Topic: WARNING! Problem Resizing File Systems with GParted
*** We recommend GParted Live 0.6.2-2 or higher for all partition editing operations. ***
WARNING: Problems resizing file systems can appear with GParted Live 0.4.8-1 through 0.5.2-9.
PROBLEM
Several reports of problems resizing file systems using GParted have been posted by users in this forum. Links to these specific instances of the problem can be found at the bottom of this initial post. This resizing problem can affect all file systems.
In the case of shrinking an NTFS file system, the error message eventually displayed is:
ERROR: Current NTFS volume size is bigger than the device size!
While this problem was unresolved, we had recommended GParted Live 0.4.6-1 which was the last stable version prior to the first discovery of these file system resizing problems. We now recommend GParted Live 0.6.2-2 or higher, which includes parted 2.3.
WARNING: Do not use GParted Live 0.4.6-1 to resize ext4 file systems. See:
Data corruption after resizing ext4 partitions with GParted Live 0.4.6-1
CAUSE
At the root of this problem is a failure to update the Linux kernel of the changes to the partition table. Partition editing problems can be experienced using GParted with newer GNU/Linux kernels (2.6.31+), udev (138+), and parted (1.8.8.+ up to 2.2 inclusive).
We believe the problem is solved when GParted is used with parted 2.3 and higher on these newer GNU/Linux kernels. Old GNU/Linux kernels appear to work well with parted 1.8.8 (non patched version).
WHAT TO DO IF THE PROBLEM HAPPENS TO YOU
Unfortunately once the file system resize error occurs, it requires manual intervention to fix.
If you are keen to try to solve this problem yourself, greegthegreek has started a draft tutorial on how to solve this problem for the NTFS file system:
Proposition of a tutorial for the NTFS size bug
In the case of the ext2/3/4 file systems, soupcan was able to resolve the problem for an ext4 file system:
Ext4-Gparted0.5.2-9-error after partition shrink
Otherwise,
Please create a new post for your instance of this problem.
This helps to reduce the chance of making a mistake when reviewing partition and file system information.
To start solving the problem we will need to know the following:
1) Which partition is experiencing the error?
2) Which version of GParted or Live CD you used?
3) The output from the following two commands:
fdisk -l -u
where one of the options is a lower case "L" and not the number one.
parted /path-to-your-device unit s print
where /path-to-your-device is something like /dev/sda.
INITIAL DISCOVERY
The first discovery of this problem would occur when using GParted with newer Linux kernels and unpatched parted-1.9.0.
A bug report was opened and has since been closed regarding this problem:
Bug 601574 - ERROR: Current NTFS volume size is bigger than the device size!
*** Patrick Verner reports on Dec. 20, 2009 that parted-2.1 has this same problem. If this is the case then parted-2.0 probably also has the same problem. It would be wise to wait until some patches are released for these newer parted versions.
SUBSEQUENT REDISCOVERY
This problem WAS THOUGHT TO have been fixed starting with GParted Live 0.4.8-6. At least the problem did not occur each and every time as was the case prior to resolving the above listed bug report (601574).
Then sometime near the release of GParted 0.5.0-3 some more users reported continuing problems resizing NTFS file systems even with GParted Live 0.4.8-6 to 0.5.0-3. We finally were able to reproduce the problem that our users were experiencing.
It is much harder to reproduce this problem with GParted 0.4.8-6 to 0.5.0-3 and perhaps involves a timing issue that does not always occur.
We are tracking this new occurrence of the problem with the following bug report:
Bug 604298 - Problems resizing file systems with gparted-live-0.5.0-3
HISTORY
Update 2010-01-31: A work around to this problem has been included in the GParted 0.5.1 release. This new release is now included in the GParted Live Stable folder.
Update 2010-02-26: A patch has been committed to the Parted project git repository to work around this problem. See Parted Patch - linux: add wait time and retries to kernel partition reread. This patch is included in the Parted 2.2 release.
Update 2010-05-02: An active LVM partition on the same disk will also cause the problem.
See either the May 2 news item, or the following bug report for a list of suggested patches to apply to parted-2.2 to avoid this problem: Bug 608712 - GParted fails to edit/delete partitions if active LVM on same disk device.
These suggested patches have been applied to GParted Live 0.5.2-9 which is available in the GParted Live Stable folder.
Update 2010-05-10: The parted team has discovered another race condition that can cause the "failure to inform kernel of partition changes" problem.
libparted: avoid race in informing the kernel of partition table changes
It was announced on the parted mailing list that a new release is planned soon. We will investigate either using this patch, or incorporating the new release if it comes out soon.
Update 2010-06-01: The parted team has released parted version 2.3 on May 28, 2010. We will be testing this release to determine if it is suitable for updating the GParted Live image.
Update 2010-06-03: Testing with GParted using the recently released parted version 2.3 has shown the following:
Works well when used with newer GNU/Linux distributions, such as Ubuntu 10.04 and Fedora 12.
Always encounters the "failure to inform kernel of partition changes" problem when used with older GNU/Linux distributions, such as Ubuntu 8.04 and Ubuntu 8.10.
Since GParted Live is based on recent Debian distributions, we will further investigate including parted-2.3 on GParted Live in an effort to avoid the "failure to inform kernel of partition changes" problem.
Update 2010-06-17: The Fedora project has a patched version of parted 2.2 (specifically parted-2.2-5.fc14) that has tested well with the upcoming GParted 0.6.0 release planned for Friday, Jun 18th, 2010. As such we plan to include this release on the first GParted Live images. Later we plan to look at parted-2.3 again.
Update 2010-07-14: Parted 2.3 has been included on gparted-live-0.6.1-2. Our testing with this version of parted has been very promising. Also we are aware of at least one user who experienced the "failure to inform kernel of partition changes" problem with some earlier releases of parted, but not with parted-2.3. This email thread can be found at:
Possible regression
Assuming no major problems are discovered with gparted-live-0.6.1-2 in the next while, then we will move this release from testing over to stable.
Update 2010-07-21: gparted-live-0.6.1-2 has been moved to the stable release branch. This release includes parted-2.3. If you are using this release and encounter the problem outlined later in this post then please create a new post to let us know.
Update 2010-10-20: Rewrote this post to make it easier to read.
Update 2011-11-13: Bug 663980 - Avoid redundant file system maximize actions on copy, move, and resize has been opened to help further reduce the occurrences of this problem.
RESIZING PROBLEM AVOIDANCE TIPS
If you are compiling GParted on your own GNU Linux distribution then to try to avoid this resizing problem do not use GParted with an unpatched parted-1.9.0. Please note that even by following these tips, you might still experience the resizing problem that we are tracking in bug 604298.
The critical patch required for parted-1.9.0 is:
Patch for 'commit to os' for linux
Please note that all patches found at the fedora site link listed below should be applied.
Patched versions of Parted can be found at the fedora site:
http://koji.fedoraproject.org/koji/buil … dID=129982
Instructions on how to apply the fedora patches can be found at the following link:
How to apply fedora patches to parted-1.9.0
We apologize for the grief and frustration that this problem may have caused you.
Sincerely,
Curtis Gedak
Maintainer of GParted
CONFIRMED CASES
LAST EDIT: November 2, 2011
List of confirmed cases of this problem:
http://gparted-forum.surf4.info/viewtopic.php?id=13633
http://gparted-forum.surf4.info/viewtopic.php?id=13756
http://gparted-forum.surf4.info/viewtopic.php?id=13757
http://gparted-forum.surf4.info/viewtopic.php?id=13765
http://gparted-forum.surf4.info/viewtopic.php?id=13766
http://gparted-forum.surf4.info/viewtopic.php?id=13768
http://gparted-forum.surf4.info/viewtopic.php?id=13769
http://gparted-forum.surf4.info/viewtopic.php?id=13780
http://gparted-forum.surf4.info/viewtopic.php?id=13785
http://gparted-forum.surf4.info/viewtopic.php?id=13786
http://gparted-forum.surf4.info/viewtopic.php?id=13787
http://gparted-forum.surf4.info/viewtopic.php?id=13793
http://gparted-forum.surf4.info/viewtopic.php?id=13799
http://gparted-forum.surf4.info/viewtopic.php?id=13804
http://gparted-forum.surf4.info/viewtopic.php?id=13814
http://gparted-forum.surf4.info/viewtopic.php?id=13826
http://gparted-forum.surf4.info/viewtopic.php?id=13831
http://gparted-forum.surf4.info/viewtopic.php?id=13834
http://gparted-forum.surf4.info/viewtopic.php?id=13840 First report with GParted Live 0.5.0-3
http://gparted-forum.surf4.info/viewtopic.php?id=13841
http://gparted-forum.surf4.info/viewtopic.php?id=13842
http://gparted-forum.surf4.info/viewtopic.php?id=13844
http://gparted-forum.surf4.info/viewtopic.php?id=13845
http://gparted-forum.surf4.info/viewtopic.php?id=13847
http://gparted-forum.surf4.info/viewtopic.php?id=13848
http://gparted-forum.surf4.info/viewtopic.php?id=13850
http://gparted-forum.surf4.info/viewtopic.php?id=13852
http://gparted-forum.surf4.info/viewtopic.php?id=13853
http://gparted-forum.surf4.info/viewtopic.php?id=13854
http://gparted-forum.surf4.info/viewtopic.php?id=13857
http://gparted-forum.surf4.info/viewtopic.php?id=13867
http://gparted-forum.surf4.info/viewtopic.php?id=13868
http://gparted-forum.surf4.info/viewtopic.php?id=13871
http://gparted-forum.surf4.info/viewtopic.php?id=13872
http://gparted-forum.surf4.info/viewtopic.php?id=13873
http://gparted-forum.surf4.info/viewtopic.php?id=13874
http://gparted-forum.surf4.info/viewtopic.php?id=13875 ext3 file system
http://gparted-forum.surf4.info/viewtopic.php?id=13878
http://gparted-forum.surf4.info/viewtopic.php?id=13879
http://gparted-forum.surf4.info/viewtopic.php?id=13882 hfs+ file system
http://gparted-forum.surf4.info/viewtopic.php?id=13886
http://gparted-forum.surf4.info/viewtopic.php?id=13887
http://gparted-forum.surf4.info/viewtopic.php?id=13894
http://gparted-forum.surf4.info/viewtopic.php?id=13895
http://gparted-forum.surf4.info/viewtopic.php?id=13900
http://gparted-forum.surf4.info/viewtopic.php?id=13921
http://gparted-forum.surf4.info/viewtopic.php?id=13923
http://gparted-forum.surf4.info/viewtopic.php?id=13927
http://gparted-forum.surf4.info/viewtopic.php?id=13929
http://gparted-forum.surf4.info/viewtopic.php?id=13930
http://gparted-forum.surf4.info/viewtopic.php?id=13932 First report with sysresccd-1.3.4
http://gparted-forum.surf4.info/viewtopic.php?id=13944
http://gparted-forum.surf4.info/viewtopic.php?id=13950
http://gparted-forum.surf4.info/viewtopic.php?id=13951
http://gparted-forum.surf4.info/viewtopic.php?id=13955
http://gparted-forum.surf4.info/viewtopic.php?id=13956
http://gparted-forum.surf4.info/viewtopic.php?id=13961
http://gparted-forum.surf4.info/viewtopic.php?id=13976
http://gparted-forum.surf4.info/viewtopic.php?id=13983
http://gparted-forum.surf4.info/viewtopic.php?id=13994
http://gparted-forum.surf4.info/viewtopic.php?id=13995
http://gparted-forum.surf4.info/viewtopic.php?id=14003
http://gparted-forum.surf4.info/viewtopic.php?id=14037
http://gparted-forum.surf4.info/viewtopic.php?id=14077 Report with Fedora 12
http://gparted-forum.surf4.info/viewtopic.php?id=14082 First report with sysresccd-1.5.1
http://gparted-forum.surf4.info/viewtopic.php?id=14090 Report with Ubuntu 9.10 Live CD
http://gparted-forum.surf4.info/viewtopic.php?id=14093 Active LVM and gparted-live-0.5.2-1
http://gparted-forum.surf4.info/viewtopic.php?id=14096 Report with gparted-live-0.5.2-1
http://gparted-forum.surf4.info/viewtopic.php?id=14106
http://gparted-forum.surf4.info/viewtopic.php?id=14108
http://gparted-forum.surf4.info/viewtopic.php?id=14113
http://gparted-forum.surf4.info/viewtopic.php?id=14114
http://gparted-forum.surf4.info/viewtopic.php?id=14116 Report with kubuntu 10.04
http://gparted-forum.surf4.info/viewtopic.php?id=14125 Report with gparted-live-0.5.2-9
http://gparted-forum.surf4.info/viewtopic.php?id=14126
http://gparted-forum.surf4.info/viewtopic.php?id=14143
http://gparted-forum.surf4.info/viewtopic.php?id=14146 ext3 file system
http://gparted-forum.surf4.info/viewtopic.php?id=14153
http://gparted-forum.surf4.info/viewtopic.php?id=14161
http://gparted-forum.surf4.info/viewtopic.php?id=14166
http://gparted-forum.surf4.info/viewtopic.php?id=14167
http://gparted-forum.surf4.info/viewtopic.php?id=14172 Solved - ext4 file system
http://gparted-forum.surf4.info/viewtopic.php?id=14181
http://gparted-forum.surf4.info/viewtopic.php?id=14183 First report gparted-live-0.6.0-1
http://gparted-forum.surf4.info/viewtopic.php?id=14187
http://gparted-forum.surf4.info/viewtopic.php?id=14216
http://gparted-forum.surf4.info/viewtopic.php?id=14217
http://gparted-forum.surf4.info/viewtopic.php?id=14221
http://gparted-forum.surf4.info/viewtopic.php?id=14230
http://gparted-forum.surf4.info/viewtopic.php?id=14241
http://gparted-forum.surf4.info/viewtopic.php?id=14270
http://gparted-forum.surf4.info/viewtopic.php?id=14277
http://gparted-forum.surf4.info/viewtopic.php?id=14280
http://gparted-forum.surf4.info/viewtopic.php?id=14304
http://gparted-forum.surf4.info/viewtopic.php?id=14319
http://gparted-forum.surf4.info/viewtopic.php?id=14328
http://gparted-forum.surf4.info/viewtopic.php?id=14357 Ubuntu 10.10 Live CD w/gparted 0.6.2 & parted 2.3
http://gparted-forum.surf4.info/viewtopic.php?id=14366
http://gparted-forum.surf4.info/viewtopic.php?id=14376
http://gparted-forum.surf4.info/viewtopic.php?id=14381
http://gparted-forum.surf4.info/viewtopic.php?id=14387
http://gparted-forum.surf4.info/viewtopic.php?id=14392 Ubuntu 10.10 Live CD
http://gparted-forum.surf4.info/viewtopic.php?id=14393 Solved - ext2 file system
http://gparted-forum.surf4.info/viewtopic.php?id=14398
http://gparted-forum.surf4.info/viewtopic.php?id=14408
http://gparted-forum.surf4.info/viewtopic.php?id=14419 Partition Magic 8
http://gparted-forum.surf4.info/viewtopic.php?id=14440
http://gparted-forum.surf4.info/viewtopic.php?id=14442
http://gparted-forum.surf4.info/viewtopic.php?id=14476 Ubuntu 10.10 Live CD
http://gparted-forum.surf4.info/viewtopic.php?id=14513
http://gparted-forum.surf4.info/viewtopic.php?id=14515
http://gparted-forum.surf4.info/viewtopic.php?id=14529
http://gparted-forum.surf4.info/viewtopic.php?id=14611 Ubuntu Install
http://gparted-forum.surf4.info/viewtopic.php?id=14682 Knoppix Live CD with GParted 0.5.1
http://gparted-forum.surf4.info/viewtopic.php?id=14714
http://gparted-forum.surf4.info/viewtopic.php?id=14742
http://gparted-forum.surf4.info/viewtopic.php?id=14751
http://gparted-forum.surf4.info/viewtopic.php?id=14759
http://gparted-forum.surf4.info/viewtopic.php?id=14892
http://gparted-forum.surf4.info/viewtopic.php?id=14907
http://gparted-forum.surf4.info/viewtopic.php?id=14919
http://gparted-forum.surf4.info/viewtopic.php?id=14927
http://gparted-forum.surf4.info/viewtopic.php?id=14972
http://gparted-forum.surf4.info/viewtopic.php?id=15182
http://gparted-forum.surf4.info/viewtopic.php?id=15489
http://gparted-forum.surf4.info/viewtopic.php?id=15491 Fedora 15 LXDE installer
http://gparted-forum.surf4.info/viewtopic.php?id=15537 Knoppix 6.2.1 with GParted 0.5.1
http://gparted-forum.surf4.info/viewtopic.php?id=15552 Fedora 15 installer