1 Topic by vt_100ca (edited by vt_100ca 2007-04-23 05:25:54)

  • vt_100ca
  • New member
  • Offline
  • Registered: 2007-04-22
  • Posts: 2

Topic: gparted never finishes scanning all devices...never starts properly

Hi,

I burned the Gparted LiveCD recently (0.3.4.6) because I wanted to shrink a Linux Ext3 partition which takes up almost my entire second HDD (/dev/sda).

I managed to start the X graphical interface, but then GParted starts and never finishes "scanning for devices"... All commands are deactivated and at the bottom of the window one can read "Scanning all devices..." The program never gets out of this state.

I closed it and started from the terminal and I got the following message:

===========
LibParted 1.7.1.
===========

<unable to open /dev/hdc read-write (Read-only file system). /dev/hdc has been opened read-only.>

Then GParted gets stuck again "Scanning all devices..."

Both my disks are WD and the motherboard is an Asus P4P800.
The output of fdisk -ul is the following(I omitted the Start/End block numbers, but
I can add it if necessary):

Disk /dev/hda:   40.0 GB, 40020664320 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 4865 cylinders, total 78165360 sectors


Device                     Boot         Start      End         Blocks           Id                  System
/dev/hda1                                                         10289601        c             W95 FAT32 (LBA)
/dev/hda2                                                         23543257+      1c            Hidden W95 FAT32 (LBA)
/dev/hda3                   *                                    1044225          c              W95 FAT32 (LBA)
/dev/hda4                                                         4200966          1c            Hidden W95 FAT32 (LBA)


Partition table entries are not in disk order.

Note: there is a Win98 system on /dev/hda3 and a Win2K system on /dev/hd4.



Disk /dev/sda:   250.0 GB, 2500 593 50016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 30401 cylinders, total 488397168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1x512 = 512 bytes


Device                     Boot         Start      End         Blocks           Id              System
/dev/sda1                   *                                                          83                Linux
/dev/sda2                                                                               5                  Extended
/dev/sda5                                                                               82                Linux Swap / Solaris

Note: Kubuntu is installed on /dev/sda1 .

Any ideas on how to get GParted to start up ?

I have also tried to start GParted from the Ubuntu LiveCD and the same thing happened ... The GParted window shows up (all commands de-activated)  and at the bottom of the window one can read "Scanning all devices"... The problem is this "scanning" never ends and GParted never really starts.

I read in another thread that this may be a bug.

Thank you,

Victor

2 Reply by vt_100ca

  • vt_100ca
  • New member
  • Offline
  • Registered: 2007-04-22
  • Posts: 2

Re: gparted never finishes scanning all devices...never starts properly

Problem solved !

The answer was to <Disable> the 1.44 3.5" floppy from the BIOS screen. Afterwards
GParted started up normally. The solution had been previously presented in another
thread, but I had not seen it in my initial search for answers (word to the wise:
try several search keywords before posting a new thread).

Curiously enough, this problem has affected other people with Asus P4P800 motherboards.

Another solution is to close the unresponsive GParted window and start GParted from
the Terminal with the commands (choose whatever applies):

gparted /dev/hda
gparted /dev/sda