parted error on installation

[ChrisDennis]

Hello LinuxMCE people

I've just tried to install LinuxMCE for the first time, and got stuck right at the beginning.

This is what's on the screen:

Hard drives in the system:
1. /dev/sda (WDC WD100BB ....  10.0GB)    [ this is a pata drive ]
2. /dev/sdb (ST3250620NS ... 250.0GB)     [ this one is sata ]
Choose which drive to install the system on: 1
Chosen hdd: /dev/sda
Error: The location -12GB is outside of the device /dev/sda.
Error: Partition doesn't exist
Error: The location -12GB is outside of the device /dev/sda.
Error: Expecting a partition type.
Error: Expecting a partition type.
mke2fs 1.40.2 (12-Jul-2007)
Could not stat /dev/sda1 - No such file or directory
The device apparently does not exist: did you specify it correctly?

If I switch to a console via Alt-F2 at this point, I can do 'sudo parted /dev/sda' and create partitions with no problems. 
But the install script will go no further.

This is from a LinuxMCE/Kubuntu 7.10 that I downloaded from linuxmce.org a few days ago.

I tried deleting the previous partitions from /dev/sda first, but that didn't make any difference.

Any suggestions?

regards

Chris

[totallymaxed]

Hello LinuxMCE people

I've just tried to install LinuxMCE for the first time, and got stuck right at the beginning.

This is what's on the screen:

Hard drives in the system:
1. /dev/sda (WDC WD100BB ....  10.0GB)    [ this is a pata drive ]
2. /dev/sdb (ST3250620NS ... 250.0GB)     [ this one is sata ]
Choose which drive to install the system on: 1
Chosen hdd: /dev/sda
Error: The location -12GB is outside of the device /dev/sda.
Error: Partition doesn't exist
Error: The location -12GB is outside of the device /dev/sda.
Error: Expecting a partition type.
Error: Expecting a partition type.
mke2fs 1.40.2 (12-Jul-2007)
Could not stat /dev/sda1 - No such file or directory
The device apparently does not exist: did you specify it correctly?

If I switch to a console via Alt-F2 at this point, I can do 'sudo parted /dev/sda' and create partitions with no problems. 
But the install script will go no further.

This is from a LinuxMCE/Kubuntu 7.10 that I downloaded from linuxmce.org a few days ago.

I tried deleting the previous partitions from /dev/sda first, but that didn't make any difference.

Any suggestions?

regards

Chris

Hmmm... it could it be an indication that your /dev/sda1 partition is too small.

[ChrisDennis]

Hmmm... it could it be an indication that your /dev/sda1 partition is too small.

There is no /dev/sda1 partition yet -- the installer is supposed to be creating one, isn't it?

This is on an 'empty' PC -- I understood that the LinuxMCE installation DVD would install a copy of Kubuntu specially adapted for and including all the LinuxMCE bits.

I also understand that the combined Kubuntu/LinuxMCE DVD is still in beta: would it be better to install Kubuntu first and then add LinuxMCE?

Additional note: I'm using LinuxMCE-DVD-0710Beta3-i386.iso.  Would Beta4 fix this problem?

regards

Chris

[ChrisDennis]

Update: I've tried the Beta4 DVD -- same problem.

And I tried creating a suitable /dev/sda1 partition first, but that didn't help either.

Can anyone suggest what to try next?

cheers

Chris

[Zaerc]

Try a bigger drive, 10G is to small!

[totallymaxed]

Hmmm... it could it be an indication that your /dev/sda1 partition is too small.

There is no /dev/sda1 partition yet -- the installer is supposed to be creating one, isn't it?

This is on an 'empty' PC -- I understood that the LinuxMCE installation DVD would install a copy of Kubuntu specially adapted for and including all the LinuxMCE bits.

I also understand that the combined Kubuntu/LinuxMCE DVD is still in beta: would it be better to install Kubuntu first and then add LinuxMCE?

Additional note: I'm using LinuxMCE-DVD-0710Beta3-i386.iso.  Would Beta4 fix this problem?

regards

Chris

The problem is as, Zaerc has already explained, the physical drive is too small at 10Gb... thats what I also meant. You need to install to a larger drive.

[ChrisDennis]

Try a bigger drive, 10G is to small!

Thanks for the information.  I checked with the documentation, and the page at http://wiki.linuxmce.org/index.php/Hardware says:

Your machines' hard drive(s) should be at least 4GB (to install the OS) plus as much as you want for media storage

so I had discounted that possibility.

I know 10GB isn't much for a media center: I'm planning to use the separate 250GB drive for storage.  Does the DVD all-at-once installer assume that everything will go onto a single drive?

Anyway, I'll revert to plan B and install Kubuntu first and then add LinuxMCE.

cheers

Chris

[Zaerc]

The DVD will wipe and use the whole drive, so you'll probably be better of using the CD installer on top of kubuntu which gives you the opportunity to partition the drive as you like. 

[safrisrael]

I was actually installing Kubuntu on Vmware and got the same error messages. When I googled them I got to this post, no answer was available :S

At first I created a virtual disk of 8 GB (Vmware's default size) as I read that 4 GB was the minimum space required...

Although it is not the most intuitive message, the solution happened to be an increase of the disk size to 15 GB. According to your log, it seems that you are installing the OS in a 10GB partition. Somehow the minimum disk size seems to be 12GB.

Hope that this helps.

[safrisrael]

One more thing... The installation now stopped due to lack of disk space, so even 16 GB don't seem to be enough...

[maybeoneday]

hi all,
FWIW I had a similar problem with 20gig maxtor,on one trial setup, but only after trying to set up an md,(the  beta 4 install  had worked ok at that point but with no media
added ) so maybe lowest usable size for a hybrid is very close to 20gig ?
regards
Ian

[ndroo_au]

I know this is an old thread...but...

ive been installing linuxmce in a VirtualBox virtualmachine, i origionally only gave 8gb for the main hard drive...and obtained the same error you're getting. All i did was re-create a new virtualdrive of 15gb (>12GB was my thinking) and that appears to have resolved my issue.