GNU Parted

During installation "Error informing the kernel about modifications to partition /dev/XXX -- Device or resource busy"

Bug #525033 reported by Nick Booker
16
This bug affects 3 people
Affects Status Importance Assigned to Milestone
GNU Parted
New
Undecided
Unassigned
ubiquity (Ubuntu)
Confirmed
Undecided
Unassigned

Bug Description

Binary package hint: ubiquity

During installation a dialogue box appears with the following text:
 Error informing the kernel about modifications to partition /dev/sda2 -- Device or resource busy. This means Linux won't know about any changes you made to /dev/sda2 until you reboot -- so you shouldn't mount it or use it in any way before rebooting.

Screenshot attached.

If I click Ignore, the installer pops up the same dialogue except referring to /dev/sda3. The installer then continues after clicking Ignore on that one.

Both /dev/sda2 and /dev/sda3 on my system are Unix partition types, which may shed some light:
 sda2: FreeBSD
 sda3: Solaris

ProblemType: Bug
Architecture: i386
Date: Sat Feb 20 20:19:07 2010
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 10.04
LiveMediaBuild: Ubuntu 10.04 "Lucid Lynx" - Alpha i386 (20100220)
Package: ubiquity 2.1.22
ProcEnviron:
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.32-13.18-generic
SourcePackage: ubiquity
Uname: Linux 2.6.32-13-generic i686

Revision history for this message
Nick Booker (nmbooker) wrote :
Brian Murray (brian-murray)
tags: added: ubiquity-2.1.22
Revision history for this message
Launchpad Janitor (janitor) wrote :

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

Changed in ubiquity (Ubuntu):
status: New → Confirmed
Revision history for this message
pabouk (pabouk) wrote :

Installation of Xubuntu 13.10 beta2, also observed with Xubuntu 13.10 beta1 and Ubuntu 13.10 beta1.
Installation on Asus Eeee PC 1000H.

After partitioning (default options) a popup with this text appears:

Error informing the kernel about modifications to partition /dev/sda1 -- Device or resource busy. This means Linux won't know about any changes you made to /dev/sda1 until you reboot -- so you shouldn't mount it or use it in any way before rebooting.

I tried to update the partition information manually without success:

# partprobe /dev/sda
Error: Error informing the kernel about modifications to partition /dev/sda1 -- Device or resource busy. This means Linux won't know about any changes you made to /dev/sda1 until you reboot -- so you shouldn't mount it or use it in any way before rebooting.
Error: Failed to add partition 1 (Device or resource busy)

I checked the status of /dev/sda:

# fuser -v /dev/sda
                     USER PID ACCESS COMMAND
/dev/sda: root 4051 F.... parted_server

So parted_server wrongly keeps /dev/sda open.

After pressing "Ignore" button in the popup the same message appears for /dev/sda2.
After pressing "Ignore" button again the following message appears:

The ext4 file system creation in partition #1 of SCSI1 (0,0,0) (sda) failed.

Then the parted_server does not keep /dev/sda open any more and the kernel partition table (/proc/partitions) is partially updated (/dev/sda5). After running partprobe /dev/sda the kernel partition table is updated completely (sda1, sda2, sda5).

After pressing OK in the last pop-up, the installer returns to the "Installation type" window. After pressing "Install now" the installation normally continues.

pabouk (pabouk)
no longer affects: ubiquity
Revision history for this message
Thomas Roy (thomasroy12) wrote :

Hey i finally got the solution.
The thing is that before installing linux you must change the boot type from "UEFI" to "LEGACY" and then boot the usb/cd of linux or ubuntu.
Have a good day

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