1 Topic by vkaratzi

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Topic: help needed with project - bug found?

*I have posted under general development but i think this is the right forum - i use 0.52.11 live beta*


Hello all! I am a student in Aristotles University in Greece, computer science department. I have a project where i need to find an open source application and do either of the following 2.
a) write a Software Requirements Specification document, where, in general, you list and explain all the functions that a program does,
b) find unsubmitted bugs for a program, submit them, contribute to the community, and see your bugs being fixed in the next version, or simply being acknowledged.
I started doing (a), and because I am not so good with Linux, i tried it on my Windows 7 machine. I used latest version 0.52.11 livecd and booted off my computer with it. I think i found some bugs with the app. Or, you tell me if they are indeed bugs or not!
First, the computer . Its an AMD phenom II X4, Gigabyte motherboard with SB750 southbridge, 4 GB ram. I have BIOS RAID 0 in my computer (done with the sb750 southbridge) with 2 Samsung Spinpoint 500 GB each. 3 partitions made in that RAID, 100MB for windows 7 boot, 292 and 638 GB.
Once i loaded gparted, it recognized the partitions correctly, but with an exclamation mark warning, which i think means that i cannot do anything to them and something is wrong. The controller has a name like AMD 2+0 Striped or something like that in windows environment. the name of the raid drive in gparted is /dev/mapper/pdc_hffgdfec. when i right click on any of those partions and select Information, it shows: the device  /dev/mapper/pdc_hffgdfec doesn't exist. ntfsresize error(2). failed to check  /dev/mapper/pdc_hffgdfec1 mount state: no such file or directory. probably /etc/mtab is missing. unable to read contents....ntfsprogs required.

I downloaded the ISO straight from sourceforge and have not modified it in any way. Is this a bug? is sb750 southbridge raid not supported? A single wd 500 i have works fine, i tried a checkdisk and it works.

Also, i tried checkdisk with 2 different flash drives i have. The first is 1GB Fat16 and shows a libparted message like: size of FATs is 244 sectors(241 expected). the flash works fine in windows. Another bug or something else? I diskchecked the flash in windows and did not find any errors. then tested again with gparted, same error.

The second flash is a Transcend 16 GB NTFS partioned.it failed diskchecking too, saying something about windows journal and that i should try diskchecking it in windows. which i did. windows found problems and fixed them. then i checked again in gparted and it said everything was ok. was that normal? gparted cannot check a drive if it already has problems? or was it a bug that it could not scan it?

I don't know about the last one, but i think the first two are bugs, although i am not sure. Could you help me? If they are indeed bugs, I have to submit them to the bug tracking list.

Also, another thing (not a bug). Whenever i try to save a screenshot it always saves in root/gparted.jpeg. which i think is a virtual disk in my computers RAM. How can i copy this screenshot to a fixed drive/flash drive? I think it must be possible.

Thanks for your cooperation, your help is much appreciated!

2 Reply by gedakc

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Re: help needed with project - bug found?

Hi vkaratzi,

Thank you for your interest in GParted.  We can always use help to improve the project.  smile

GParted 0.6.0 has just been released today.  Soon the GParted-Live-0.6.0-1 will be released.  When the Live CD image is released, it would be helpful if you could retest with this latest version.

Following are some answers to your questions:

vkaratzi wrote:

*I have posted under general development but i think this is the right forum - i use 0.52.11 live beta*

Please only create one post.  The forum administrators can move the post to another section if needed.  Duplicate posts can cause confusion.  As such I have deleted the other post.

vkaratzi wrote:

Once i loaded gparted, it recognized the partitions correctly, but with an exclamation mark warning, which i think means that i cannot do anything to them and something is wrong. The controller has a name like AMD 2+0 Striped or something like that in windows environment. the name of the raid drive in gparted is /dev/mapper/pdc_hffgdfec. when i right click on any of those partions and select Information, it shows: the device  /dev/mapper/pdc_hffgdfec doesn't exist. ntfsresize error(2). failed to check  /dev/mapper/pdc_hffgdfec1 mount state: no such file or directory. probably /etc/mtab is missing. unable to read contents....ntfsprogs required.

Would you be able to provide the output from the following command?
You will need to open a terminal console to gain access to the command line.

ls -l /dev/mapper/
vkaratzi wrote:

Is this a bug?

It certainly sounds like a bug.  The next step is to isolate what is causing the behaviour.  The above command will help with this determination.

vkaratzi wrote:

is sb750 southbridge raid not supported?

Motherboard BIOS RAID, also known as FAKE RAID, requires support from a few areas of GNU/Linux.  The dmraid command works with the device mapper to provide this support.  Since GParted was able to see the device pdc_hffgdfec in the /dev/mapper directory my thoughts are that at lease basic support is provided for your set up.

vkaratzi wrote:

Also, i tried checkdisk with 2 different flash drives i have. The first is 1GB Fat16 and shows a libparted message like: size of FATs is 244 sectors(241 expected). the flash works fine in windows. Another bug or something else?

This might be a problem the dosfsck command.

Would you be able to save and post the gparted_details.htm log file when you perform this action?

vkaratzi wrote:

The second flash is a Transcend 16 GB NTFS partioned.it failed diskchecking too, saying something about windows journal and that i should try diskchecking it in windows. which i did. windows found problems and fixed them. then i checked again in gparted and it said everything was ok. was that normal? gparted cannot check a drive if it already has problems? or was it a bug that it could not scan it?

It sounds like the NTFS file system was not unmounted properly.  If this was the case, then this is the expected behaviour.  Unfortunately Microsoft does not share all of the intimate details of the NTFS file system with open source developers.  Hence it is difficult for projects such as ntfsprogs to reverse engineer all of the details of the NTFS file system.

GParted uses many other file system tools, such as ntfsprogs, to provide support for various file systems.


vkaratzi wrote:

Also, another thing (not a bug). Whenever i try to save a screenshot it always saves in root/gparted.jpeg. which i think is a virtual disk in my computers RAM. How can i copy this screen shot to a fixed drive/flash drive? I think it must be possible.

When running from a Live CD, the file system is contained in RAM and disappears when the computer is rebooted.  To save files, please refer to the following out-of-date documentation:
SAVING DETAILS FOR BUGREPORT (and doing screenshots)

Please do feel free to create a bug report for each bug that you discover.

3 Reply by vkaratzi (edited by vkaratzi 2010-06-19 12:09:32)

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Re: help needed with project - bug found?

ok, sorry about the double post!!

i have the results of the ls -l /dev/mapper command:

total 0
crw-rw---- 1 root root   10, 59 2010-06-18 20:56 control
brw-rw---- 1 root root 254,  0 2010-06-18 20:56 pdc_hffgdfec
brw-rw---- 1 root root 254,  1 2010-06-18 20:56 pdc_hffgdfec1
brw-rw---- 1 root root 254,  2 2010-06-18 20:57 pdc_hffgdfec2
brw-rw---- 1 root root 254,  3 2010-06-18 20:57 pdc_hffgdfec3

hope this helps

i have managed to save screenshots and files with your guide:)

the result of the html file of the usb  stick is as follows.

GParted 0.5.2

Libparted 2.2
Check and repair file system (fat16) on /dev/sdd1  00:00:01    ( ERROR )
         
calibrate /dev/sdd1  00:00:00    ( SUCCESS )
         
path: /dev/sdd1
start: 32
end: 1968127
size: 1968096 (960.98 MiB)
check file system on /dev/sdd1 for errors and (if possible) fix them  00:00:00    ( SUCCESS )
         
dosfsck -a -w -v /dev/sdd1
         
dosfsck 3.0.9 (31 Jan 2010)
dosfsck 3.0.9, 31 Jan 2010, FAT32, LFN
Checking we can access the last sector of the filesystem
Boot sector contents:
System ID "@SWIN4.1"
Media byte 0xf8 (hard disk)
512 bytes per logical sector
16384 bytes per cluster
8 reserved sectors
First FAT starts at byte 4096 (sector 8)
2 FATs, 16 bit entries
124928 bytes per FAT (= 244 sectors)
Root directory starts at byte 253952 (sector 496)
512 root directory entries
Data area starts at byte 270336 (sector 528)
61486 data clusters (1007386624 bytes)
32 sectors/track, 255 heads
32 hidden sectors
1968096 sectors total
Reclaiming unconnected clusters.
/dev/sdd1: 63 files, 5005/61486 clusters
grow file system to fill the partition  00:00:01    ( ERROR )
         
using libparted
libparted messages    ( INFO )
         
File system doesn't have expected sizes for Windows to like it. Cluster size is 16k (16k expected); number of clusters is 61486 (61486 expected); size of FATs is 244 sectors (241 expected).

========================================

hope this helps. I am waiting for your answer on these matters so i can post them as bugs (or not).

as for the second flash drive, i just remembered it showed what you said, about impoperly unmounting the drive in windows. so i guess this is ok.


*edit* i retested with gparted live 0.6.0.1. same thing. both of those problems are there. only thing i found changed, was the resolution. apparently drivers for ATI 5xxx series are included with this release, and the resolution now is proper full hd.

4 Reply by gedakc

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Re: help needed with project - bug found?

vkaratzi wrote:

i have the results of the ls -l /dev/mapper command:

total 0
crw-rw---- 1 root root   10, 59 2010-06-18 20:56 control
brw-rw---- 1 root root 254,  0 2010-06-18 20:56 pdc_hffgdfec
brw-rw---- 1 root root 254,  1 2010-06-18 20:56 pdc_hffgdfec1
brw-rw---- 1 root root 254,  2 2010-06-18 20:57 pdc_hffgdfec2
brw-rw---- 1 root root 254,  3 2010-06-18 20:57 pdc_hffgdfec3

From the listing it appears that both the FAKE RAID device and 3 partitions were recognized.  Based on this I think this is a worthy candidate for opening a bug report.  Please also provide the gparted_details.htm log file for the actions you have tried when you discovered this problem.

vkaratzi wrote:

the result of the html file of the usb  stick is as follows.

grow file system to fill the partition  00:00:01    ( ERROR )
         
using libparted
libparted messages    ( INFO )
         
File system doesn't have expected sizes for Windows to like it. Cluster size is 16k (16k expected); number of clusters is 61486 (61486 expected); size of FATs is 244 sectors (241 expected).

========================================

When GParted runs a "check" operation, it checks the file system for consistency and also tries to grow the file system to fit the partition (sometimes the file system is not as a large as the space available in the partition.)

This looks like a worthy bug report too.  The problem appears in the libparted library.  Hence to trouble shoot this one further, it would help if you could recreate the problem using the parted command directly.  Specifically you would need to perform a resize operation on the file system from the command line using parted.

When you can recreate the problem using parted alone (not gparted), then you could post the problem to the bug-parted@gnu.org mailing list.

One significant challenge to this particular problem is that the parted team is focusing on partition editing only.  Going forward the parted team does not wish to support file system operations.  This change in focus can be seen in the following mailing list entry:
parted-2.3 released [stable]

PartedDevelMailingList wrote:

  * Remember, now all FS-creation operations are deprecated in Parted.
  This is not an indicator that we'll be supporting this code.
  On the contrary, it is slated to be removed.

5 Reply by vkaratzi (edited by vkaratzi 2010-06-19 17:52:31)

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Re: help needed with project - bug found?

ok, about the first bug, the outcome of the command ls -l /dev/mapper with gparted version 0.6.0-1 has changed to:

total 0
crw------- 1 root root 10, 59 2010-06-19 13:17 control
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root       7 2010-06-19 13:17 pdc_hffgdfec -> ../dm-0
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root       7 2010-06-19 13:17 pdc_hffgdfec1 -> ../dm-1
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root       7 2010-06-19 13:17 pdc_hffgdfec2 -> ../dm-2
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root       7 2010-06-19 13:17 pdc_hffgdfec3 -> ../dm-3


where the number 254 used to be, now there is a complete blank there. does this help? i will post all of that in the bug section, together with the .htm of the checkdisk.



About the second bug, i do not know how to use parted to make the check as you suggested:(

Can i submit this bug to the gparted bug list, or i have to mail the parted team? Because in my project i have to find and submit bugs of one program, and because libparted is the backend library that is being used by gparted, i don't know what i should do about this bug.

6 Reply by vkaratzi

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Re: help needed with project - bug found?

any news? i have submitted the bug already.

https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=622217#c0

7 Reply by gedakc

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Re: help needed with project - bug found?

Thank you for submitting the bug report.

Since I am working on many issues at once, I can not always get back to each issue in a timely manner.  That is why the more investigative work you can perform, the quicker a bug can be resolved.

vkaratzi wrote:

About the second bug, i do not know how to use parted to make the check as you suggested:(

If you do not wish to learn parted, then perhaps you can develop a set of steps that will recreate the problem from scratch using gparted and a blank disk device?  That would enable myself and others to reproduce the problem.

8 Reply by vkaratzi

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Re: help needed with project - bug found?

Hello again. I am writing to ask if it's ok to write the Software Requirements Specification document for GParted, for my student project. It requires your permission first. The SRS document is a detailed system features list of the product. Think of it like a documentation. It will be written in English, and when it's over I can upload it here, if you wish so. Is this ok?

9 Reply by vkaratzi

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Re: help needed with project - bug found?

I hope you wouldn't mind for the SRS document. It will be soon finished. When it is, I will upload it under "Documentation". This is a required step for my project. I hope it's ok!

10 Reply by gedakc

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Re: help needed with project - bug found?

You would be most welcome to write a Software Requirements Specification document to be placed on the documentation section.  Since you asked for my permission, I am granting you permission to write the SRS document.

I am interested to read the document that you develop.

11 Reply by vkaratzi

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Re: help needed with project - bug found?

OK, thanks a lot. When my project is finished I will post here to notify and then upload it.

12 Reply by vkaratzi

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Re: help needed with project - bug found?

The SRS Document is up:

http://gparted-forum.surf4.info/viewtopic.php?id=14191