Arch Linux

fbr

Member

Registered: 2010-01-15

Posts: 6

Fatal Error Message While attempting to Install :/

Hi,

I just purchased a new laptop and was hoping to wipe out Windows and install Arch.  When I attempted to repartition my disk using the custom option - I got the following message:

Fatal Error:  Bad primary partition 2: Partition ends in the final partial cylind.

I'm not sure what the second part of the message is trying to tell me.

If it helps this was the output from fdisk -l

Device        Boot       Start   End         Blocks          Id   System
/dev/sda/                       1    1036       8313856       27  unknown
/dev/sda2       *       1036     1048         102400        7   HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda3                1048   30402   235780280         7   HPFS/NTFS

Any help would be greatly appreciated - what it means and what I might be able to do to fix it and move on
I have heard a lot of good things about Arch and I'm bound and determined to find a way to get Arch installed.

darenw

Member

From: Trego Montana

Registered: 2008-07-04

Posts: 106

Website

Re: Fatal Error Message While attempting to Install :/

I had trouble like that years ago with BeOS and Linux on the same machine.  You'd think that the information on the disk detailing the partitions would be standardized, but every operating system has quirks in interpreting that information.  The problem was solved by putting the other operating system first, then swap, and Linux on the last partition.

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Artist/Physicist, Herder of Pixels, Photons and Electrons

fbr

Member

Registered: 2010-01-15

Posts: 6

Re: Fatal Error Message While attempting to Install :/

Daren,

Thanks for the input I was successful repartioning with another live disk so I will give it another try and see with happens.

fbr

ppss

Member

Registered: 2009-11-14

Posts: 1

Re: Fatal Error Message While attempting to Install :/

hi,fbr

I get the same message as you met, and I have no idea about it.

Your solution is to try another live disk, and are there any other ways?

Thx.

grey

Member

From: Europe

Registered: 2007-08-23

Posts: 679

Re: Fatal Error Message While attempting to Install :/

Jsut to wipe the disk use DBAN. http://www.dban.org/ seems to be down at the moment, but the CD image you want is at http://sourceforge.net/projects/dban/fi … o/download.

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Good ideas do not need lots of lies told about them in order to gain public acceptance.

fbr

Member

Registered: 2010-01-15

Posts: 6

Re: Fatal Error Message While attempting to Install :/

ppss,

I burned an image from another distribution and then used their installation program to create new partitions for Linux.  I'm sure you could use gparted and other programs as well.  I would goggle "Linux & partitioning" or Linux & partitioning tools" I'm sure you will find multiple ways to solve the issue.  I'm not sure what the message was about but I was able to install a Linux distro (not Arch sadly, but that is due to another unrelated problem, I'm trying to work through) on my laptop without issues - so it wasn't a hardware issue.

fbr