Overlapping partition description areas. Aborting

[pentolino]

Hello Postfix, your explanation is very good, so thanks for that.
I have followed the tutorial on how to reorder partition list and the resulting partition table as of fdisk -l is:

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Disco /dev/sda: 120.0 GB, 120034123776 byte
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 14593 cylinders
Units = cilindri of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xf0f2f0f2

Dispositivo Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1               1         383     3076416   12  Diagnostica Compaq
/dev/sda2   *         384        3962    28748317+   c  W95 FAT32 (LBA)
/dev/sda3            3963        5246    10313730   83  Linux
/dev/sda4            5247       14593    75079777+   f  W95 Esteso (LBA)
/dev/sda5            5247        7328    16723602   83  Linux
/dev/sda6            7329        7450      979933+  82  Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda7            7451       10007    20539102+   b  W95 FAT32
/dev/sda8           10008       14593    36837013+  83  Linux

So it appears that there is only one extended partition and it is at the end of the disc; I have one strange thing though, both windows and linux work fine but gparted on linux doesn't; it displays all disk as unallocated!
At:

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 sudo VBoxManage internalcommands createrawvmdk -filename /media/condivisa/windows.vmdk -rawdisk /dev/sda -partitions 2,7 -mbr sda2_windows_c.mbr

I still get:

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Overlapping partition description areas. Aborting
Error reading the partition information from '/dev/sda'

I'm completely stuck; any hint?

Thanks anyway for what you wrote since now
Riccardo

[pentolino]

Ok I'm sorry. I did a lot of errors!
Now my partition table is ok, after a lot of disaster recovery it seems that it is as virtualBox (and also gparted) likes it; I also added my user to group "disk" and avoided running createwmdk as root.
Thanks again,
bye.

[postfix]

Hi pentolino,

thanks!

I just read your posting. All your questions seemed to be answered. If everything works well you did a nice job

bye!

[nvshaji]

I am getting the following error eventhough my partition table is fixed.

shaji:~$ VBoxManage internalcommands listpartitions -rawdisk /dev/sda
VirtualBox Command Line Management Interface Version 1.6.2
(C) 2005-2008 Sun Microsystems, Inc.
All rights reserved.

Overlapping partition description areas. Aborting
shaji:~$


shaji:~$ fdisk -l

Disk /dev/sda: 160.0 GB, 160041885696 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 19457 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x31b531b4

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 1 3825 30724281 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2 3826 9321 44146620 83 Linux
/dev/sda3 9322 19457 81417420 f W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/sda5 9322 9562 1935769+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda6 9563 14024 35840983+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda7 14025 15969 15623181 83 Linux
/dev/sda8 15970 19457 28017328+ 83 Linux
shaji:~$

[nvshaji]

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Disk /dev/sda: 160.0 GB, 160041885696 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 19457 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x31b531b4

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1   *           1        3825    30724281    7  HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2            3826        9321    44146620   83  Linux
/dev/sda3            9322       19457    81417420    f  W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/sda5            9322        9562     1935769+  82  Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda6            9563       14024    35840983+   7  HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda7           14025       15969    15623181   83  Linux
/dev/sda8           15970       19457    28017328+  83  Linux

[postfix]

Please, tell me exactly witch harddisk drive and motherboard you are using. I'm right that your /dev/sda is an internal drive and not an external usb one?

The patition table seems ok. fdisk provides a way for correction (is described above).

[TerryE]

The problem that you guys are having is actually because of a bug in src/VBox/Frontends/VBoxManage/VBoxInternalManage.cpp. Function partRead builds an internal partition table from the partition sector and then adds the extended partitions. It then does a simple exchange sort to order these, checking for overlaps etc. as it goes (lines 595-641). What it doesn't do is to exclude the Extended Partition Entry from these checks, and of course this does overlap and start at the same place as other partitions, so of course this validation fails. So why doesn't fail all the time? Ah, that's because a second bug means that these checks aren't always applied, so if the Extended Partition is the last one, we have a case of two wrongs making a right, or maybe in this case a write

I guess that I'd better file a bug report. (PS. see http://www.virtualbox.org/ticket/688)

[nvshaji]

postfix. - Mine is Acer 4520 laptop - Toshiba hard disk and Nvidia 610 chipset I guess. /dev/sda is an internal hard disk. I had used fdisk to correct the partition entries as described by you.

Terry - there is already a ticket 688 reopened by me. Can you provide additional information there?

[TerryE]

You read my post too fast. You will see that I referenced your BugRep and have already added the detail

[nvshaji]

Yeah, I did reply fast without seeing it. Thanks

[fcayre]

Hi there,

I do not know whether the createrawvmdk code should or should not handle exotic partition patterns as suggested in http://www.virtualbox.org/ticket/688, but mine is fairly standard as it comes from a fresh Ubuntu install on a XP native laptop install, keeping Ubuntu installer suggested settings for partitioning the HDD.

There is what I get :

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# sudo fdisk -l

Disk /dev/sda: 120.0 GB, 120034123776 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 14593 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x69f807c0

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1               1         243     1951866    b  W95 FAT32
/dev/sda2   *         244        4909    37479645    c  W95 FAT32 (LBA)
/dev/sda3            8699       14593    47351587+   f  W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/sda4            4910        8698    30435142+  83  Linux
/dev/sda5            8864       14593    46026193+   b  W95 FAT32
/dev/sda6            8699        8863     1325299+  82  Linux swap / Solaris

Partition table entries are not in disk order

#VBoxManage --version
2.1.0r41146

# sudo VBoxManage internalcommands createrawvmdk -filename ~/.VirtualBox/WindowsXP.vmdk -rawdisk /dev/sda -partitions 2 -relative -register
VirtualBox Command Line Management Interface Version 2.1.0
(C) 2005-2008 Sun Microsystems, Inc.
All rights reserved.

Error while creating the raw disk VMDK: VERR_INVALID_PARAMETER
The raw disk vmdk file was not created

So I think it would be useful to a lot of people to have this issue fixed or a simple workaround here (moving data around and repartitioning is a risky option for most people, including me, I am afraid).

How can I help making this issue be solved? May I give someone some more details, or even help with a debugger, as I do not know much about partitions but I am a programer myself, not afraid by gdb whatsoever. Should I compile a OSE version with debug symbols and try same feature? Does this feature even exist in the OSE version?

Thanks for you replies and the great job of developers of VirtualBox.

[TerryE]

I tried a

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$ sudo VBoxManage internalcommands createrawvmdk -filename ~/.VirtualBox/WindowsXP.vmdk \
                             -rawdisk /dev/sda -partitions 2 -relative
VirtualBox Command Line Management Interface Version 2.1.0
(C) 2005-2008 Sun Microsystems, Inc.
All rights reserved.

RAW host disk access VMDK file /home/terry/.VirtualBox/WindowsXP.vmdk created successfully.
$

So I am not sure what is going on here. AFAIR, the createrawdisk command can handle out-of-order partitions, just not overlapped ones. Have you tried a

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sudo VBoxManage internalcommands listpartitions -rawdisk /dev/sda

BTW, remember that without the VBOX_USER_HOME=~/.VirtualBox this command will register the disk with the root registry.

[Sasquatch]

The order might not matter, but having a primary partition INSIDE an extended is. You have then entry for an extended partition before the primary partition is listed, that is not a good situation. You can to have the primary partitions before the extended in your table. Or after the end of the extended, but not an entry in the middle. Even though the data is in the correct order (primary first, then exteneded), the table is mixed.

[fcayre]

Hi and thanks for your replies,

below is the result of

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sudo VBoxManage internalcommands listpartitions -rawdisk /dev/sda

VirtualBox Command Line Management Interface Version 2.1.0
(C) 2005-2008 Sun Microsystems, Inc.
All rights reserved.

Number  Type   StartCHS       EndCHS      Size (MiB)  Start (Sect)
1       0x0b  0   /1  /1   242 /254/63          1906           63
2       0x0c  243 /0  /1   1023/254/63         36601      3903795
4       0x83  1023/254/63  1023/254/63         29721     78863085
6       0x82  1023/254/63  1023/254/63          1294    139733496
5       0x0b  1023/1  /1   1023/254/63         44947    142384158

Many thanks for you help.

[awagner]

Hi all,
I'm having a similar problem, but I cant find out what the problem with my partition table is or how I can fix it:

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[wagner: ~]$ VBoxManage internalcommands createrawvmdk -filename ~/.VirtualBox/WinHD.vmdk -rawdisk /dev/sda -partitions 2 -relative -register
VirtualBox Command Line Management Interface Version 2.1.4
(C) 2005-2009 Sun Microsystems, Inc.
All rights reserved.

Overlapping partition description areas. Aborting
Error reading the partition information from '/dev/sda'
The raw disk vmdk file was not created

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[wagner: ~]$ LC_ALL="C" fdisk -l /dev/sda

Disk /dev/sda: 80.0 GB, 80026361856 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 9729 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x8ae58ae5

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1               1         281     2257101   82  Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda2             282        2638    18932602+   c  W95 FAT32 (LBA)
/dev/sda3   *        2639        2655      136552+  83  Linux
/dev/sda4            2656        9729    56821905    f  W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/sda5            2656        4226    12618994+  83  Linux
/dev/sda6            4227        7476    26105593+   b  W95 FAT32
/dev/sda7            7477        9729    18097191   83  Linux

and in fdisk's expert mode:

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Expert command (m for help): v
5414 unallocated sectors

Expert command (m for help): f
Nothing to do. Ordering is correct already.

Expert command (m for help): e

Disk /dev/sda: 255 heads, 63 sectors, 9729 cylinders

Nr AF  Hd Sec  Cyl  Hd Sec  Cyl     Start      Size ID
 4 00   0   1 1023 254  63 1023   42652575  113643810 0f
 5 00 254  63 1023 254  63 1023          1   36194445 05
 6 00 254  63 1023 254  63 1023   77449365   25238114 05
 7 00   0   0    0   0   0    0          0          0 00

I seem to remember that at one point one of those programs (sfdisk/cfdisk/fdisk/parted etc.) said something with something not ending on a cylinder boundary, but I can't reproduce it ATM.

Anyone with any suggestion?
TIA,
Andreas