[Debian-eeepc-devel] Installing squeeze on 1005PE

[David L. Johnson]

Laurentiu Pancescu wrote:

> I got into some problems with partitioning.  I chose Encrypted LVM in
> Guided Partitioning, chose sda (the 250GB Hitachi drive) but when it
> tried to create the LVM, it failed with sda5 busy, access denied.  I
> retried that installer step, same result.  I restarted the netbook, the
> same problem.  The workaround is to drop into another console before the
> partitioning step, and manually delete all partitions with fdisk; it
> works without any problems after that.  I think there is something about
> the factory partitions that confuses the kernel or installer, 

Many notebooks and netbooks have hidden partitions created by the 
original installation, which contain software for things like special 
hardware controllers, basic restoration of factory configurations, and 
the like.  When you re-partitioned, you probably noticed more partitions 
than you expected.  Looks like they stuck their little package in an 
extended partition.

Bad news is that you blew away whatever software the manufacturer wanted 
there, but that doesn't matter unless you wanted to keep the Windows 
that the thing probably came with.  It probably doesn't matter much even 
if you do want to keep Windows.

-- 

David L. Johnson

Arguing with an engineer is like mud wrestling with a pig...
You soon find out the pig likes it!