Ubuntu Installer borks up partitions?

[Tom H]

On Tue, Jul 2, 2013 at 4:16 PM, Sander Smeenk <ssmeenk at freshdot.net> wrote:



> I find that whenever i use the Ubuntu (Network/PXE) Installer and go
> with the 'Guided, use Entire Disk with LVM'-partitioning choice, i end
> up with a partition layout which seems to prevent me from ever expanding
> these partitions because fdisk-tools dont understand it or refuse to
> (re)create it.
>
> For example, after install the 'fdisk -l' output looks like:
> |   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
> |/dev/vda1   *        2048      499711      248832   83  Linux
> |/dev/vda2          501758   104855551    52176897    5  Extended
> |/dev/vda5          501760   104855551    52176896   8e  Linux LVM
>
> I now wish to extend the vda2 and vda5 partitions, so i proceed in
> removing the current layout and (trying to) create an identical one
> with a differend 'End' or 'Last sector':
> | Command (m for help): d
> | Partition number (1-5): 5
> | Command (m for help): d
> | Partition number (1-5): 2
> | Command (m for help): n
> | Partition type Select (default p): e
> | Partition number (1-4, default 2): 2
> | First sector (499712-207257599, default 499712): 501758
>
> This is already peculiar as fdisk proposes 499712, which would indeed
> be the next sector, but it was 501758 as shown in the 'fdisk -l' output
> above. So, i use 501758 and continue:
> | Last sector, +sectors or +size{K,M,G} (501758-207257599, default 207257599):
> | Using default value 207257599
>
> Okay. The 'p'rint current partitions now matches the original up to vda2
> with the same Start and a higher End sector. So i proceed:
> | Command (m for help): n
> | Partition type Select (default p): l
> | Adding logical partition 5
> | First sector (503806-207257599, default 503806): 501760
> | Value out of range.
> | First sector (503806-207257599, default 503806):
>
> And there i'm stuck.

You're starting your logical partition outside the extended partition:
Adding logical partition 5
First sector (503806-207257599, default 503806): 501760


> Other fdisk tools like sfdisk complain about the Ubuntu Installer
> provided partition layout having an 'extended partition [that] does
> not start at a cylinder boundary'. Its output is:
> | sfdisk: Warning: extended partition does not start at a cylinder boundary.
> |    Device Boot Start     End   #cyls    #blocks   Id  System
> | /dev/vda1   *      2+    495-    494-    248832   83  Linux
> |         start: (c,h,s) expected (2,0,33) found (0,32,33)
> |         end: (c,h,s) expected (495,11,59) found (31,26,59)
> | /dev/vda2        497+ 104023- 103526-  52176897    5  Extended
> |         start: (c,h,s) expected (497,12,27) found (31,59,27)
> |         end: (c,h,s) expected (1023,15,63) found (1023,254,63)
> | /dev/vda3          0       -       0          0    0  Empty
> | /dev/vda4          0       -       0          0    0  Empty
> | /dev/vda5        497+ 104023- 103526-  52176896   8e  Linux LVM
> |         start: (c,h,s) expected (497,12,29) found (31,59,29)
> |         end: (c,h,s) expected (1023,15,63) found (1023,254,63)
>
> Should i file a bug? If so, what would i file that on?

Did you use "sfdisk -uC -l"?! Make sure that you use "sfdisk -uS -l"
(or "sfdisk -uB -l", "sfdisk -uM -l").