[Bug 1012863] Re: debian-installer unable to create 2.4TB partition

[Phillip Susi]

** Package changed: debian-installer (Ubuntu) => partman-partitioning
(Ubuntu)

** Changed in: partman-partitioning (Ubuntu)
   Importance: Undecided => Low

** Changed in: partman-partitioning (Ubuntu)
       Status: New => Triaged

** Description changed:

- On a server, I have three disks:
- 
- /dev/cciss/c0d0 <- onboard RAID LUN of 146GB
- /dev/sda, /dev/sdb <- SAN LUNs of 2.4TB each
- 
- I am attempting to install Ubuntu Server 10.04.4 on this machine.
- 
- During partitioning, I elected to do manual partitioning.  I created a
- 140GB root filesystem partition on the onboard RAID and also a 6GB swap
- partition on the RAID device.
- 
- Next, I attempted to create a single 2.4GB partition on the first SAN
- device, /dev/sda.
- 
- From the manual partiton summary screen in d-i, I chose sda. On the next
- screen I chose "Create a new partition".  On the next screen, the
- partition creation screen, I am told that the maxiumum size I can create
- is 2.4 TB.  So I create a single 2.4TB partition to be used to store
- data and hit Continue.
- 
- This moves me to the Primary or Logical screen and I chose to make this
- a Primary partition.
- 
- When I click Continue, I am brought to an Error screen that says the
- following:
- 
- "partition length of 4683671552 sectors exceeds the msdos-partition-
- table-imposed maximum of 4294967295"
- 
- Clicking continue here brings me back to the partition summary screen
- without my new partition.  I am not given the option at any point to use
- a different partition table layout that DOES support 2.4TB partitions.
- As this is geared toward servers, and undoubtedly, servers have a very
- good chance of having more than 2TB of disk storage that need to be
- partitioned off, this is a big weakness in the Ubuntu Server installer.
+ If you have a disk that is larger than the 2TiB limit for the dos
+ partition table, but it has a dos partition table on it, d-i offers the
+ free space line that lets you choose to create a primary/logical
+ partition in the dos partition table.  It offers a maximum size greater
+ than the 2tb dos partition table limit and if you select that size, it
+ then errors trying to create it.  If you hit enter on the whole disk
+ instead of the free space, it correctly offers to create an empty ( gpt
+ ) partition table, and all is well.  If you are still using a dos
+ partition table, then it should not offer to create partitions that do
+ not fit.

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1012863

Title:
  debian-installer unable to create 2.4TB partition

Status in “partman-partitioning” package in Ubuntu:
  Triaged

Bug description:
  If you have a disk that is larger than the 2TiB limit for the dos
  partition table, but it has a dos partition table on it, d-i offers
  the free space line that lets you choose to create a primary/logical
  partition in the dos partition table.  It offers a maximum size
  greater than the 2tb dos partition table limit and if you select that
  size, it then errors trying to create it.  If you hit enter on the
  whole disk instead of the free space, it correctly offers to create an
  empty ( gpt ) partition table, and all is well.  If you are still
  using a dos partition table, then it should not offer to create
  partitions that do not fit.

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