slint 2tb limit

Wed Mar 14 23:08:04 UTC 2018

Didier here.

First, the maths:
Actually the numbers on each line of the fdisk output are, from left to right:
partition beginning sector (512 bytes per sector)
partition ending sector
partition size in sectors
partition size in another unit to make it human readable
In this case the unit is a Tib i.e. 1,099,511,627,776 bytes
The computed size in sectors is end-beginning+1, here:
5860531119-4198400+1=5856332720
585633272*512/1099511627776 roughly equals 2.7 so yes, this is correct.

Now about the issue.
In the installer the Linux partition is called by a script that use the output of fdisk -l.
Unfortunately, fdisk fails in case of a DOS (with a MBR) partition table if the partition size is too big, with an error like:
DOS partition table format can not be used on drives for volumes larger than 2199023255040 bytes for 512 bytes sectors. Use GUID partition table format (GPT).
You didn't hear this error messages because the installer doesn't display it, but this indeed prevented to detect /dev/sda3 as a linux partition.

So you need to convert the partition table of this drive to GPT. This can be done using gdisk.

Of course you'll loose all data in it, so make back ups first as need be.

I have checked that fdisk can read partition on a GPT drive, so after that hopefully Slint installation will work.

Greetings,
Didier

Le 13/03/2018 à 23:50, Linux for blind general discussion a écrit :
> Okay that last number before 2.7t on the fdisk output is correct.  It doesn't make sense to me that it's smaller than the number before it, but I checked and what was supplied is accurate.
> 
> On Tue, 13 Mar 2018, Linux for blind general discussion wrote:
> 
>> Date: Tue, 13 Mar 2018 18:26:39
>> From: Linux for blind general discussion <blinux-list at redhat.com>
>> To: Linux for blind general discussion <blinux-list at redhat.com>
>> Subject: Re: slint 2tb limit
>>
>> output from:
>> lsblk -o model,name,size,fstype
>> wdc wd30ezrx-00d sda 2.7t
>> sda1 2m ext4
>> sda2 2g swap
>> sda3 2.7t
>> ihas124 w sr0 3.4g iso9660
>>
>>
>> output from:
>> fdisk -l|grep ^/
>> /dev/sda1 2048 6143 4096 2m bios boot
>> /dev/sda2 6144 4198399 4192256 2g linux filesystem
>> /dev/sda3 4198400 5860531119 5856332720 2.7t linux filesystem
>>
>> The last number on last line before 2.7t is probably wrong.  I can try running second command again and see if result differs.
>> On Mon, 12 Mar 2018, Linux for blind general discussion wrote:
>>
>>>  Date: Mon, 12 Mar 2018 11:13:51
>>>  From: Linux for blind general discussion <blinux-list at redhat.com>
>>>  To: blinux-list at redhat.com
>>>  Subject: Re: slint 2tb limit
>>>
>>>  Hello,
>>>
>>>  Didier Spaier, Slint maintainer, here.
>>>
>>>  Le 12/03/2018 ? 15:48, Linux for blind general discussion a ?crit?:
>>>>  So far as I can tell, slint appears to have a 2tb hard drive size limit.
>>>>  I tried it with a 3tb drive and hope I haven't permanently trashed the
>>>>  drive.? What happens with slint is you set up a swap partition on the
>>>>  drive and a linux partition and it doesn't matter what you use to do it
>>>>  either.? Once done, you run setup and get the message that slint can't
>>>>  find any partitions on the hard drive.? I have a bad compatibility
>>>>  situation here since technology is 24 years old and back in those years
>>>>  all that was known about was bios, efi and uefi didn't exist then.? Last
>>>>  bios flash update for AMD k8 athelon computers I think was 2006.? So,
>>>>  I'll see if I can rescue the 3tb drive with archlinux then go from there.
>>
>>>  I haven't such a big drive to check but am a bit surprised of such a
>>>  limitation.
>>>
>>>  To help investigate, could you please start again the installer, then
>>>  after log in as root instead of running setup type this command, then post
>>>  the output:
>>>  lsblk -o model,name,size,fstype
>>>
>>>  And also please post the output of this other command:
>>>  fdisk -l|grep ^/
>>>
>>>  That should allow me to understand why the installer doesn't see the
>>>  partitions.
>>>
>>>  Best regards,
>>>
>>>  Didier
>>>
>>>  _______________________________________________
>>>  Blinux-list mailing list
>>>  Blinux-list at redhat.com
>>>  https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/blinux-list
>>
>>
> 