3.0: Step 4 wants to resize partitions! [Work-around-ish]

[crusti]

I'm stunned. I had to cancel the install of Cassandra at the partitioning step because it insisted on resizing partitions.

I began the install for Cassandra and got to step 4 where partitions and mount points are specified. As I always do, I selected manual mode.
I was presented with the usual list of devices, sizes, filesystem types, and mount points. I just wanted to give new mount points to a few partitions, and leave the remainder of my partitions out of the install altogether.

Every partition was listed, and each was given a mount point except for the swap partitions. For the Bianca install I was able to eliminate entries from the list so they were not even in consideration. However, the only choices here were Undo Changes to Partitions, Edit Partition, and **Delete Partition**. I certainly didn't want to delete any partitions, they contain precious data. I simply didn't want this install to mount them at all, or even to know about them. (And if "delete partition" means take if off the list and it will be ignored then that has to be very clearly stated.)

/dev/hdb7 was going to be my root for this test install. I clicked edit partition. Immediately I noted that the partition size given in the dialog wasn't even close to the original partition size. Further, I was unable to change the suggested 3000MB to 11005MB as it was originally because the number only went as high as 11000MB (first it suggested 764MB but after clicking the arrow it jumped to 3000MB as a minimum). I decided to leave it blank, hoping that it would maintain the original size. After all, I just wanted to change the mount point. After clicking ok a warning popped up, and claimed that before any resizing it must first apply prior changes which cannot be undone. This was a bad omen. I clicked ok. After scanning the disk, the new size showed as 3005MB, a far cry from 11005MB. All I wanted was to change a mount point, and it forces me to resize things and ambiguously threaten my precious information.

That's when I canceled the installation, stunned.


If anyone can tell me I've missed something obvious, then I'll be grateful if you do. I find it unfathomable that anyone would devise a manual partitioning scheme that insists upon resizing partitions. That's why I'm suspicious that I've missed something.

crusti

[Boo]

wow have never had that. I think.
I had a crazy one with ICH9 raid the last few nights but...

If you go back from the partitioning step (to step 3) and forward to it again it resets the partitioning. also resets if you go back to partitioning from a later step.

I would not use delete unless you really want to delete the partition.

removing the mount point entry for the partition stops it being put in the fstab.

if you dont want to use all your swaps you have to set their fs type to nofs (or something like that. last option in list).

if you are going to use hdb7 you could try deleting it and making it new since it is going to be formatted anyway. hopefully this will get rid of your size problem.

the other thing to try is to use gparted from the administration menu to check what it thinks the disk layout is before starting the install.
but i have found the installer partition editors to be better/see more.

[Husse]

I had a similar problem with a recent install of Bianca (just to have it installed in case someone needs Bianca specific help) Gparted refused to accept the partition I wanted for / unless I excluded the partition gparted had chosen as /
There is something fishy going on, but you seem to have discovered a glitch of some kind...
The only thing is to try again...

[crusti]

Thanks for those replies, I do appreciate it. Now I know I'm not nuts, and also that this behavior wasn't intended by the developers.

I considered reformatting the root folder so that it might choose that automatically, so as to avoid any partition edits at all.

I'll think about all this and perhaps try again.

Thanks y'all!

crusti

[crusti]

I've installed Cassandra and I'm liking it. In order to avoid danger with my other partitions I changed parameters on only the two partitions that I needed for this install. Everything else I left untouched.

The installation went smoothly, and all of my needed applications seem to work fine. The only gripe I had with Bianca was the stability of Firefox with streaming media. I'm hoping that is not an issue here, and from preliminary tests it seems to be good. I need to watch a lot of embedded video before I know if it's stable or not. Sometimes Firefox would crash three or four times in one session, clearing my cache each time.

Anyway, thanks for the help and advice. I do hope the developers look at the manual partition routine and separate the three basic tasks, naming the mount point, changing the fs type, and changing the size. These three things should be done independently, not in one dialog with scary warnings about permanently changing the size of things.

And most especially, removing a partition from the list so it will not be mounted and not be touched at all. This needs to be done in a clear way, with zero ambiguity. If requested, I might be able to come up with some basic graphics that appear clear to me, to literally illustrate my meaning.

Ok, I type too much, thanks for reading, have a wonderful day.

Cassandra rocks, so far :)

crusti

[Husse]

Unfortunately there is a problem..
but when Gparted finally does it's job I have so far not heard any reports of errors