14.10 dual boot Win 7 64-bit - cannot install with Wubi

This historically happened with the ubuntu installer (ubiquity) if "parted"
returns errors (both normal and wubi installs). Seen it before when there
is leftover GPT data on a MBR formatted disk. Try booting from the USB and
going to a terminal (or hit Ctrl+Alt+F1 during the installation) and run:

sudo parted -l
and
sudo fdisk -l

See what errors you get (PS those are lower case L's). If it complains
about GPT data on a MBR formatted disk or returns other errors, then you'll
need to clean them up before the installer will let you continue.

There's a possibility this is something new but I'd rule the above out
first.

On Sun, Oct 26, 2014 at 10:19 AM, Ilian Zhelyazov <email address hidden>
wrote:

> Public bug reported:
>
> Мy computer is with windows 7 ultimate 64-bit quad core pentium, 6 GiGs
> RAM and 1TB harddisk, and i decide to try new ubuntu 14.10 64-bit,
> download the iso from ubuntu site and install with wubi, reboot and
> installation stop with:''failed to partition the selected disk"/this
> probably happened because are too many/primary/ partitions in the
> partition table/. After clicking OK stopped with error "No root file
> system is defined" each clicking on this error continious repeated
> endless this label.Please help me to decide these error!
>
> ** Affects: wubi
> Importance: Undecided
> Status: New
>
> ** Affects: debian-installer (Ubuntu)
> Importance: Undecided
> Status: New
>
> ** Also affects: debian-installer (Ubuntu)
> Importance: Undecided
> Status: New
>
> --
> You received this bug notification because you are subscribed to Wubi.
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1385930
>
> Title:
> 14.10 dual boot win 7 64-bit cannot with wubi installing
>
> Status in Wubi, Windows Ubuntu Installer:
> New
> Status in “debian-installer” package in Ubuntu:
> New
>
> Bug description:
> Мy computer is with windows 7 ultimate 64-bit quad core pentium, 6
> GiGs RAM and 1TB harddisk, and i decide to try new ubuntu 14.10
> 64-bit, download the iso from ubuntu site and install with wubi,
> reboot and installation stop with:''failed to partition the selected
> disk"/this probably happened because are too many/primary/ partitions
> in the partition table/. After clicking OK stopped with error "No root
> file system is defined" each clicking on this error continious
> repeated endless this label.Please help me to decide these error!
>
> To manage notifications about this bug go to:
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/wubi/+bug/1385930/+subscriptions
>

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

Same thing happened to me. I just did a test 14.04 install on the same computer so it's not a local issue.

The Fdisk output is odd - looks like it's trying to partition the 6GB root.disk so that it has an efi partition:

Disk /dev/loop0: 1.1 GiB, 1162936320 bytes, 2271360 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: dos
Disk identifier: 0x4a022e4f

Device Boot Start End Sectors Size Id Type
/dev/loop0p1 * 0 2271359 2271360 1.1G 0 Empty
/dev/loop0p2 2250448 2254991 4544 2.2M ef EFI (FAT-12/16/32)

Disk /dev/loop1: 1 GiB, 1115594752 bytes, 2178896 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk /dev/loop2: 5.6 GiB, 6023020544 bytes, 11763712 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk /dev/sda: 698.7 GiB, 750156374016 bytes, 1465149168 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 4096 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes
Disklabel type: dos
Disk identifier: 0x00071c89

Device Boot Start End Sectors Size Id Type
/dev/sda1 * 2048 681983 679936 332M 7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda2 681984 177782783 177100800 84.5G 7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda4 177784830 1465147391 1287362562 613.9G 5 Extended
/dev/sda5 177784832 960141311 782356480 373.1G 83 Linux
/dev/sda6 960143360 1389404159 429260800 204.7G 7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda7 1452785664 1465147391 12361728 5.9G 82 Linux swap / Solaris

Partition 5 does not start on physical sector boundary.

I had the same issue, too.

Yesterday, I succeeded in copying manually old version of /bin/parted_server (package http://packages.ubuntu.com/trusty-updates/amd64/ubiquity) and /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libparted.so.0, /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libparted.so.0.0.1(package http://packages.ubuntu.com/trusty/libparted0debian1) during installation.

Since that time it has worked.

IMHO the reason for the issue are several changes in libparted.

Meanwhile I could fix the bug. We need some changes in /bin/autopartition-loop for parted >= 3.2. IMHO it is part of partman-auto-loop. So I added it to the bug report.

A copy of the fixed version of this file is here: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/hakuna-m/wubiuefi/068bb0ff656d40083a207d884159b9347d5d1ed5/data/custom-installation/patch/autopartition-loop

I overwrote /bin/autopartition-loop with the patched file and it worked.

It is not possible to create a partition with parted 3.2 within the new loop file because parted 3.2 creates a partition automatically. We need this technique in previous versions of parted only. It fails with parted 3.2.

Note: The patched file also contains a second patch for systemd where mount --move commands doesn't work.