SLES 2TO Hard drive - installation error

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server SLES Install-Boot
1

Hi,

I’m trying to install SUSE Linux enterprise 11 SP3 on my personnal computer to run some tests.
I use a 2TO hard drive. I first installed windows 7 with 3 partitions ( 360/ 440/ 150) and left the space left unalocated.
I’ve had some troubles during the install, having to change this bios parameter : Onbard SATA Mode from RAID to AHCI. But now windows is running fine.

Now i’de like to install SLES with dual boot. Unfortunatly i run an error when trying to define the partitioning.

Installation summary :
Information : Media Check OK
Mode : New installation
Scenario : physical machine
Installation summary, i have the following error message in [COLOR="#008000"]Partitioning [/COLOR]: “[COLOR=”#FF0000"]No automatic proposal possible. Specify mount points manually in the ‘Partitioner’ dialog[/COLOR]"
If i select partitioning i’m lead to “Preparing hard disk” with 2 options : 1 IDE Disk 1,82 TB /dev/sda. ST2000DM001-1CH1 or Custom Partitioning (for expert)
If i select 1 i have a YaST2 error message :[COLOR="#FF0000"] ERROR - Operation not permitted on disk /dev/sda The partitioning on your disk /dev/sda is either not readable or not supported by the partitioning tool parted used to change the partition table.
You can use the partitions on disk /dev/sda as they are or format them and assign mount points, but you cannont add, edit, resize or remove partitions from that disk here.
You can initialize the disk partition table to a sane state in the Expert Partitioner by selecting “Expert”=>“Create New partition Table”, but this will destroy all data on all partitions of the disk.[/COLOR]

Then if i select Custom partitioning :
In hard disk i can see 5 entries :
[table=“width: 500, align: center”]
[tr]
[td]Device[/td]
[td]Size[/td]
[td]Type[/td]
[td]FS Type[/td]
[td]Label[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td]/dev/sda[/td]
[td]1.82 TB[/td]
[td]ST2000DM001-1CH1[/td]
[td][/td]
[td][/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td]/dev/sda1[/td]
[td]100MB[/td]
[td]Linux native[/td]
[td]NTFS[/td]
[td]RM-CM-)servM-CM[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td]/dev/sda2[/td]
[td]361,33GB[/td]
[td]Linux native[/td]
[td]NTFS[/td]
[td]Prog[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td]/dev/sda3[/td]
[td]439,45GB[/td]
[td]Linux native[/td]
[td]NTFS[/td]
[td]Pers[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td]/dev/sda4[/td]
[td]146,48GB[/td]
[td]Linux native[/td]
[td]NTFS[/td]
[td]Swap[/td]
[/tr]
[/table]

If i select /dev/sda and select Add Partition i have the same error message as before ( [COLOR="#FF0000"]ERROR - operation not permitted …[/COLOR] )
If i select /dev/sda in hard disk section i can identify this informations : Bus : SATA - Sector size 512B - Disk Label : GPT

If i select Expert mode in can see an error message in Booting section : “Because of the partitioning the bootloader cannot be installed properly” Error : No proposal.

I’ve found a similar issue here but no solution for my issue ( same hard drive ) : https://forums.opensuse.org/english/get-technical-help-here/hardware/437039-opensuse-11-2-does-not-see-my-sata3-hard-disk-partitions.html

Here is my fdisk -l output :
WARNING: GPT ( GUID Partition Table ) detected on ‘/dev/sda’ ! The util fdisk doesn’t support GPT. Use GNU parted.

Disk /dev/sda : 2000,4 GB, 2000398934016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/tracks, 243201 cylinders, total 3907029168 sectors
Units=sectors of 1*512 = 512 bytes
Sector size : 512b/4096b
I/O size 4096b/4096b
Disk identiifier 0xb13b4307

Device -boot -start - end - blocks - id - system
/dev/sda1 - * - 2048 - 206847 - 102400 - ? - HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda2 - - 206848 - 757966847- 378880000- ? - HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda3 - - 757966848- 1679566847- 460800000- ? - HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda4 - - 1679566847- 1986766847- 153600000- ? - HPFS/NTFS/exFAT

Any idea on how to proceed ? Thanks

2

Hi
You need a small /boot, have a read here;
https://www.suse.com/releasenotes/x86_64/SUSE-SLES/11-SP3/#Installation.BootGrub2TB

Use the windows disk management too to create a new partition between
sda1 and sda2.

If you can I recommend switching to UEFI, then windows 7 and SLE can
share the same ESP.

Else consider using virtualization (VMware Player, Virtual Box) and
create a virtual machine to run your tests?

–
Cheers Malcolm °¿° SUSE Knowledge Partner (Linux Counter #276890)
openSUSE 12.3 (x86_64) GNOME 3.8.4 Kernel 3.7.10-1.16-desktop
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please show your appreciation and click on the star below… Thanks!

3

hi MalcolmLewis.

First thanks for your reply.

I cannot switch to UEFI.
So i’ve supressed the 2 others partitions ( pers and swap )
Now i have only system partition and prog.
I can create a boot partition : any instruction on how to do so ?

4

I found some post about how to create a boot partition ( for multi boot system ) : do the boot partition have to be in the first 100Gb of the hard drive ?
Then how shall i proceed ?

I’ve seen some post about converting a GPT hdd to a MBR one using gparted : should i use this solution ?

Thanks

5

Hi
Can you post the output from;

parted -l

If you post text ouput from the console could you please use code tags
around the output it’s the # in the advanced editor on the forum.

–
Cheers Malcolm °¿° SUSE Knowledge Partner (Linux Counter #276890)
openSUSE 12.3 (x86_64) GNOME 3.8.4 Kernel 3.7.10-1.16-desktop
If you find this post helpful and are logged into the web interface,
please show your appreciation and click on the star below… Thanks!

6

Hi,

The output of parted -l :

[CODE]parted -l
Warning : /dev/sda contains GPT signatures, indicating that it has a GPT table.
However it does not have a valid fake msdos partition table, as it should.
Perhapts it was corrupted - possibly by a program that doesn’t understand GPT partition table. Or perhaps you deleted the GPT table and are now using an msdos partition table.
Is this a GPT partition table ?
Yes/No? y

Warning : /dev/sda contains GPT signatures, indicating that it has a GPT table.
However it does not have a valid fake msdos partition table, as it should.
Perhapts it was corrupted - possibly by a program that doesn’t understand GPT partition table. Or perhaps you deleted the GPT table and are now using an msdos partition table.
Is this a GPT partition table ?
Yes/No? y
Model : ATA ST2000DM001-1CN1 (scsi)
Disk /dev/sda : 2000GB
Sector size ( logical/physical): 512B/4096B
Partition Table : gpt_sync_mbr

Number Start End Size File system Name Flags

Warning : Unable to open /dev/sr0 read-write (Read-only file system). /dev/sr0 has been opened read only.
Error: Invalid partition table - recursive partition on /dev/sr0
Ignore/Cancel?: i
Model : ATAPI DVD A DH16ABSH (scsi)
Disk /dev/sr0 : 3221MB
Sector size ( logical/physical): 2048B/2048B
Partition Table : msdos

Number Start End Size File system Name Flags
[/CODE]

7

Hi
That isn’t good… So you used the windows management tool to
manipulate the drive partitions. Can you post a screen shot of the
windows disk management tool.

Use http://paste.opensuse.org/ with the image option and please can you
set to never expire.

–
Cheers Malcolm °¿° SUSE Knowledge Partner (Linux Counter #276890)
openSUSE 12.3 (x86_64) GNOME 3.8.4 Kernel 3.7.10-1.16-desktop
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please show your appreciation and click on the star below… Thanks!

8

Hi,

Here is the screeshot after i suppressed the 2 last partitions : http://paste.opensuse.org/74709495

9

Hi
You should be fine now, just run the SLE install and use the expert
mode when it comes to the partitioning to create a small (~128 -
256MB) /boot as well as / and /home or others as required.

–
Cheers Malcolm °¿° SUSE Knowledge Partner (Linux Counter #276890)
openSUSE 12.3 (x86_64) GNOME 3.8.4 Kernel 3.7.10-1.16-desktop
If you find this post helpful and are logged into the web interface,
please show your appreciation and click on the star below… Thanks!

10

Hi

I’m still facing the same error message when trying to create a partition in expert mode.

[CODE]ERROR
Operation not permitted on disk /dev/sda

The partitioning on your disk /dev/sda is either not readable or not supported by the partitioning tool parted used to change the partition table.

You can use the partition on disk /dev/sda as they are or format them and assign mount points, but you cannot add, edit, resize, or remove partitions from that disk here.

You can initialize the disk partition table to a sane state in the Expert Partitioner by selecting “Expert” => “Create New Partition Table”. but this will destroy all data on all partitions of this disk[/CODE]

If i’m not wrong the main issue comes from the hard drive using GPT and not MBR so i’m gona try to use gparted to do the transform.

I’ll keep you updated

11

Hi,

I’ve finally used gparted to convert the hard drive from GPT to MBR.
I’ve now completed the windows installation and the Suse installation is running as we speak with no error and smooth hard drive detection.

Thanks for your help, thread solved.