1 Topic by jasee

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Topic: No graphical mode Gparted 0.6.1-2

I downloaded the latest stable version a couple of times from different sources. Created the live cd. It boots ok, however on the two machines I've tried it on, it fails with the error 'fatal server error: no screens found'. I've tried manually setting the display to low resolution but it still won't enter the graphical mode. The graphic card in one machine is the ATI sapphire. I've used previous versions of gparted since about 3, but this is the first time I've encountered such difficulties.
Any advice?
Having a brief look at this forum it seems that at least one other has a problem with a Dell machine.

2 Reply by jasee

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Re: No graphical mode Gparted 0.6.1-2

I've now used partedmagic 5.2, which contains gparted (latest version), but is Slackware based rather than Debian, and this boots and runs fine on both machines. FWIW

3 Reply by stevenshiau

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Re: No graphical mode Gparted 0.6.1-2

How about giving GParted live 0.6.2-2 a try?

Steven.

4 Reply by jasee

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Re: No graphical mode Gparted 0.6.1-2

stevenshiau wrote:

How about giving GParted live 0.6.2-2 a try?

Steven.

Thanks I've done that and it now seems to be fine.  My thanks to you, it seems!

I tried to find a list of fixes but I can't see that anywhere: is there a list of fixes for this version, please?

5 Reply by stevenshiau

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Re: No graphical mode Gparted 0.6.1-2

You can find the changelog here:
http://free.nchc.org.tw/gparted-live/te … d-live.txt
BTW, maybe the difference is due to the updated packages. Therefore if you want to compare the packages, you can compare:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/gparted … t/download
and
http://sourceforge.net/projects/gparted … t/download

Steven.

6 Reply by jasee

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Re: No graphical mode Gparted 0.6.1-2

stevenshiau wrote:

You can find the changelog here:
http://free.nchc.org.tw/gparted-live/te … d-live.txt

Not released yet!

stevenshiau wrote:

BTW, maybe the difference is due to the updated packages. Therefore if you want to compare the packages, you can compare:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/gparted … t/download
and
http://sourceforge.net/projects/gparted … t/download

Steven.

I saw that thanks, but it didn't mean a lot to me
Well, is it just an updated release of Debian? It seems as thought gparted itself is a later version

I'm interested I find there are other problems with gparted that I've found.

7 Reply by jasee

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Re: No graphical mode Gparted 0.6.1-2

jasee wrote:

I'm interested I find there are other problems with gparted that I've found.

This is the problem which I've found. I can't resize the secondary partition container to include the free space here:

http://www.anonimouse.btinternet.co.uk/3com/Screenshot.png

It fails the logs say:

GParted 0.6.2

Libparted 2.3
Move /dev/sda3 to the left and grow it from 200.43 GiB to 206.08 GiB  00:00:00    ( ERROR )
        
calibrate /dev/sda3  00:00:00    ( SUCCESS )
        
path: /dev/sda3
start: 204812685
end: 625137344
size: 420324660 (200.43 GiB)
move partition to the left and grow it from 200.43 GiB to 206.08 GiB  00:00:00    ( ERROR )
        
old start: 204812685
old end: 625137344
old size: 420324660 (200.43 GiB)
libparted messages    ( INFO )
        
Unable to satisfy all constraints on the partition.

8 Reply by gedakc

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Re: No graphical mode Gparted 0.6.1-2

Which alignment option are you using (Cylinder or MiB)?

If using Cylinder and we assume your disk device uses 512 byte sectors, then cylinder boundaries occur approximately every 8 MiB.  If the space you are trying to extend into is less than 8 MiB, you won't be able to do this and still reside on a cylinder boundary.

9 Reply by jasee (edited by jasee 2010-08-12 20:28:00)

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Re: No graphical mode Gparted 0.6.1-2

gedakc wrote:

Which alignment option are you using (Cylinder or MiB)?.

I'm using Mibs (the default) whatever that is!


gedakc wrote:

If using Cylinder and we assume your disk device uses 512 byte sectors, then cylinder boundaries occur approximately every 8 MiB.  If the space you are trying to extend into is less than 8 MiB, you won't be able to do this and still reside on a cylinder boundary.

It is small, (this is just a test)  but the empty space is 5.66GB (5794 MiBs apparently) Surely this is big enough, if it can't do it exactly it should surely leave some empty space.

10 Reply by gedakc

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Re: No graphical mode Gparted 0.6.1-2

Is the partition /dev/sda3 that you are trying to move/resize an extended partition (i.e., not a primary or logical partition)?

11 Reply by jasee (edited by jasee 2010-08-13 09:05:04)

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Re: No graphical mode Gparted 0.6.1-2

gedakc wrote:

Is the partition /dev/sda3 that you are trying to move/resize an extended partition (i.e., not a primary or logical partition)?

Yes it's sda3 which includes sda4 and sda5. When the empty space is 'in' sda3, then I can add the empty space to sda4.
A pretty standard way of doing this with partition magic (for instance).

12 Reply by kikily

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Re: No graphical mode Gparted 0.6.1-2

You should be error in  the process of installing.

kikily's Website

13 Reply by jasee

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Re: No graphical mode Gparted 0.6.1-2

kikily wrote:

You should be error in  the process of installing.

Sorry don't understand your post, I now have no trouble installing this live cd

14 Reply by gedakc

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Re: No graphical mode Gparted 0.6.1-2

Can you try expanding the size of sda3 so that there is still a MiB of space between /dev/sda2 and /dev/sda3?

If that does not work, you could try expanding the end of sda3 to include the space after the sda6 partition.

These tests might help us to learn why you are unable to expand the partition.

15 Reply by jasee

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Re: No graphical mode Gparted 0.6.1-2

gedakc wrote:

Can you try expanding the size of sda3 so that there is still a MiB of space between /dev/sda2 and /dev/sda3?

If that does not work, you could try expanding the end of sda3 to include the space after the sda6 partition.

These tests might help us to learn why you are unable to expand the partition.

Ok, I've done that leaving 1 mib of space between sda2 and 3
The new size was supposed to be 211031 Mibs. Unfortunately I still get the same error message. I notice that apparently the free space following is shown as 2 mibs, but actually looking at it in the partition list it's actually 2.49 mibs.

Expanding the other end works! Though its only 2mib and afterwards I can see the space following sda6, but now enclosed in the extended partition

Would it be useful if i created a similar situation on another machine?.

Microsoft operating systems now like to create primary partitions so perhaps no-one has tried this before?

16 Reply by gedakc

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Re: No graphical mode Gparted 0.6.1-2

Would you be able to try one more test?

I'm guessing that the problem originates with the current end of the /dev/sda3 partition.

Would you be able to try expanding both the front and end of the /dev/sda3 partition?

17 Reply by jasee (edited by jasee 2010-08-14 18:17:33)

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Re: No graphical mode Gparted 0.6.1-2

gedakc wrote:

Would you be able to try one more test?

I'm guessing that the problem originates with the current end of the /dev/sda3 partition.

Would you be able to try expanding both the front and end of the /dev/sda3 partition?

do you really mean this: sda3? (the extended partition) as maybe I've misunderstood but I can't expand the front, this was the problem and the end will expand by 2Mibs (see reply 15)

I originally created the space after sda2 by shrinking sda2 using Gparted.

18 Reply by jasee

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Re: No graphical mode Gparted 0.6.1-2

Just to muddy the water a bit ;-)
I tried to move the bit outside the last partition At first it worked ok, in fact I'm really moving the partition sda6 by 2Mibs. It then started on the second partition sda5, then when almost finished, the program exited, no error log! and in fact the result was this:

http://www.anonimouse.btinternet.co.uk/3com/Screenshot2.png

So it hadn't moved sda5 at all.
I just thought that maybe if i removed the free space at the end of the drive and added it to the unpartitioned space, I would miraculously be able to expand sda3!

19 Reply by gedakc

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Re: No graphical mode Gparted 0.6.1-2

I'm not sure that I follow exactly what you were trying to do.

Can you expand the /dev/sda3 extended partition to be closer to /dev/sda2?

I also noticed that there is an "lba" flag on /dev/sda3.  I do not have this flag enabled on my extended partitions.  It means "Long Block Addressing" and I wouldn't think that it would cause a problem.  It is interesting to note in case it does play a role.

20 Reply by jasee

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Re: No graphical mode Gparted 0.6.1-2

gedakc wrote:

Can you expand the /dev/sda3 extended partition to be closer to /dev/sda2?

No, this is exactly what I've never been able to do.

21 Reply by gedakc

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Re: No graphical mode Gparted 0.6.1-2

I am not sure what is causing this problem for you.

Would you be able to open a bug report so that this problem does not get lost in all the forum posts?

22 Reply by jasee

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Re: No graphical mode Gparted 0.6.1-2

gedakc wrote:

I am not sure what is causing this problem for you.

Would you be able to open a bug report so that this problem does not get lost in all the forum posts?

I will do that if you like, however I've now created the same situation on another machine and this time it works perfectly: I can resize the front of the extended partition to include any empty space before it and then add this empty space to the first partition in the extended partition. The only difference I can see (appart from the partion sizes being different) is on this machine lba is not flagged on the extended partition. I can try turning this  flag off on the other one if you think that might make a difference? (I didn't turn it on!)

23 Reply by gedakc

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Re: No graphical mode Gparted 0.6.1-2

It would certainly be worth a try to disable the lba flag and try the resize again.

24 Reply by jasee

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Re: No graphical mode Gparted 0.6.1-2

gedakc wrote:

It would certainly be worth a try to disable the lba flag and try the resize again.

I've done that and, amazingly, it now just works perfectly (I can enlarge the extended partition so it includes empty space before it and having got the empty space into the extended partition, I can enlarge the first partition in it to include this empty space) Running W7 afterwards brings up chkdsk but no errors are found and the partition are all fully readable in W7.

So it may be worth trying if this happens to anyone else.

Thanks for all your responses,
Regards

25 Reply by gedakc

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Re: No graphical mode Gparted 0.6.1-2

I am glad to hear that the mystery of this problem is now solved.  smile