Mageia forum

Hello

My Mandriva spring 2010 dating a bit, I had to chose my next distro. I did so with Mageia, waiting for Mageia 3 to be released. Download the DVD, burn the iso, happy to begin the installation. But Mageia installer doesn't detect the windows 7 installed on my PC. I had never had the problem before.
The system is for my work and administration is done on MSWindows, so I unfortunately can't get rid of it, nor can I take the risk for it to be whipped out.

So beside trying another distro, what is wrong and what should I do?

Ludovic

Was Mageia installation successful? (you didn't say)
If yes....
Provide output of

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# fdisk -l

If Windows partition is displayed, provide

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# blkid
# grub-install -v
# grub2-install -v

and entries of

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/boot/grub/menu.lst
/boot/grub2/grub.cfg

gohlip,

Was Mageia installation successful? (you didn't say)

I didn't proceed with the installation. Mageia couldn't see windows, I didn't think it was wise to assign myself disk space knowing that this space would most likely land on windows partition...

A bit of research took me here:
https://bugs.mageia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=9977
It seems I have the same problem. Can't understand how to solve this though!

Okay, noted you did not proceed with installation.
Now, you said you had Mandriva 2010, in the same computer?

If Mandriva is still operable, at Mandriva terminal, provide output of

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# fdisk -l

and for possible future reference,

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 /boot/grub/menu.lst

thank you gohlip for the follow-up.
The target computer has only windows. I used a knoppix live CD to check what you suggest:

provide output of
# fdisk -l

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WARNING: GPT detected on '/dev/sda! The util fdisk doesn't support GPT. Use GNU Parted.

Disk /dev/sda: 10000.2GB
[...]

Device         Boot              Start                   End              Blocks       Id      System
/dev/sda1       *                 2048              209717247        104857600    7   HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda2                         209717247     650817535         220550144    7   HPFS/NTFS/exFAT



/boot/grub/menu.lst
from the knoppix live cd doesn't give me anything (permission denied, even as su).

Ah...that's it. Using GPT partitioning.
But...why mention Mandriva at all? You get us all (me, I mean) confused as Mandriva 2010 uses grub-legacy and that cannot handle GPT and if it was installed, it means...nevermind.
Still, the problem with helping out in forums is lack of information, but in this case, a surfeit of irrelevant red herrings. But, let's move on.

First, you must start with Mageia 3, version beta 4, rc or later.
Make sure you have enough space or best have a partition ready for it.
Then make sure you select grub2 as bootloader.

[edit] - assume you're on UEFI and not BIOS, if BIOS, you will need to 'prep' your hard disk.
to prep your hard disk, use gparted (later version that can do following),
create one more partition (about 100MB) and must flag (not label) it as "bios_grub"
also check that there is a very small unformatted partition at beginning of drive (should be there with Windows 7 installed)

gohlip,

the problem with helping out in forums is lack of information

Indeed, and I admire your patience for trying to find a solution to a badly formulated problem.

in this case, a surfeit of irrelevant red herrings.

You likely mean my mention of mandriva. It was indeed irrelevant to helping solve my problem, but the red herring was unintentional. I suppose I wanted to add a bit of context to my upgrading from mandriva, omitting to mention it was to be done on a new computer. My apologizes for this.
Now back to the issue, which I am sure a lot of people will encounter.

Step by step following your instructions:

you must start with Mageia 3, version beta 4, rc or later.

I have the final release, dated may 19th, iso-DVD 64bits. Loading it it says release 3. So it doesn't seem to fit with what you recommend. Is it fine to install a beta or rc version? I read for example that beta 4 is said to be not for daily use so I'd be reluctant to use it. Will do if it runs as fine as the final release.

assume you're on UEFI and not BIOS, if BIOS, you will need to 'prep' your hard disk.

It's BIOS.

to prep your hard disk, use gparted (later version that can do following)

I downloaded the latest version from sourceforge, gparted-live-0.16.1-1-i486.iso

create one more partition (about 100MB) and must flag (not label) it as "bios_grub"

I'm tempted to do this indeed, but gparted warns me of the following:

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"/dev/sda contains GPT signatures, indicating that it has a GPT table. However,it does not have a valid fake msdos partition table, as it should. Perhaps it was corrupted-possibly by a program that doesn't understand GPT partition tables. Or perhaps you deleted the GPT table, and are now using an msdos partition table. Is this a GPT partition table?"

Also gparted doesn't see the partition table and shows an unallocated disk space.
So if I add a partition, it doesn't seem I have much control over whether or not it will overwrite existing windows partition.

also check that there is a very small unformatted partition at beginning of drive (should be there with Windows 7 installed)

Do you mean the one indicated "boot" by the asterisk sign * when I do fdisk -l , as posted previously?
Partial result of fdisk -l :

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Disk /dev/sda: 10000.2GB
Device         Boot              Start                   End              Blocks       Id      System
/dev/sda1       *                 2048              209717247        104857600    7   HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda2                         209717247     650817535         220550144    7   HPFS/NTFS/exFAT

I've uploaded a screen shot with gparted and result of fdisk -l.
It seems fdisk provides more information than gparted does.

Let me apologize too for the use of the words "red herrings". It wasn't intentional on your part and so the words are inappropriate. (I relooked at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_herring )
So lets move on.

Honestly, I have not seen the following before....

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"/dev/sda contains GPT signatures, indicating that it has a GPT table. However,it does not have a valid fake msdos partition table, as it should. Perhaps it was corrupted-possibly by a program that doesn't understand GPT partition tables. Or perhaps you deleted the GPT table, and are now using an msdos partition table. Is this a GPT partition table?"

I guess it resulted from the attempt to install Mageia (up to the partitioning part). The "fake msdos partition table, as it should" is the

also check that there is a very small unformatted partition at beginning of drive (should be there with Windows 7 installed)

I was talking about. And no, the "*" at sda1 is where the partition is flagged as 'boot" and is not the "bios_grub" that we must have for BIOS to handle GPT partitions.

At this point, I am reluctant to suggest anything to proceed as we may mess up your windows 7.
If there are others here who can proceed confidently (note: ludotw must keep his windows 7 intact) please jump in.

I would suggest that you install to another drive taking care not to touch your windows drive.
Meanwhile, I'll look for some links to help in another post. (I remembered it was a write-up in Sabayon a few years back that was simple to read, clear and accurate) to handle GPT for BIOS.

So sorry, ludotw. Hope you find some ways to do this.

Regards and cheers.

I wrote:Meanwhile, I'll look for some links to help in another post. (I remembered it was a write-up in Sabayon ....

Ah, found it quite fast..
http://wiki.sabayon.org/index.php?title ... rtitioning:

Note: I was reluctant to proceed because...

The steps contained in this section will erase all the contents of your entire hard drive.

so..

I wrote:I would suggest that you install to another drive taking care not to touch your windows drive.

Cheers, good luck and take care.

Let me apologize too for the use of the words "red herrings"...(I relooked at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_herring )

No offense taken at all, I also checked the wikipedia link , so I'd rather say thank you for the opportunity to learn more about the idiom! And thank you for not letting me alone with that problem!

On my side I have found some information from the neighbours:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1619381

I quote member srs5694:

OK, then, it looks like you've got a new MBR with residual GPT data, which is confusing GParted. You'll have to wipe the GPT data. Here's how:

Boot your PartedMagic or System Rescue CD emergency disc.
For safety, back up your MBR by typing "dd if=/dev/sda of=sda-backup.mbr bs=512 count=1" and then copying the resulting file (sda-backup.mbr) to a USB flash drive, network share, or some other medium. Be sure to get the if= and of= parameters right, though!
Launch gdisk by typing "gdisk /dev/sda". When asked whether to use the MBR or GPT data, either will work.
Type "x" to enter the experts' menu. The command prompt should change.
Type "z" to "zap" (destroy) the GPT data. Tell it to proceed, but answer "N" to the question about blanking the MBR.

That's it. Windows should boot as it did before and you should now be able to continue your installation of Ubuntu [mageia, ndlr]; its installer should now see the same partitions as Windows.

I may try this, later though.

ludotw wrote:I may try this, later though.

Let us know how it turns out.
Good luck.

It worked.

Now mageia sees windows. And I am installing it (mageia that is).

So here is what I did.
Burn an iso of the latest Partedmagic (http://partedmagic.com/doku.php?id=downloads#.UabqL-OR4dk)
This will allow you to run gdisk on the HDD where you want to collocate windows and mageia.

So switch on with the live CD of Partedmagic.
Open a terminal.
You can first get information on your HDD by using fdisk -l /dev/sda (or hda, or other, depending on your HDD).
Then just follows this:

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root@partedmagic:~# gdisk /dev/sda
GPT fdisk (gdisk) version 0.8.6

Partition table scan:
MBR: MBR only
BSD: not present
APM: not present
GPT: present
       
Found valid MBR and GPT. Which do you want to use?
1 - MBR
2 - GPT
3 - Create blank GPT
           
Your answer: 2 [ndlr: 1 or 2 both works]
Using GPT and creating fresh protective MBR.
           
Command (? for help): x [ndlr: expert mode]
           
Expert command (? for help): z [ndlr: to delet the GPT]
About to wipe out GPT on /dev/sda. Proceed? (Y/N): y
GPT data structures destroyed! You may now partition the disk using fdisk or
other utilities.
Blank out MBR? (Y/N): n [ndlr: don't delete the MBR!]
MBR is unchanged. You may need to delete an EFI GPT (0xEE) partition
with fdisk or another tool.
root@partedmagic:~#

Restart, with mageia 3 DVD in the rack and here you can proceed with the installation.

Good to read your problem got solved ludotw.

Will you please mark the topic accordingly?
You can do so, by editing the subject/title of the first message in this topic.
Place [SOLVED] in front of subject/title, and you are done!

Have a nice day!!!!!

lodotw wrote:It worked.

Good to hear!
Cheers, take care.