[Bug 1179122] Re: Ubuntu's Partitioning Tool does not revert changes to partition table

[Phillip Susi]

I can't reproduce this nor fully understand your description.  What
makes you think the partition was resized?

FYI, the partition type code does not actually matter.  Also e2fsck
isn't going to do any good on the luks device, since it is an lvm pv,
not an ext2 filesystem.


** Package changed: gparted (Ubuntu) => unity (Ubuntu)

** Changed in: unity (Ubuntu)
       Status: New => Incomplete

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1179122

Title:
  Ubuntu's  Partitioning Tool does not revert changes to partition table

Status in “unity” package in Ubuntu:
  Incomplete

Bug description:
  I am currently running CentOS 6.x on my primary workstation. I want to
  replace CentOS with Ubuntu after I found that Ubuntu has better
  software repositories.

  I booted up my workstation with Ubuntu 12.10 Live to test and see if
  Ubuntu will recognize my CentOS encrypted luks container and determine
  whether or not I can replace CentOS with Ubuntu. My system root and
  home partitions are logical volumes stored in a luks container that
  was originally created with Red Hat's Partitioning Tool.

  I discovered that Ubuntu's Partitioning Tool does not recognize Red
  Hat's encrypted luks container and will not allow Ubuntu to be
  installed onto an existing logical volume. When experimenting with
  Ubuntu's Partitioning Tool options to get the installer to recognize
  Red Hat's partitioning scheme, I accidentally clicked the "-" next to
  "change" and the Partitioning Tool recalculated the luks container to
  "free space". I clicked "revert" over and over again, but to no avail.
  Ubuntu's Partitioning Tool trashed my partition table and would not
  let me undo the changes. I then clicked "quit" to exit out of the
  Advanced Partitioning Tool window.

  I tried to open the luks container, but Ubuntu's Partitioning Tool
  resized the container to below the Payload Offset's boundary and
  therefore the encryption failed. I then used fdisk to recreate the
  partition table that the luks container is held in, starting at the
  same cylinder, but with the full size of the original container. I can
  now successfully use "cryptsetup luksOpen /dev/sda2 crypt" to open the
  luks container, but my logical volumes have vanished.

  I was able to reproduce part of this problem (Partitioning Tool
  changes partition id and will not revert):  When changes are made to
  an existing LVM physical volume with Ubuntu's Advanced Partitioning
  Tool, the "revert" function is defective and will not revert the
  changes made to the partition table. Ubuntu's Partitioning Tool
  changes the partition identifier from hex code 8E (Linux LVM) to a hex
  code of 83 (Linux). This causes the beginning sector of the physical
  volume not to line up with where it used to be, and the logical
  volumes are unreadable as a result of this bug.

  Can someone who is knowledgeable about the ins and outs of Ubuntu's
  Advanced Partitioning Tool please inform me as to exactly what this
  tool did when it recalculated my partitions. Even after I used fdisk
  to recreate the partition table with the correct size and changed the
  partition identifier from 83 (Linux) to 8E (Linux LVM), my logical
  volumes are still unavailable. When I use "dd if=/dev/mapper/crypt
  bs=512 count=255 skip=1 of=./lvm.recovery" to recover the LVM backup
  headers, there is no reference to any LVM metadata.

  I am very puzzled as to exactly how Ubuntu's Partitioning Tool
  scrabbled my partition table and why it can't be recreated with fdisk.
  I can't mount /dev/mapper/crypt as it appears to be misaligned. I
  tried every backup superblock with e2fsck and none work (Bad magic
  number in super-block). There must be a way to reverse this partition
  alignment problem since the only thing that Ubuntu's Partitioning Tool
  changed is the size and partition id?

  Perhaps someone who is knowledgeable about Ubuntu's Partitioning Tool
  can let me know how to reverse the damage this tool has caused to my
  partition table.

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