gptsync: GPT partition of type 'Unknown' found, will not touch this disk.

[domedmunds]

a bit of history...

i've got me a new MacBook pro (MacBookPro 5,3), and have been trying to set it up with dual booting (os x and ubuntu 9.10 - i understand this is a beta until next week).

the process i have been going through is based on the the documentation I have come across on the Ubuntu forums as well as this: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/MacBookPro5-3/Karmic

i'm in good situation as i am moving from an older machine so have used superDuper to create a backup of my os x files which I can restore when I need to reinstall everything.

once i have my base os x system up and workingi have been...
1 - creating a 100gb partition as free space using disk utility
2 - booting up from the cd i have created containing the 32bit version of ubuntu 9.10
3 - using gparted to ensure that we have space
4 - installing ubuntu to the largest continuos space
5 - ensuring that grub is installed to /sda3
6 - restarting the computer

rEFIt is on my machine so this boots up and show a generic icon for the new partition, i have then used the partition tool to resync but i get the message which is the title of this thread.

here are the details:

Starting gptsync.efi

Current GPT partion table:
# Start LDA End LDA Type
1 EFi System (FAT)
2 Mac OS X HFS+
3 Unknown
4 Basic Dara
5 Linux Swap

Current MBR partition table:
# A Start LDA End LDA Type
1 EE EFi Protective
2 * AF Mac OS X HFS+
3 BA Unknown
4 03 Linux

Status: GPT partition of type 'Unknown' found, will not touch this disk.
Error: Not Found returned from gptsync.efi


i'll take a photo of the full message and post shortly. i'll also take a shot of the display in gparted when i boot from the disk.

[proycon]

Ok, you're on the very same hardware I am with an almost identical problem. I resized my partition using gparted and that's when the trouble started. gparted is not GPT-aware so things got out of sync, gptsync usually corrected for this but chokes on the BIOS Partition. But you say the gptsync in Ubuntu (not gptsync.efi in rEFIt!!) still gives the same error? And you're sure you installed version 0.13-10 ?

Paste your $ sudo showpart output (after chrooting into your system again, but no need to reinstall gptsync, it should be still there)

[domedmunds]

sorry chap i don't understand this sudo showpart output.

[proycon]

Oh, never mind.. When you ran gptsync itself ut already outputted the partitions on your disk right? If you can paste that output here it might be useful.

[domedmunds]

here you go:

Current GPT partition table:
# Start LBA End LBA Type
1 40 409639 EFI System (FAT)
2 409640 780936343 Mac OS X HFS+
3 780936344 780938297 BIOS Boot Partition
4 780938298 968717594 Basic Data
5 968717595 976773134 Linux Swap

Current MBR partition table:
# A Start LBA End LBA Type
1 1 409639 ee EFI Protective
2 * 409640 780936343 af Mac OS X HFS+
3 780936344 780938297 da Non-FS data
4 780938298 968717594 83 Linux

Status: Tables are synchronized, no need to sync.


*** Report for internal hard disk ***

Current GPT partition table:
# Start LBA End LBA Type
1 40 409639 EFI System (FAT)
2 409640 780936343 Mac OS X HFS+
3 780936344 780938297 Unknown
4 780938298 968717594 Basic Data
5 968717595 976773134 Linux Swap

Current MBR partition table:
# A Start LBA End LBA Type
1 1 409639 ee EFI Protective
2 409640 780936343 af Mac OS X HFS+
3 * 780936344 780938297 da Unknown
4 780938298 968717594 83 Linux

MBR contents:
Boot Code: Unknown, but bootable

Partition at LBA 40:
Boot Code: None (Non-system disk message)
File System: FAT32
Listed in GPT as partition 1, type EFI System (FAT)

Partition at LBA 409640:
Boot Code: None
File System: HFS Extended (HFS+)
Listed in GPT as partition 2, type Mac OS X HFS+
Listed in MBR as partition 2, type af Mac OS X HFS+

Partition at LBA 780936344:
Boot Code: None
File System: Unknown
Listed in GPT as partition 3, type Unknown
Listed in MBR as partition 3, type da Unknown, active

Partition at LBA 780938298:
Boot Code: None
File System: ext3
Listed in GPT as partition 4, type Basic Data
Listed in MBR as partition 4, type 83 Linux

Partition at LBA 968717595:
Boot Code: None
File System: Unknown
Listed in GPT as partition 5, type Linux Swap

[domedmunds]

proycon

OK. I have got it working. it's nice too

So I followed your instructions then decided to try removing rEFIt from my Mac partition. Now when I boot up with ALT to define startup it will let me boot into the windows (linux) partition.

So I have Ubuntu 9.10 dual booting. Hurrah.

There was a weird moment where GRUB appeared in a loop however I booted via the live cd and went through the process again and all is well.

Thanks for all your help. D

[arctanx]

Thanks very much! Your instructions worked perfectly and I now have Karmic RC on running on my MacBook 5,1.

[Red Nelb]

Hi.

First of all - thanks a lot for posting this. I'm experiencing similar problems and this is without a doubt helping out a lot.

However, I've been having problems going through your instructions.

What package should I download? I'm using a 1st gen white macbook. I've tried the first one, but some error occurred and stopped my download. I then tried the second package (i386), which popped up an "install" button.

I first ignored it, although the next step didn't work. It said the file couldn't be found (or something along those lines - sorry for not noting the exact text. I can try again if it may help). I then tried following the automatic installation process (which was probably a horrible idea I guess), but it didn't change a thing.

I have pretty much 0 knowledge of how to use the terminal by the way. So sorry if I end up asking stupid questions

Any idea of what may causing this?

[lhall]

Im in a similar position as Red. I have it installed to a new partition on a first gen mac book. I am not exactly new to ubuntu or the terminal but this is the first time i have made it a native boot. I used to run ubuntu from virtual box, so i never had to deal with boot problems.

The problem i am having is that none of the commands i type were actually working. So i used the synaptic package installer to get gpt. When i ran it i got

ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo gptsync /dev/sda3

Current GPT partition table:
No GPT partition table present!

Current MBR partition table:
MBR partition table is invalid!

what am i missing. Also i dont understand how the chroot command works. I have never worked from a live CD. I usally go straight to install and never touch the cd again.

[kevpatts]

You should use:
sudo gptsync /dev/sda
instead of:
sudo gptsync /dev/sda3

On a separate note, I have a related problem. I have synced my GPT partition, reinstalled grub, but I still get a black screen when I try to boot ubuntu. I'm using rEFIt 0.13 and Partition Inspector gives me a report like this:

*** Report for internal hard disk ***

Current GPT partition table:
 #      Start LBA      End LBA  Type
 1             40       409639  EFI System (FAT)
 2         409640    591544359  Mac OS X HFS+
 3      591544360    591546313  Unknown
 4      591546314    615593189  Basic Data
 5      616753807    625142414  Linux Swap
 6      615593190    616753806  Linux Swap

Current MBR partition table:
 # A    Start LBA      End LBA  Type
 1              1       409639  ee  EFI Protective
 2         409640    591544359  af  Mac OS X HFS+
 3 *    591544360    591546313  da  Unknown
 4      591546314    615593189  83  Linux

MBR contents:
 Boot Code: Unknown, but bootable

Partition at LBA 40:
 Boot Code: None (Non-system disk message)
 File System: FAT32
 Listed in GPT as partition 1, type EFI System (FAT)

Partition at LBA 409640:
 Boot Code: None
 File System: HFS Extended (HFS+)
 Listed in GPT as partition 2, type Mac OS X HFS+
 Listed in MBR as partition 2, type af  Mac OS X HFS+

Partition at LBA 591544360:
 Boot Code: None
 File System: Unknown
 Listed in GPT as partition 3, type Unknown
 Listed in MBR as partition 3, type da  Unknown, active

Partition at LBA 591546314:
 Boot Code: None
 File System: ext3
 Listed in GPT as partition 4, type Basic Data
 Listed in MBR as partition 4, type 83  Linux

Partition at LBA 616753807:
 Boot Code: None
 File System: Unknown
 Listed in GPT as partition 5, type Linux Swap

Partition at LBA 615593190:
 Boot Code: None
 File System: Unknown
 Listed in GPT as partition 6, type Linux Swap