GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 530657
partition tag bf interpreted as swap and changed to 82
Last modified: 2008-05-01 14:41:53 UTC
Please describe the problem: solaris 10 was on sda3 with partition tag bf = solaris ubuntu 8.04 booted as livecd, it decided that sda3 was swap, and (I presume) ran mkswap Later I ran ubuntu install, I ran text fdisk before gparted started, it said tag 'bf' I told the GUI 'do not touch partition' It set partition tag 82 It never asked, nor told (protecting dumb users from ... info?) Steps to reproduce: 1. use the same list as fdisk/List tags 2. respect foreign OS tags, which didnt get there by random 3. ASK ASK ASK Actual results: The 'mkswap' signature is watermarked over the top of the solaris FS, so the 'second line of defence' - checking for that watermark can now happen without question! Expected results: you lose a partition full of data Does this happen every time? 1/1 - although actually the live-cd might shoulder some of the responsibility Other information: fdisk /mbr # I thought we were past this! swapon -s indicated sda3 and sda7, when sda7 doesnt exist! that might come from /etc/fstab on the livecd but in the first place, the watermark wasnt there!
Thank you for this bug report Graham. I'll need some more information to help identify the source of this problem. 1) Was GParted started by the Ubuntu installer, or did you manually start GParted? 2) Did you perform any partition operations and "apply" them with GParted? Is so what operations did you do? 3) Which GUI (GParted, Ubuntu installer, or something else) are you referring to when you told it to "do not touch partition"? GParted does not perform any partition operations unless instructed to do so. For partitions it doesn't recognize, it places an exclamation mark beside the partition. By clicking on the exclamation mark (!) gparted will present you with information about the partition, and any problems it has in recognizing the partition.
I ran the recent ubuntu 8.04 installer sequence GUI. I _presume_ that it was running gparted, but it was only really assigning mount points '/' I used an ALT-F1 window, to setup the disk as I like it. Either from the install, or from the LIVECD. I used plain old fdisk to create the partitions mke2fs -j /dev/sda5 mkswap /dev/sda6 mke2fs -j /dev/sda7 I was happy with the bf tag when I left it, and returned to the GUI to do its job. The install GUI then needed to be told which partition to mount as what dirs. Each time it took 5-10 seconds to reread and update the GUI form. I set '/' '/boot' and the new swap. I didnt select format. It may be that the installer ISNT calling gparted, but some other functions. , planning to do nothing what-so-ever via the GUI, except assign '/' '/boot' swap (a new one). The GUI offered me the 'leave this partition untouched' tick-box.
sorry, TAB-ENTER did a submit, mid-edit, try again: (1) running the livecd appeared to treat sda3 as a swap partition maybe it had already called mkswap without asking me maybe that marker permitted the LATER change of the tag to 'swap' from bf without asking. NB I checked with fdisk, and it was still bf (2) I was running the GUI installer, not gparted, maybe but the tag on that partition definitely changed from bf to 82 how could that be anything other than gparted? I was telling the installer which partition is mounted as /boot ... I had alread run fdisk and mke2fs and mkswap I checked again, after the installer stopped talking about parts and it had changed during the ubuntu install early time If this is clearly some other tool than gparted, my appologies. But please do sympathise, as it is a peer-group member of fdisk. We cant have solaris and ubuntu overwriting eachothers zones. If the installer did the presumption, and forced gparted to change the tag, then its the invocation, not the GUI. But a problem.
Thank you for the prompt response Graham. I do sympathise with you and am glad that you are following up on this problem. It will help to improve free software for everyone :-) From your description, it doesn't sound like GParted was involved. It sounds more like the Ubuntu installer user interface. Gparted does not support assigning mount points, and does not have an option to "leave this partition untouched". To see what GParted looks like, you can check out the screen shots at: http://gparted.sourceforge.net/screenshots.php Do the screen shots look like the GUI you used? If not, you may wish to raise this problem with Ubuntu as they would be better able to assist. My knowledge of the Ubuntu install process is limited. See the following link for reporting a problem to Ubuntu" http://www.ubuntu.com/community/reportproblem
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+bug/224493
Hopefully the folks at Ubuntu can pinpoint and resolve this problem. Closing this bug as it is does not involve GParted.