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Hi all,

I'm an average WinXP user and wanted to give Linux a try. Therefore I'd like
to install Debian as a second OS on my system. Unfortunately, the
installation procedure gives this error: "Bad primary partition 1. Partition
ends after end-of-disk" and doesn't allow me to use the existing partition
table.

Is there a way to solve this while keeping my data and Windows installation?
How?
Will another linux-distribution produce the same error? IOW: is it
Debian-related or Linux-related?

My HD has a capacity of 160 GB, and partitions are as follows:
Primary:
- windowsxp 19360 MB
Extended:
- data 39284 MB
- data2 69994 MB
- unallocated 23988 MB

Thanks in advance for your response,

Sjoerd

In alt.os.linux Sjoerd Mulder <newsREMOVE@sjoerdmulderandthis.electronischepost. nlandthis>:
> Hi all,

> I'm an average WinXP user and wanted to give Linux a try. Therefore I'd like
> to install Debian as a second OS on my system. Unfortunately, the
> installation procedure gives this error: "Bad primary partition 1. Partition
> ends after end-of-disk" and doesn't allow me to use the existing partition
> table.

AFAIK, debian isn't exactly the distro for an "average WinXP
user". I'd suggest trying something like Mandrake, Fedora, Suse,
or other (www.distrowatch.com) perhaps the installer works
better.

Good luck

--
Michael Heiming (X-PGP-Sig > GPG-Key ID: EDD27B94)
mail: echo zvpunry@urvzvat.qr | perl -pe 'y/a-z/n-za-m/'
#bofh excuse 347: The rubber band broke

Sjoerd Mulder wrote:

> "Bad primary partition 1. Partition
> ends after end-of-disk" and doesn't allow me to use the existing partition
> table.
>
> Is there a way to solve this while keeping my data and Windows
> installation? How?
> Will another linux-distribution produce the same error? IOW: is it
> Debian-related or Linux-related?

You will need to create a "linux native" partition to house your Linux, and
you'll mostly likely also want a "linux swap" partition, which is used for
virtual memory.

It appears that you have no such partition now -- but you do appear to have
enough unallocated space in which to create one. This saves you the trouble
of having to shrink your XP partition first to create that space.

Generally, something like 512MB for "linux swap" and the rest of the
unallocated space for "linux native" is about right. I'm not familiar with
the Debian installer (each distribution has its own unique installer), but
there should be somewhere along the way that allows you to re-partition the
unallocated space, and somewhere to tell the installer which partition to
use (so that it dutifully ignores your WinXP and leaves the data there
undisturbed.)

You'll also want to learn about "dual-booting" -- some installers set this
up for you during the install, but in other cases you will only be able to
boot to linux after installing, until you configure your boot loader to
recognize the WinXP partition as well. After proper configuration, you'll
have a choice at startup to boot one or the other. Just be warned that you
may have to navigate and configure Linux, perhaps even via the command-line
interface, before you can get back to your WinXP installation on the same
computer.

While I don't agree that some distributions are "for experts only" and
others are "ok for newbies", you have picked a distribution that has a
reputation for being difficult to install, so I suggest a little extra
preparation on your part (i.e. reading up on dual-booting strategies.)

I have always found the dual-boot configuration to be one of the most trying
things for new linux users. Ironically, by the time setting up a dual boot
is "old hat", that's the point where many people just drop Windows
entirely, making the skill moot :-) If you want an easier time of it, you
might try getting hold of an old piece of "junk" hardware for your first
Linux install, so that you don't need to dual-boot. (After you install
Linux on it, it won't be "junk" anymore either!)

Good luck,
Jeffrey

Michael Heiming writes:
> I'd suggest trying something like Mandrake, Fedora, Suse, or other
> (www.distrowatch.com) perhaps the installer works better.

I'd suggest Ubuntu, Libranet, or Xandros as they are based on Debian.

I suspect switching distributions won't solve his problem, though. I think
he needs to fix his partition table.
--
John Hasler

"John Hasler" <jhasler@debian.org> wrote in message
news:87d5xqxbob.fsf@toncho.dhh.gt.org...
> I suspect switching distributions won't solve his problem, though. I
think
> he needs to fix his partition table.

Well, that's what I thought... So I gave it a try, installed
Mandrake....and....

It works! No errors, no problems.

I still don't know what the cause of the partition error could have been,
but it seems to me an error (or at least strange behaviour) of cfdisk (the
debian partition program, if I am right): my partition table looked okay to
me, and BootitNG, the partitioning program I used, gave no trouble or
errors.
After some more googling it seemed to me that this error message sometimes
occurs in case of larger than average hard-disks, when trying to set up a
dual boot system with windows. My knowledge goes no further ...

Thanks all folks,

Sjoerd

In alt.os.linux Sjoerd Mulder <newsREMOVE@sjoerdmulderandthis.electronischepost. nlandthis>:
> "John Hasler" <jhasler@debian.org> wrote in message
> news:87d5xqxbob.fsf@toncho.dhh.gt.org...
>> I suspect switching distributions won't solve his problem, though. I
> think
>> he needs to fix his partition table.

> Well, that's what I thought... So I gave it a try, installed
> Mandrake....and....

> It works! No errors, no problems.

Glad to hear you got things working, sure this was only a remote
experience based guess, that another installer might be more
clever then the debian one. Perhaps there aren't that much debian
dual boot system?

--
Michael Heiming (X-PGP-Sig > GPG-Key ID: EDD27B94)
mail: echo zvpunry@urvzvat.qr | perl -pe 'y/a-z/n-za-m/'
#bofh excuse 304: routing problems on the neural net

["Followup-To:" header set to alt.os.linux.debian.]
On Sat, 4 Dec 2004 11:53:13 +0100,
Sjoerd Mulder
<newsREMOVE@sjoerdmulderANDTHIS.electronischepost. nlANDTHIS>
wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> I'm an average WinXP user and wanted to give Linux a try.
> Therefore I'd like to install Debian as a second OS on my
> system. Unfortunately, the installation procedure gives this
> error: "Bad primary partition 1. Partition ends after
> end-of-disk" and doesn't allow me to use the existing
> partition table.
>
> Is there a way to solve this while keeping my data and Windows
> installation? How? Will another linux-distribution produce
> the same error? IOW: is it Debian-related or Linux-related?
>
> My HD has a capacity of 160 GB, and partitions are as follows:
> Primary: - windowsxp 19360 MB Extended: - data 39284 MB -
> data2 69994 MB - unallocated 23988 MB

It's has nothing to do with Linux or the distro. On a guess I'd
say that whatever software you used to resize the primary FS to
make room for the others was to blame, unless your machine came
partitioned that way, which I doubt.

On a side note windows won't handle that any better, it might
ignore it, but if the disk fills up you'll like find some corrupt
filesystems.

Back up your Filesystems, rebuild the partition table, and
restore.

Michael C.
--
mcsuper5@usol.com http://mcsuper5.freeshell.org/

The problem with the world is stupidity. Not saying there should
be a capital punishment for stupidity, but why don't we just take
the safety labels off of everything and let the problem solve
itself?

["Followup-To:" header set to alt.os.linux.debian.]
On Sat, 4 Dec 2004 19:52:59 +0100, Michael Heiming
<michael+USENET@www.heiming.de> wrote:
> In alt.os.linux Sjoerd Mulder <newsREMOVE@sjoerdmulderandthis.electronischepost. nlandthis>:
>> "John Hasler" <jhasler@debian.org> wrote in message
>> news:87d5xqxbob.fsf@toncho.dhh.gt.org...
>>> I suspect switching distributions won't solve his problem, though. I
>> think
>>> he needs to fix his partition table.
>
>> Well, that's what I thought... So I gave it a try, installed
>> Mandrake....and....
>
>> It works! No errors, no problems.
>
> Glad to hear you got things working, sure this was only a remote
> experience based guess, that another installer might be more
> clever then the debian one. Perhaps there aren't that much debian
> dual boot system?
>
I don't recall if he said whether he was using the old stable version of
Debian. The new Debian installer is said to be much better.


--
New motto at CBS and NBC: "Jesus didn't turn away people, but we do."

(me->quite newb')
På Sat, 4 Dec 2004 19:09:17 +0100, skrev Sjoerd Mulder
<newsREMOVE@sjoerdmulderANDTHIS.electronischepost. nlANDTHIS>:

> Well, that's what I thought... So I gave it a try, installed
> Mandrake....and....
>
> It works! No errors, no problems.

I've got almost the same case. Having debian on my laptop(dual boot with
WinXP, HDD 30Go) and beeing very happy with it, I ,decided to change
mandrake for debian on my tower(dual boot with WinXP, Hdd 160 Go) but it
ends with the error message from cfdisk:
Cfdisk sees only my NTFS partitions but neither my linux partitions nor my
free space.
This doesn't seems to be an issue for the mdk installer but is well a sign
of a problem on the partition table

> my partition table looked okay to me,
How could i check that mine is okay? I actually runned the mdk tool and
asked him to guess the partition table: this make the prosessor works 100%
(1 Go ram) and at the end the output is an error message and the
partitions are something much like what I see (by opening a shell and df)
when I try to install debian.

> "John Hasler" <jhasler@debian.org> wrote in message
> news:87d5xqxbob.fsf@toncho.dhh.gt.org...
....
>> I think he needs to fix his partition table.
I think that this is right, It means I must at least back up my disk :-)

I've been using the XP tool to come back to a previous installation
state(kind of recovery), could it be this that wrote change to the
partition table?

--
M.v.h., <dominique Ribaut>
dhaemned, I'm Dom!
/O-O\
^^ Wanabee