Ubuntu

Gparted won't run - fdisk reports: Error: Can't have overlapping partitions.

Asked by jensjk

When trying to edit my hd with gparted, it reports the full hd (180gb) as one unformatted partition - which obviously isn't true, my fstab is:

/dev/sda5 /mnt/pclinux ext2 noatime 1 1
/dev/sda3 /home ext3 noatime 1 2
/dev/sdb1 /media vfat defaults 0 0
/dev/sda1 / ext3 noatime 1 2
/proc proc defaults 0 0
/proc/bus/usb usbfs defaults 0 0
/dev/sda6 swap swap defaults 0 0

- and the system works well - but I cannot do anything on the partitions.

Probably the error lies here:

jjk@jjk-laptop:~$ sudo fdisk -l

Disk /dev/sda: 200.0 GB, 200049647616 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 24321 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xc1d5f9b0

   Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 1 1025 8233281 83 Linux
/dev/sda2 1026 24321 187125120 5 Extended
/dev/sda3 4069 14284 82060020 83 Linux
/dev/sda5 1026 1807 6281383+ 83 Linux
/dev/sda6 23566 24321 6072538+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda7 1808 4068 18161451 83 Linux

Partition table entries are not in disk order

- and probably the problem arose,when I some time ago moved my /home to a separate partition, to make it safe from, test of other distros etc.

But how to proceed?

- jensjk

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lucien (lucien-de-belder) said : 		#1

 You do have primary partitions AFTER extented or logical ones.

 Primary from 1 to 4 , extented start at 5. So sda3 is a name for a primary but it is a logical one.

 See http://phlogma.com/linux/?p=4

 Lucien.

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jensjk (info-jensjk) said : 		#2

Well, yes, but how do I solve this problem?

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lucien (lucien-de-belder) said : 		#3

I don't know, that's the reason I gave the link, to see what other people did.

 If reinstalling is not the answer, you could try with fdisk to delete sda3, your /home partition (after saving everything in this partition) and make a new one sda8.
 This would then become your new /home partition. Because it would be a logical one ,it could take the same place on sda as sda3 takes now.
 You would also have to check /etc/fstab and probably Grub loader to change sda3 in sda8 , or hd0,2 in hd0,7.

 I never did it myself. So you could also wait untill somebody else gives an opinion. Good luck.

 Lucien.

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Ajo Paul (ajopaul01) said : 		#4

here's my fdisk output, i did a fix partition order inspite of that i get "Can't have overlapping partitions." message when i launch gparted or use parted.

ajopaul@ajopaul-laptop:/var/log$ sudo fdisk -l

Disk /dev/sda: 160.0 GB, 160041885696 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 19457 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xf8000000

   Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 11 1316 10485760 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2 * 1317 5140 30716280 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda3 5141 19458 115001912 f W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/sda4 * 19131 19458 2620416 c W95 FAT32 (LBA)
/dev/sda5 5141 7572 19534977 83 Linux
/dev/sda6 7573 12435 39062016 83 Linux
/dev/sda7 12436 12921 3903763+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda8 12922 19130 49873761 7 HPFS/NTFS

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jensjk (info-jensjk) said : 		#5

Thanks - you seem to have two boot partitions, sda2 and sda4. Is that really possible?
However, before your answer, I tried the universal boot cd and different partition tools from there - deleted a partitions, and now I have to start all over. But, I do have data backup :-)

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Xavi (xavidp) said : 		#6

Hi there:

I'm having trouble after upgrade to Ubuntu 9.04 release candidate.
I can't boot ubuntu, I get the "error 15: file not found" after I chose the option in the boot grub menu from the installed 9.04.

And gparted (from kubuntu live cd, because my system is unusable from the hard disk right now), recogizes the disk as unassigned space. However, with "dolphin" I can mount the partitions, see their files, etc.
When closing gparted I see the message:
 ======================
   libparted : 1.8.8
   ======================
   Can't have overlapping partitions.

See the full bug report and other details here:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+bug/363651