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[LVM] Installing 10.04 trashes existing LVM setup / DLAT

Asked by Oliver

Hi,

I want to install Ubuntu 10.04 LTS Desktop AMD64 on a PC that has a terabyte sized hard disk, which is already fully partitioned (with two partitions prepared for Ubuntu and Ubuntu's swap device). On that system there is a Logical Volume Manager installed (IBM). This LVM could be ignored by Ubuntu, as it is meant for an existing, working, bootable JFS partition containing eComStation, which is the current version of IBMs OS/2.

But unfortunately, Ubuntu trashes the LVMs information on the disk, either the DLAT or the BBR. After installing Ubuntu _and telling it not to install Grub2 into the MBR (!)_ the LVM info gets damaged beyond repair. Ubuntu runs flawlessly, having actually installed Grub2 into it's partitions PBR, as instructed.

But eComStation won't run, and a Logical Volume Manager run from CD complains corrupt partition info (the actual partition table is intact. But disk editing tools like DFsee show that it's the LVM info that got damaged).

IBMs LVM stores its info in the last sector of track 0, as opposed to the MBR which of course is in the first. The MBR is not damaged. It boots IBMs boot manager out of a small partition, and that runs okay. It will boot Ubuntu and every Windows installed on the system, but because of the damaged DLAT and/or BBR no longer eComStation.

The error can be pinned down to Ubuntu. Immediately before installation everything is fine, immediately afterwards it is broken, reproducibly.

Anyone got a hint why Ubuntu does this, even when told not to install boot code into /dev/sda?

Thanks
Oliver

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delance (olivier-delance) said : 		#1

I'm not expert in LVM. I will try to do what I can.

There is a standard script provided to analyse boot configuration.

Could you download script at:

   http://sourceforge.net/projects/bootinfoscript/

Then in a terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) run command:

    sudo bash boot_info_script055.sh

This will produce a file named: RESULTS.txt

Paste content of this file in http://paste.ubuntu.com/ and provide in this thread the link to Web page.

Please don't post file directly in thread, else it will make thread difficult to read.

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Oliver (ok23) said : 		#2

Sorry, for some reason I forgot about this remark. Thanks Olivier for your help.

I ran the script and will post the results. They are here:

http://paste.ubuntu.com/805639/

Btw, I do have an open bug for that, that does have some followers, but no one got ever assigned.

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Oliver (ok23) said : 		#3

Additional info:
 sda1 is the rescue Windows 7, sda2 the actual Windows 7, sda 3 is the IBM Boot Manager partition.
sda5 is eComStation (OS/2), sda6 the swap partition to it (both JFS). sda7-9 obvious.
sda10 is Ubuntus swap partition, sda11 and sda12 are data partitions common to all operating systems on the disk (FAT32).

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delance (olivier-delance) said : 		#4

"No boot loader is installed in the MBR of /dev/sda."
sda9: Boot sector type: Grub2 (v1.97-1.98)
/dev/sda3 * 109,097,415 109,113,479 16,065 a OS/2 Boot Manager

You have no boot sector at start of disk, so BIOS boots on first bootable partition which is sda3.
What do you call a IBM LVM ? The partition manager (fdisk) shows any LVM, neither Windows nor Linux.

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Oliver (ok23) said : 		#5

The information given by this script is to some extent misleading or wrong.

Of course there is a boot loader in the MBR of /dev/sda. The script just doesn't know this one...

It's the boot loader for IBMs Boot Manager, the latter sitting in /dev/sda3. All partitions are bootable except for the swap and data partitions and the logical container. IBMs boot loader just does this: It chainloads either sda1, sda2, sda5, sda7, sda8, sda9 at user discretion. That is why Grub2 resides in the PBR of sda9. Btw, the "first bootable partition" would therefore be sda1.

IBM LVM is IBMs LVM. It is a Logical Volume Manager made by IBM. It is part of OS/2 and AIX disk management. It does just the same thing as all the other LVMs do: Define logical volumes (what else). IBMs LVM writes its data into the end of the MBR of /dev/sda, and Ubuntu kills this data without authorization. Ubuntu installation was precisely instructed to not install boot code into /dev/sda, but in /dev/sda9 instead.

Further, it moves the logical container sda4 to a different boundary, also without authorization. That is very destructive behaviour, which effectively kills the OS/2 operating system on the disk.

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Oliver (ok23) said : 		#6

Still, no one ever did something to stop Ubuntu destroying other vendor's operating systems...

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vsgvf vdsvd (dfgoep34) said : 		#7

There are some issues that are occurring in the trash section check here https://www.apkev.com/ some details about my software.

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