Partitioning error(s) during installation (12.1)

[Daud Daud]

(System details at end of post)

Hi all

I'm looking for a bit of advice on what to try/investigate next. I'm
attempting to install 12.1 on an oldish PC and continually get
partitioning errors when it comes to "Perform Installation" (error
message follows:) As it was originally my son's machine, I'm keeping the
WinXP partition in case he needs it ever, but attempting to (let the
installation) shrink it. I've googled error 1021 and similar
installation woes but found nothing relevant. If I elect to continue, I
get a succession of similar error messages as it attempts each
partitioning step (with different failures/error codes (e.g Failure
creating volume /dev/sda2 etc. -- error code 1007).

Installing from DVD downloaded from openSUSE.org verified at each stage
downloading/burning/from YAST installation

Why is this failing? - it doesn't appear to be a problem that affects
most people (no reports that I have found)

Will 'pre-partitioning' from (e.g.) a live CD get round the problem?

Thanks in advance for any pointers.

D2

Exact error message:
"
YAST2
Failure occurred during following action:
Shrinking partition /dev/sda1 to 45GB (progress bar may not move)

System error code was: -1021

YAST_IS_RUNNING=1 /usr/sbin/parted -s '/dev/sda' unit resize 1 63
94365872:
WARNING: you are attempting to use /usr/sbin/parted to operate on (resize)
a file system. /usr/sbin/parted's file system manipulation code is not
as robust as what you'll find in dedicated file-system-specific packages
like (sic) e2fsprogs. We recommend you use /usr/sbin/parted only to
manipulate partition tables, whenever possible. support for performing
most operations on most types of files systems will be removed in an
upcoming release.

Continue despite the error?

[Continue] [Abort]"

Proposed partition table:

/dev/sda 183.77GB
/dev/sda1 45.00GB FAT32 /windows/C
/dev/sda2 138.77GB Extended
/dev/sda5 20GB F Linux native Ext4 /
/dev/sda6 2GB F Linux swap Swap Swap
/dev/sda7 91.77GB F Linux native Ext4 /home

Just returning to openSUSE after a couple of years away on Ubuntu, so I'm
a tad out of date with any recent distro-specific developments.... Glad
to see Houghi still has time to post occasionally :)

System info:

RAM: 1GB
CPU: Intel Celeron 2.4Ghz
GPU: NVidia GeForce FX 5200 w/ 128MB RAM
HDD: Seagate Barracuda (200GB) 183.77GB (158.21GB free)
Sound card: Creative Audigy
2 DVD drives (1 X RW)

Regards

D2

[Daud Daud]

On Mon, 05 Dec 2011 13:53:24 +0000, Daud Daud wrote:

> Hi all
>
> I'm looking for a bit of advice on what to try/investigate next. I'm
> attempting to install 12.1 on an oldish PC and continually get
> partitioning errors when it comes to "Perform Installation" (error
> message follows:) As it was originally my son's machine, I'm keeping
> the WinXP partition in case he needs it ever, but attempting to (let the
> installation) shrink it. I've googled error 1021 and similar
> installation woes but found nothing relevant. If I elect to continue, I
> get a succession of similar error messages as it attempts each
> partitioning step (with different failures/error codes (e.g Failure
> creating volume /dev/sda2 etc. -- error code 1007).
>
> Installing from DVD downloaded from openSUSE.org verified at each stage
> downloading/burning/from YAST installation
>
> Why is this failing? - it doesn't appear to be a problem that affects
> most people (no reports that I have found)
>
> Will 'pre-partitioning' from (e.g.) a live CD get round the problem?
>
> Thanks in advance for any pointers.
>
> D2
>

<snip>

Incidentally, I've just tried installation again from the Live CD (which
works fine as is BTW) - same problem. I even accepted the suggested
shrinkage for /dev/sda1 (to 80.63 GB - I'd previously reduced this as it
obviously leaves less room for /home) I've also just received a magazine
(Linux Format) cover DVD with it on - I'll give that a spin

D2

[Daud Daud]

On Mon, 05 Dec 2011 16:57:17 +0000, Daud Daud wrote:

> On Mon, 05 Dec 2011 13:53:24 +0000, Daud Daud wrote:

<snip>

> <snip>
>
> Incidentally, I've just tried installation again from the Live CD (which
> works fine as is BTW) - same problem. I even accepted the suggested
> shrinkage for /dev/sda1 (to 80.63 GB - I'd previously reduced this as it
> obviously leaves less room for /home) I've also just received a
> magazine (Linux Format) cover DVD with it on - I'll give that a spin
>
> D2

As we all expected the Linux Format install failed in the same way :(

D2

[unruh]

On 2011-12-05, Daud Daud <daud...@remove.gmail.com> wrote:
> (System details at end of post)
>
> Hi all
>
> I'm looking for a bit of advice on what to try/investigate next. I'm
> attempting to install 12.1 on an oldish PC and continually get
> partitioning errors when it comes to "Perform Installation" (error
> message follows:) As it was originally my son's machine, I'm keeping the
> WinXP partition in case he needs it ever, but attempting to (let the

It tells you why it is failing. It cannot shrink the Windows partition.
You may be asking it to shrink too much. The Windows partition may be
fragmented to hell and have filled the whole disk. etc.
You must first defrag the Windoes partition. The latest windows has a
partition shrinking tool included, but I do not know if XP had it.

You could do a backup of the Windows stuff (you should anyway), wipe
everything, and then partition the system to give you space.

Or easiest would probably be to buy a new disk and just put Linux on
that. Disks are cheap.

(You give us the proposed partition table. What is the current partition
table?)

[Lloyd Branum]

download the gparted iso and you can see what you are doing when you
shrink the partitions? That is what I use.

[Will Honea]

The other replies have been right on - Windows finds all sorts of ways to
make a mess of the disk space. The BEST you will get normally is a shrink
of just less than 50% of the original size - NTFS places some directory info
on a stripe in the physical center of the partition.

The suggestion to shrink from inside Windows is about the safest method I've
found. For best results, make several defrag passes (again, from a Win
boot). When you have defragged as much as possible - usually 5-6 passes
gets you about as much compaction as possible - then reboot (this is
Windows, remember) and see if you get enough shrink. If not, you can try
going into the Windows settings and turning OFF the swap memory. After
(another) reboot, you should then be able to remove the pagefile and get a
little more of a shrink.

My laptop came with XP and absolutely the first thing I did was to shrink
the single partition which used the whole disk. With every trick I could
think of I got the XP partition down from 250G (whole disk) to just under
60G - of which nearly 90% was free space. That's the best I've ever
maqnaged and the usual result on a disk which has been used a while is more
like the above mentioned 50% max recovery.

--
Will Honea

[Daud Daud]

On Mon, 05 Dec 2011 18:15:39 +0000, unruh wrote:

> On 2011-12-05, Daud Daud <daud...@remove.gmail.com> wrote:
>> (System details at end of post)
>>
>> Hi all
>>
>> I'm looking for a bit of advice on what to try/investigate next. I'm
>> attempting to install 12.1 on an oldish PC and continually get
>> partitioning errors when it comes to "Perform Installation" (error
>> message follows: ) As it was originally my son's machine, I'm keeping
>> the WinXP partition in case he needs it ever, but attempting to (let
>> the
>
> It tells you why it is failing. It cannot shrink the Windows partition.
> You may be asking it to shrink too much.

cf. my second post - I tried simply accepting the suggested size (80.63
GB) with the same results. Actual disk usage is around 26GB so I thought
a resize to 45GB was adequate - nonetheless, that does not seem to be the
issue.

> The Windows partition may be
> fragmented to hell and have filled the whole disk. etc.
> You must first defrag the Windoes partition. The latest windows has a
> partition shrinking tool included, but I do not know if XP had it.

Mea culpa - I neglected to say that I had already defragged the disk -
for defragging hours on end :(

>
> You could do a backup of the Windows stuff (you should anyway), wipe
> everything, and then partition the system to give you space.

Previously done (and/or deleted.)

>
> Or easiest would probably be to buy a new disk and just put Linux on
> that. Disks are cheap.
>
> (You give us the proposed partition table. What is the current partition
> table?)
>
>

Thanks for your response.

There is currently just the one FAT32 Win partition - not sure why it's
FAT - I thought Win defaulted to NTFS.

I have no confidence in or desire to use Win to partition. I haven't
used Win at all for 6 or 7 years, but I don't suppose it's significantly
better now than it ever was. (G)parted (either on its own or via the
installation programme of various different distros) has always done the
job.

I'll have a swipe at setting up the partitions before I retry the
install. If that fails I'll just reformat the entire disk & use it all
for Linux.

Thanks again

D2

[Daud Daud]

On Mon, 05 Dec 2011 19:33:06 +0100, houghi wrote:

> Daud Daud wrote:
>> I'm looking for a bit of advice on what to try/investigate next. I'm
>> attempting to install 12.1 on an oldish PC and continually get
>> partitioning errors when it comes to "Perform Installation" (error
>> message follows:) As it was originally my son's machine, I'm keeping
>> the WinXP partition in case he needs it ever, but attempting to (let
>> the installation) shrink it.
>

> Don't. If you want to shrink it, do it from within Windows. It could
> even fail there. The reason might be that there are (hidden swap) files
> that can not be moved.
>
> The best way is first to defrag and then attempt to schrik the
> partition. If WIndows can't do it, you have several various options. In
> order of preference IF you want to keep the Windows partition 1) Back up
> the data, do a new XP install with the size yyou want and/or need 2) Use
> Partition Magic 3) Get a new HD and put the old HD on the side to be
> sued if you need it.
>
> Trying to solve a Windows partition during a Linux installation will be
> the cause of loss of data.
>
> As an extra: XP means also a not too recent machine, so perhaps go
> directly for an XFCE install.
>
>
> houghi


cf. my response to unruh

Thanks houghi

I thought "suing" was more the tactics of the Redmond bunch LOL

D2

[unruh]

No, I do not suggest windows to partition. I suggest Windows to shrink
the partition. I know in the latest version, there is a partition
shrinking tool in Windows, but am not at all sure it exists in WinNT (
and suspect it does not). I suggest this because Windows knows the
Windows filesystem better than does Linux. MS claims that the file
system (incliding Win32) is proprietary, and secret, and thus could well
stick in stuff which is there precisely to trip up Linux. But their own
OS should be able to handle the shrinking.
After having used windoes to shrink, then partition with Linux.

[Daud Daud]

On Tue, 06 Dec 2011 01:01:01 +0000, unruh wrote:

> On 2011-12-05, Daud Daud <daud...@remove.gmail.com> wrote:
>> On Mon, 05 Dec 2011 18:15:39 +0000, unruh wrote:
>>
>>> On 2011-12-05, Daud Daud <daud...@remove.gmail.com> wrote:
>>>> (System details at end of post)
>>>>
>>

>> I have no confidence in or desire to use Win to partition. I haven't
>> used Win at all for 6 or 7 years, but I don't suppose it's
>> significantly better now than it ever was. (G)parted (either on its
>> own or via the installation programme of various different distros) has
>> always done the job.
>
> No, I do not suggest windows to partition. I suggest Windows to shrink
> the partition. I know in the latest version, there is a partition
> shrinking tool in Windows, but am not at all sure it exists in WinNT (
> and suspect it does not). I suggest this because Windows knows the
> Windows filesystem better than does Linux. MS claims that the file
> system (incliding Win32) is proprietary, and secret, and thus could well
> stick in stuff which is there precisely to trip up Linux. But their own
> OS should be able to handle the shrinking.
> After having used windoes to shrink, then partition with Linux.

Fair 'nuff

Thanks again

D2

[Daud Daud]

On Mon, 05 Dec 2011 13:53:24 +0000, Daud Daud wrote:

> attempting to (let the
> installation) shrink it. I've googled error 1021 and similar
> installation woes but found nothing relevant. If I elect to continue, I
> get a succession of similar error messages as it attempts each
> partitioning step (with different failures/error codes (e.g Failure
> creating volume /dev/sda2 etc. -- error code 1007).

As I expected, GParted Live did the job fine. Strange (to me at least)
that parted would do the job on its own but not from the installation
programme.

D2