>
> Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on
>
> /dev/sdc5 73G 180M 69G 1% /media/_root
> /dev/sdc1 992K 24K 920K 3% /media/f4948c28-fdee-4bc1-a694-2d311fe0037f
> /dev/sdc4 250M 152K 237M 1% /media/_boot
> /dev/sdc3 2.7T 202M 2.5T 1% /media/87c1e48b-0f88-471a-89fd-58fa9dce5d35
>
> ...which is as it should be except the 2 G swap isn't showing.
>
> My hardware is not efi/uefi and there will be no Windows on the disc or
> the machine.
> I'm trying, this time, to install from the alternate 64 bit dvd media.
>
> Previous attempts with 32 bit refused to install grub, either to the 1st
> disc (/sda holds only Natty) mbr or to the mbr of the 3 TB disc /sdc.
>
> This was one of a few attempts - a couple with mbr partition table
> -until I discovered I need gpt to recognize/make use of the whole drive.
> Not sure but I believe I also attempted it with gpt table also.
>
> What can I do to get this install happening when the Ubu installer is
> telling me lies?
>
> In case this matters:
>
> I did manage to get one 32 bit install completed (I think) from the
> desktop dvd media, after the "cannot install grub" complaint, when it
> gave me the option to place grub elsewhere. I told it /dev/sdd (the 3 TB
> drive) when /dev/sda (the Natty install) failed and it seemed to be ok
> with that.
>
> But upon running "sudo debconf-show grub-pc", the "grub-
> pc/install_devices" line showed only the /dev/sda drive.
>
> I then booted to the 11.10 install media and ran:
> sudo grub-install --boot-directory=/mnt/boot, twice, once with /dev/sda
> and again with /dev/sdc as the targets (both had been mounted on /mnt
> first).

yup

> Both commands exited cleanly and were reported as "successful with no
> errors".
> But..

yup

> Looking at debconf-show grub-pc, again, only sda was showing as having
> grub installed.

yup

> So anyway what's going on with the Ubu partitioner reporting incorrect
> partition sizes and what black magic must be invoked to make this
> install happen?

On my at home media server (which doubles also as my mixing console and
DAW when I'm working on compositions) I have abandoned attempts to have
RAID1 boot drives > 2TB with GPT. I have decided to use my 2TB drives
with MBR for boot/swap/root/home partitions in a RAID1 setup. And then
use my 3TB drives with GPT for a massive RADI6 array for everything
else. I set the RAID1 pair up through the alternate installer. Then
setup the RAID6 array using Disk Utility. Started with 4*3TB and will be
adding in more drives later this week for 7 total.

Good luck on this project of yours. I'd like to see it work so I can
learn how to do it myself. I cut my losses and decided to not spend any
more time on this for now. Maybe in a couple of months I will come back
to this on a spare machine and hack at it until a RAID1 boot pair can be
done as GPT using 3TB or 4TB drives. I ran out of patience and the time
to continue faffing about with it. YMMV.
-- 
SDM a 21st century schizoid man in SoCal
Systems Theory website www.systemstheory.net
"overfulnoisecascade" CD coming soon