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I have a Windows 7 (preinstalled) Dell desktop. I used the Windows Partition Manager to shrink the main partition by 400 GB. The tool froze before confirming completion, but when I re-executed it, everything looked as expected. I then rebooted the system three times to make sure Windows was feeling good about the smaller hard drive.

I then booted to the Ubuntu 13.10 Live CD to use the installer tool. I was greeted with the system acknowledging that an OS existed, so I selected to install alongside. Ubuntu produced an uniterpretable error that literally read: ???? ????. I clicked OK, and the install tool now only gives the option to erase disk or something else.

I decided to open GParted to get an idea of what was going on, and it continues to get hung up on Searching /dev/mapper/isw_ebffchhbhf_ARRAY partitions. When I run it from the command line I get the following error:

ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo gparted
======================
libparted : 2.3
======================

(gpartedbin:13899): glibm    m-CRITICAL **: 
unhandled exception (type Glib::Error) in signal handler:
domain: g_convert_error
code  : 1
what  : Invalid byte sequence in conversion input

Here is the output from sudo parted -l

Error: Can't have a partition outside the disk!                           

Error: /dev/sdb: unrecognised disk label                                  

Model: Linux device-mapper (linear) (dm)
Disk /dev/mapper/isw_ebffchhbhf_ARRAY3: 1570GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: loop

Number  Start  End     Size    File system  Flags
  1      0.00B  1570GB  1570GB  ntfs


Model: Linux device-mapper (linear) (dm)
Disk /dev/mapper/isw_ebffchhbhf_ARRAY2: 789MB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: loop

Number  Start  End    Size   File system  Flags
 1      0.00B  789MB  789MB  ntfs


Model: Linux device-mapper (linear) (dm)
Disk /dev/mapper/isw_ebffchhbhf_ARRAY1: 41.1MB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: loop

Number  Start  End     Size    File system  Flags
 1      0.00B  41.1MB  41.1MB  fat16


Model: Linux device-mapper (striped) (dm)
Disk /dev/mapper/isw_ebffchhbhf_ARRAY: 2000GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: msdos

Number  Start   End     Size    Type     File system  Flags
 1      32.3kB  41.1MB  41.1MB  primary  fat16        diag
 2      41.9MB  830MB   789MB   primary  ntfs         boot
 3      830MB   1571GB  1570GB  primary  ntfs


Model:  USB Flash Memory (scsi)
Disk /dev/sdg: 8015MB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: msdos

Number  Start   End     Size    Type     File system  Flags
 1      32.3kB  8015MB  8015MB  primary  fat32        boot

And the output of sudo blkid

/dev/loop0: TYPE="squashfs" 
/dev/sda: TYPE="isw_raid_member" 
/dev/sdb: TYPE="isw_raid_member" 
/dev/mapper/isw_ebffchhbhf_ARRAY1: SEC_TYPE="msdos" LABEL="DellUtility" UUID="5450-4444" TYPE="vfat" 
/dev/mapper/isw_ebffchhbhf_ARRAY2: LABEL="RECOVERY" UUID="2418BE8718BE578E" TYPE="ntfs" 
/dev/mapper/isw_ebffchhbhf_ARRAY3: LABEL="OS" UUID="EC94C46294C430BE" TYPE="ntfs" 
/dev/sdg1: UUID="34C6-275A" TYPE="vfat" 

Does anyone have any advice? Any idea what the issue is?

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  • I know this may sound a little counter-intuitive but I suggest you try formatting the new partition with windows-os tools as NTFS to see if it is recognized properly, then run GPartEd from live Ubuntu and reformat it as ext4 (or whatever native linux fs you choose) and then try installing Ubuntu.
    – hmayag
    Feb 7, 2014 at 21:24
  • I tried what you suggested. Windows reformats the unallocated space without issue. GPartED still won't run, producing the same error from terminal. I also tried installing using something else and specified allocations. I could format from the installer table, but as soon as I hit install, the select time zone screen popped up as did the unhelpful error ??? ???. Could my install DVD be corrupt? I used Windows built in tool to burn the iso.
    – vitale232
    Feb 7, 2014 at 22:30
  • Didi you try to re-format the partition with GPartEd to ext4? Also, can you edit your question and add the output of the following command? sudo parted -l and sudo blkid
    – hmayag
    Feb 8, 2014 at 8:18
  • They're in there now. Anything stick out?
    – vitale232
    Feb 8, 2014 at 21:52

2 Answers 2

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Maybe you are using the disk controller in RAID Mode on Windows and Ubuntu can't modify or use this RAID array. Are you using SSD caching or RAID? If you are using SSD Caching, try turning it off on Windows, then try changing the disk controller operating mode from RAID to AHCI on BIOS, boot Windows to check if it's working, then try to install Ubuntu again.

If you are using RAID between 2 or more disks, maybe this disk controller uses FakeRAID and Ubuntu doesn't support it.

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  • Thanks for the info. I'm still not sure how to install on RAID0 using 13.10, since the live disc doesn't seem to support it.
    – vitale232
    Feb 12, 2014 at 17:35
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I ended up finding a solution. It doesn't address my question entirely, but I'm now running Ubuntu and Windows on a dual boot RAID system.

After a ton of reading, I found a thread where someone claimed an easy install using the Alternate CD. Since Canonical dropped support of the Alternate ISO for 13.10, I decided to go with Precise 12.04 LTS. It easily installed with the Alternate CD, and GRUB is working flawlessly. Didn't even need to run boot-repair.

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