Won't detect disk partitions

Dark_Photon2 · June 2, 2018, 5:44pm

Long time SuSE / openSUSE user. I was looking forward to installing Leap 15 this morning, but quickly hit a problem.

I have 4 hard drives in my system (all SATA, all pre-partitioned, all MBR partition table not GPT). However, the SuSE Partitioner only detected the partition tables for 1 of these 4 hard disks (sdc), and this disk was not the disk containing the partition I intend to install OpenSuSE Leap 15 on (sdd). The other 3 disks just listed a single device for the whole disk in the Partitioner.

**How do I get the Partitioner to read the partition table for a specific disk I specify (or for all disks, which IMO should have been the default)?

**I know this disk I want to install Leap 15 on is partitioned properly and working just fine as it contains the OpenSuSE 13.1 install that I’m posting from now!

knurpht · June 2, 2018, 6:05pm

Did you check the downloaded iso?

nrickert · June 2, 2018, 7:04pm

You haven’t told us what you did. So I’m just guessing here.

Did you try the expert partitioner?

https://nwrickert2.files.wordpress.com/2018/05/screenshot_leap15_2018-04-29_180201.png

Use the “start with existing partitions” option. That should show all partitions that are found.

Dark_Photon2 · June 2, 2018, 8:22pm

Yes. And selected “Start with Existing Partitions”. Here’s more data as well: I unplugged every single hard drive in my system “except” the one I want to install SuSE 15.0 on (sdd), which is the same one that I am currently booting and running SuSE 13.1 on from a different partition. Expert Partitioner → Start with Existing Partitions still wouldn’t detect “any” partitions on that disk, despite the fact that it’s a working disk that’s already pre-partitioned. So, I flipped over to a shell (Ctrl-Alt-F2) and ran “fdisk /dev/sda”. The partition output looked fine! All 8 partitions reported properly. … however at the end of the partition report it said:

Partition 1 does not start on a physical sector boundary. < repeated for partitions 2..8 >

After that, I tried “parted /dev/sda print”, but it didn’t work properly, reporting only a single partition of 1000GB (entire disk) of type fat16, giving all the appearances of seeing it as an unpartitioned disk (which it’s not). That’s strange considering that in SuSE 13.1, both fdisk and parted report the partition table properly. Here’s the SuSE 13.1 output for parted and fdisk:

# parted /dev/sda print
 Model: ATA  WDC WD10EZRX-00L (scsi)
 Disk /dev/sda: 1000GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/4096B 
Partition Table: msdos 

Number  Start   End     Size    Type       File system     Flags 
1      32.3kB  52.4GB   52.4GB  primary   fat32           type=0b
2      52.4GB   105GB   52.4GB  primary   ntfs            type=07
3       105GB   1000GB  895GB   extended                  boot, lba, type=0f 
5      105GB   136GB   31.5GB  logical   ext4            type=83 
6      136GB   138GB   2089MB  logical   linux-swap(v1)   type=82 
7      138GB   170GB   31.5GB  logical   ext4             type=83
8      170GB   1000GB  830GB   logical    ext4            type=83

# fdisk /dev/sda
Disk /dev/sda: 1000.2 GB, 1000204886016 bytes,  1953525168 sectors Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes Sector size  (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 4096 bytes I/O size (minimum/optimal):  4096 bytes / 4096 bytes Disk label type: dos Disk identifier: 0x0000000a      Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System  /dev/sda1              63   102398309    51199123+   b  W95 FAT32  Partition 1 does not start on physical sector boundary. /dev/sda2        102398310   204796619    51199155    7  HPFS/NTFS/exFAT Partition 2 does  not start on physical sector boundary. /dev/sda3   *   204796620   1953520064   874361722+   f  W95 Ext'd (LBA) Partition 3 does not start  on physical sector boundary. /dev/sda5       204796683   266229179     30716248+  83  Linux Partition 5 does not start on physical sector  boundary. /dev/sda6       266229243   270309689     2040223+  82  Linux  swap / Solaris Partition 6 does not start on physical sector boundary.  /dev/sda7       270309753   331742249    30716248+  83  Linux Partition 7  does not start on physical sector boundary. /dev/sda8       331742313   1953520064   810888876   83  Linux Partition 8 does not start on  physical sector boundary.

Do you mean did I generate the sha256 checksum and verify the integrity of the ISO I downloaded? Yes. EDIT: What is wrong with the editor on these forums? It just took out all the newlines in my entire post, so the code blocks are almost unreadable.

arvidjaar · June 2, 2018, 8:41pm

It is unreadable.

nrickert · June 2, 2018, 8:51pm

I’m not having that problem. I’m using firefox. However, I have had similar problems with other browsers.

I’m not sure what browser you are using.

At the top left of the browser window, there’s something that looks like A/A. If you click that, it will change the edit box to just show plain unformatted. You might have less problems with that. In particular, what you paste into the edit box will be text with no formats. Even with firefox, I sometimes find that useful.

Dark_Photon2 · June 2, 2018, 8:53pm

Ok, let me try posting the SuSE 13.1 parted and fdisk output for this disk again.

Test1
  Test2

Dark_Photon2 · June 2, 2018, 9:16pm

Now that I’ve got that fixed (Forum software quirk), let me repost that SuSE 13.1 parted and fdisk output for that disk I’m trying to install Leap 15 to:


# parted /dev/sda print
Model: ATA WDC WD10EZRX-00L (scsi)
Disk /dev/sda: 1000GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/4096B
Partition Table: msdos

Number  Start   End     Size    Type      File system     Flags
 1      32.3kB  52.4GB  52.4GB  primary   fat32           type=0b
 2      52.4GB  105GB   52.4GB  primary   ntfs            type=07
 3      105GB   1000GB  895GB   extended                  boot, lba, type=0f
 5      105GB   136GB   31.5GB  logical   ext4            type=83
 6      136GB   138GB   2089MB  logical   linux-swap(v1)  type=82
 7      138GB   170GB   31.5GB  logical   ext4            type=83
 8      170GB   1000GB  830GB   logical   ext4            type=83

# fdisk /dev/sda
...
Command (m for help): p

Disk /dev/sda: 1000.2 GB, 1000204886016 bytes, 1953525168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 4096 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes
Disk label type: dos
Disk identifier: 0x0000000a

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1              63   102398309    51199123+   b  W95 FAT32
Partition 1 does not start on physical sector boundary.
/dev/sda2       102398310   204796619    51199155    7  HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
Partition 2 does not start on physical sector boundary.
/dev/sda3   *   204796620  1953520064   874361722+   f  W95 Ext'd (LBA)
Partition 3 does not start on physical sector boundary.
/dev/sda5       204796683   266229179    30716248+  83  Linux
Partition 5 does not start on physical sector boundary.
/dev/sda6       266229243   270309689     2040223+  82  Linux swap / Solaris
Partition 6 does not start on physical sector boundary.
/dev/sda7       270309753   331742249    30716248+  83  Linux
Partition 7 does not start on physical sector boundary.
/dev/sda8       331742313  1953520064   810888876   83  Linux
Partition 8 does not start on physical sector boundary.

Firefox 59.0.2. I post to another VBulletin Forum-based site every day and have never had this problem.

However, playing with these forums, I found I had to disable the WYSIWYG editor in my General settings. Then the forum software here stops deleting all of my newline characters. But that’s just weird. I post to another VBulletin-based forum every day and I’ve never had this problem there. EDIT: The problem may have been related to not giving opensuse.org and suse.org perms to run Javascript in my browser.

I see what you’re talking about now. Thanks for the tip. I’ll keep that in mind for the future.

Dark_Photon2 · June 2, 2018, 9:49pm

And here is the Leap 15 parted and fdisk output for that same disk, which I just snagged from the DVD install using a shell and a USB flash drive:


# parted /dev/sda print
Model: ATA WDC WD10EZRX-00L (scsi)
Disk /dev/sda: 1000GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/4096B
Partition Table: loop
Disk Flags: 

Number  Start  End     Size    File system  Flags
 1      0.00B  1000GB  1000GB  fat16

# fdisk /dev/sda
...
Command (m for help): p
Disk /dev/sda: 931.5 GiB, 1000204886016 bytes, 1953525168 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 4096 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes
Disklabel type: dos
Disk identifier: 0x0000000a

Device     Boot     Start        End    Sectors   Size Id Type
/dev/sda1              63  102398309  102398247  48.8G  b W95 FAT32
/dev/sda2       102398310  204796619  102398310  48.8G  7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda3  *    204796620 1953520064 1748723445 833.9G  f W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/sda5       204796683  266229179   61432497  29.3G 83 Linux
/dev/sda6       266229243  270309689    4080447     2G 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda7       270309753  331742249   61432497  29.3G 83 Linux
/dev/sda8       331742313 1953520064 1621777752 773.3G 83 Linux

Partition 1 does not start on physical sector boundary.
Partition 2 does not start on physical sector boundary.
Partition 3 does not start on physical sector boundary.
Partition 5 does not start on physical sector boundary.
Partition 6 does not start on physical sector boundary.
Partition 7 does not start on physical sector boundary.
Partition 8 does not start on physical sector boundary.

It seems like parted in Leap 15 has taken a step back from it’s capability in SuSE 13.1. I wonder if that has something to do with the Leap 15 Partitioner’s problem detecting the partitions on this disk.

arvidjaar · June 2, 2018, 9:51pm

As YaST is based on libparted this likely explains why YaST does not see partitions. Please show full output of parted in Leap 15 for this disk.

Dark_Photon2 · June 2, 2018, 9:57pm

Just did – see above.

arvidjaar · June 2, 2018, 10:19pm

Sorry, I realized it was from Leap 15 later.

Dark_Photon2:

And here is the Leap 15 parted


# parted /dev/sda print
Model: ATA WDC WD10EZRX-00L (scsi)
Disk /dev/sda: 1000GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/4096B
**Partition Table: loop**

Partition label “loop” is certainly unexpected. Could you post “hexdump -C -n 512 /dev/sda”? And it possible the same for other disks that are not recognized by Leap 15?

brunomcl · June 2, 2018, 10:30pm

Partition 1 does not start on physical sector boundary.

Wild speculation, and probably wrong, but…

Couldn’t it be that, given the pervasiveness of SSD nowadays, LEAP 15 installer requires sector bound partitions, and thus does not recognize the existing ones? IINM there was a change in the installer partition editor.

Dark_Photon2 · June 2, 2018, 10:52pm

Sure thing! Here it is.

NOTE:

It’s back to /dev/sdd as I just plugged-up the other 3 disks again (for your 2nd request).
It has Smart Boot Manager (SBM) installed in the MBR, which is what I use to multiboot OSs. I’ve always used this with SuSE and Windows.


# hexdump -C -n 512 /dev/sdd
00000000  fa eb 5c 53 42 4d 33 2e  37 2e 31 00 02 01 01 00  |..\SBM3.7.1.....|
00000010  02 e0 00 40 0b f0 09 00  12 00 02 00 00 00 00 00  |...@............|
00000020  00 00 00 00 00 00 29 00  00 00 00 53 4d 41 52 54  |......)....SMART|
00000030  20 42 54 4d 47 52 46 41  54 31 32 20 20 20 eb 1f  | BTMGRFAT12   ..|
00000040  53 42 4d 4c 01 03 2c 01  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  |SBML..,.........|
00000050  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 31  |...............1|
00000060  c0 8e d0 bc 00 7c 89 e6  50 07 50 1f fb fc bf 00  |.....|..P.P.....|
00000070  06 b9 00 01 f3 a5 ea 7b  00 60 00 0e 1f 68 00 10  |.......{.`...h..|
00000080  07 8d 36 46 00 b9 05 00  31 ff 51 ac 88 c1 66 ad  |..6F....1.Q...f.|
00000090  66 89 c3 b8 01 02 09 c9  74 12 e8 57 00 72 3a 81  |f.......t..W.r:.|
000000a0  c7 00 02 66 43 e2 f3 59  e2 e0 eb 01 59 31 ff 26  |...fC..Y....Y1.&|
000000b0  66 81 7d 04 53 42 4d 4b  75 20 26 81 7d 08 07 03  |f.}.SBMKu &.}...|
000000c0  75 18 26 8b 4d 0a 30 db  26 8a 05 00 c3 47 e2 f8  |u.&.M.0.&....G..|
000000d0  08 db 75 06 ea 00 00 00  10 59 8d 36 ad 01 ac 08  |..u......Y.6....|
000000e0  c0 74 09 bb 07 00 b4 0e  cd 10 eb f2 30 e4 cd 16  |.t..........0...|
000000f0  cd 18 eb fe 60 50 53 bb  aa 55 b4 41 cd 13 72 45  |....`PS..U.A..rE|
00000100  81 fb 55 aa 75 3f f6 c1  01 74 3a 5b 58 80 c4 40  |..U.u?...t:[X..@|
00000110  8d 36 02 02 66 31 c9 c6  04 10 66 89 4c 0c 88 4c  |.6..f1....f.L..L|
00000120  01 88 4c 03 88 44 02 89  7c 04 8c 44 06 66 89 5c  |..L..D..|..D.f.\|
00000130  08 50 52 cd 13 5a 58 73  6b e8 6a 00 fe c6 80 fe  |.PR..ZXsk.j.....|
00000140  03 72 e1 eb 5e 52 06 57  b4 08 cd 13 88 0e 00 02  |.r..^R.W........|
00000150  88 36 01 02 5f 07 5a 5b  58 72 48 50 52 66 89 d8  |.6.._.Z[XrHPRf..|
00000160  66 0f b7 0e 00 02 81 e1  3f 00 66 31 d2 66 f7 f1  |f.......?.f1.f..|
00000170  42 89 d1 66 31 db 8a 1e  01 02 fe c3 66 31 d2 66  |B..f1.......f1.f|
00000180  f7 f3 88 d3 86 c4 c0 e0  06 09 c1 5a 58 88 de 89  |...........ZX...|
00000190  fb 31 ff 50 cd 13 58 73  0b e8 0a 00 47 81 ff 03  |.1.P..Xs....G...|
000001a0  00 72 f0 f9 61 c3 60 31  c0 cd 13 61 c3 07 53 42  |.r..a.`1...a..SB|
000001b0  4d 4b 20 42 61 64 21 0d  0a 00 00 00 00 00 00 01  |MK Bad!.........|
000001c0  01 00 0b fe ff ff 3f 00  00 00 27 79 1a 06 00 fe  |......?...'y....|
000001d0  ff ff 07 fe ff ff 66 79  1a 06 66 79 1a 06 80 fe  |......fy..fy....|
000001e0  ff ff 0f fe ff ff cc f2  34 0c f5 66 3b 68 00 00  |........4..f;h..|
000001f0  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 55 aa  |..............U.|

And it possible the same for other disks that are not recognized by Leap 15?

Sure. Here they are. I don’t really care whether the SuSE installer can see these though.


# hexdump -C -n 512 /dev/sda
00000000  fa eb 5c 53 42 4d 33 2e  37 2e 31 00 02 01 01 00  |..\SBM3.7.1.....|
00000010  02 e0 00 40 0b f0 09 00  12 00 02 00 00 00 00 00  |...@............|
00000020  00 00 00 00 00 00 29 00  00 00 00 53 4d 41 52 54  |......)....SMART|
00000030  20 42 54 4d 47 52 46 41  54 31 32 20 20 20 eb 1f  | BTMGRFAT12   ..|
00000040  53 42 4d 4c 01 03 23 01  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  |SBML..#.........|
00000050  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 31  |...............1|
00000060  c0 8e d0 bc 00 7c 89 e6  50 07 50 1f fb fc bf 00  |.....|..P.P.....|
00000070  06 b9 00 01 f3 a5 ea 7b  00 60 00 0e 1f 68 00 10  |.......{.`...h..|
00000080  07 8d 36 46 00 b9 05 00  31 ff 51 ac 88 c1 66 ad  |..6F....1.Q...f.|
00000090  66 89 c3 b8 01 02 09 c9  74 12 e8 57 00 72 3a 81  |f.......t..W.r:.|
000000a0  c7 00 02 66 43 e2 f3 59  e2 e0 eb 01 59 31 ff 26  |...fC..Y....Y1.&|
000000b0  66 81 7d 04 53 42 4d 4b  75 20 26 81 7d 08 07 03  |f.}.SBMKu &.}...|
000000c0  75 18 26 8b 4d 0a 30 db  26 8a 05 00 c3 47 e2 f8  |u.&.M.0.&....G..|
000000d0  08 db 75 06 ea 00 00 00  10 59 8d 36 ad 01 ac 08  |..u......Y.6....|
000000e0  c0 74 09 bb 07 00 b4 0e  cd 10 eb f2 30 e4 cd 16  |.t..........0...|
000000f0  cd 18 eb fe 60 50 53 bb  aa 55 b4 41 cd 13 72 45  |....`PS..U.A..rE|
00000100  81 fb 55 aa 75 3f f6 c1  01 74 3a 5b 58 80 c4 40  |..U.u?...t:[X..@|
00000110  8d 36 02 02 66 31 c9 c6  04 10 66 89 4c 0c 88 4c  |.6..f1....f.L..L|
00000120  01 88 4c 03 88 44 02 89  7c 04 8c 44 06 66 89 5c  |..L..D..|..D.f.\|
00000130  08 50 52 cd 13 5a 58 73  6b e8 6a 00 fe c6 80 fe  |.PR..ZXsk.j.....|
00000140  03 72 e1 eb 5e 52 06 57  b4 08 cd 13 88 0e 00 02  |.r..^R.W........|
00000150  88 36 01 02 5f 07 5a 5b  58 72 48 50 52 66 89 d8  |.6.._.Z[XrHPRf..|
00000160  66 0f b7 0e 00 02 81 e1  3f 00 66 31 d2 66 f7 f1  |f.......?.f1.f..|
00000170  42 89 d1 66 31 db 8a 1e  01 02 fe c3 66 31 d2 66  |B..f1.......f1.f|
00000180  f7 f3 88 d3 86 c4 c0 e0  06 09 c1 5a 58 88 de 89  |...........ZX...|
00000190  fb 31 ff 50 cd 13 58 73  0b e8 0a 00 47 81 ff 03  |.1.P..Xs....G...|
000001a0  00 72 f0 f9 61 c3 60 31  c0 cd 13 61 c3 07 53 42  |.r..a.`1...a..SB|
000001b0  4d 4b 20 42 61 64 21 0d  21 ba 91 bd 00 00 80 01  |MK Bad!.!.......|
000001c0  01 00 07 fe ff ff 3f 00  00 00 bd ea ff 18 00 03  |......?.........|
000001d0  c1 ff 07 fe ff ff fc ea  ff 18 fc ea ff 18 00 07  |................|
000001e0  c1 ff 0f fe ff ff f8 d5  ff 31 5d db bf 07 00 00  |.........1].....|
000001f0  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 55 aa  |..............U.|


# hexdump -C -n 512 /dev/sdb
00000000  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  |................|
*
000001b0  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  2f ba 91 bd 00 00 81 01  |......../.......|
000001c0  01 00 07 fe ff ff 3f 00  00 00 bd ea ff 18 00 fe  |......?.........|
000001d0  ff ff 07 fe ff ff fc ea  ff 18 fc ea ff 18 00 fe  |................|
000001e0  ff ff 0f fe ff ff f8 d5  ff 31 5d db bf 07 00 00  |.........1].....|
000001f0  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 55 aa  |..............U.|
00000200

sdb surprised me, as I have Windows backup partitions created and populated on that disk. I guess I must not have used the same partitioning tool to partition it.

mrmazda · June 2, 2018, 11:16pm

How did you get that screenshot? I couldn’t and filed a bug about it that got wontfixed: https://bugzilla.opensuse.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1087537

nrickert · June 2, 2018, 11:38pm

Yes, that’s likely. In WYSIWYG mode, the editor probably needs javascript. I allow scripting for opensuse.org, suse.com and microfocus.com. That “A/A” button turns off WYSIWYG (I think).

nrickert · June 2, 2018, 11:40pm

I ran the installer in a virtual machine (under KVM). It’s a neat trick for getting screenshots where they normally would not be available.

arvidjaar · June 3, 2018, 8:20am

That is the problem. Apparently SBM boot code looks identical to FAT superblock, so parted mistedects it and ignores real partition table. From parted NEWS:

libparted: fat and ntfs boot sectors were misdetected as dos partition tables instead of being treated as a loop label.

I was able to reproduce it easily on Leap 15 by writing your MBR on disk. Personally I would say this is something that both projects should be made aware of. May be SBM can be told to not instal FAT boot sector on MBR.

Now this is not really “new” - last parted version was released in 2014. It would be interesting to know whether you managed to install previous openSUSE version on disk with SBM. If yes, it implies regression in openSUSE and you should open bug report also on openSUSE bugzilla

Actually you probably should file openSUSE bug in any case, simply to make developers aware of this problem.

d3vnull · June 3, 2018, 8:49am

Here are directions for taking screenshots in a graphical install when directly to hardware:

https://en.opensuse.org/SDB:Making_installation_screenshots

mrmazda · June 3, 2018, 9:07am

Was that directed to comment 14? If so, you must not have read the link, or at least, not seen the “start with existing partitions” difference between its attachment and the image nrickert posted here.