Bug#41440: Critical install bug in slink
package: boot-floppies
version N/A
Hi,
I wanted to install slink (just downloaded from ftp.debian.org
stable dir) and it successfully wiped out another partition. I
tracked down the problem and can provide you with the details. It
seems the kernel's idea about the partitions is different from
the rest of the installation stuff.
Here is the relevant part of dmesg:
hda: WDC AC23200L, 3098MB w/256kB Cache, CHS=787/128/63, DMA
hdb: Maxtor 91303D6, 12427MB w/512kB Cache, CHS=1024/255/63, DMA
........
Partition check:
hda: hda1 hda2 hda3
hdb: hdb1 hdb2 hdb3 < hdb5 hdb6 > hdb4 < hdb7 hdb8 hdb9 hdb10 hdb11 hdb12 hdb13 hdb14 hdb15 hdb16 >
And here is the partition table according to fdisk:
Disk /dev/hdb: 255 heads, 63 sectors, 1024 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 bytes
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hdb1 1 128 1028128+ a6 OpenBSD
/dev/hdb2 129 256 1028160 a9 Unknown
/dev/hdb3 * 257 384 1028160 a5 BSD/386
/dev/hdb4 385 1578 9590805 5 Extended
Partition 4 has different physical/logical endings:
phys=(1023, 254, 63) logical=(1577, 254, 63)
/dev/hdb5 385 512 1028128+ 83 Linux native
/dev/hdb6 513 640 1028128+ 83 Linux native
/dev/hdb7 641 768 1028128+ 83 Linux native
/dev/hdb8 769 896 1028128+ 83 Linux native
/dev/hdb9 897 1024 1028128+ 83 Linux native
/dev/hdb10 1025 1152 1028128+ 83 Linux native
/dev/hdb11 1153 1280 1028128+ 83 Linux native
/dev/hdb12 1281 1408 1028128+ 83 Linux native
/dev/hdb13 1409 1536 1028128+ 83 Linux native
/dev/hdb14 1537 1578 337333+ 82 Linux swap
The disk is "hand-LBAd" due to old BIOS, but it works. So, the problem
is my /dev/hdb3 partition is a FreeBSD 3.2. It has two BSD "partitions"
and it is interpreted by the kernel but not by the other install
programs. I wanted to install slink on hdb7 but it (as I later figured
out) formatted hdb5. Also, it formatted hdb12 as swap partition.
Vilmos Soti
Reply to: