Wiki » How to delete a partition with fdisk

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Currently users installing cauldron on a non-GPT disk can end up with a corrupted partition table, because of bug 20074

If you're bitten by that bug, deleting the partition that has the "Empty" Type will fix the problem.

Let's assume the example from comment 12 in that bug report:

 [root@linux live]# fdisk -l /dev/sda
 Disk /dev/sda: 20 GiB, 21474836480 bytes, 41943040 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: 0x00000000
 
 Device     Boot    Start      End  Sectors  Size Id Type
 /dev/sda1  *        2048  8390655  8388608    4G  b W95 FAT32
 /dev/sda2        8392671 41929649 33536979   16G  5 Extended
 /dev/sda5        8392704  8401994     9291  4.5M  0 Empty
 /dev/sda6        8404992 36772784 28367793 13.5G 83 Linux
 /dev/sda7       36775936 41929649  5153714  2.5G 82 Linux swap / Solaris

Here, /dev/sda5 is the "Empty" partition that needs to be deleted. To do that, run the following commands:

• To start fdisk on sda:
  • fdisk /dev/sda
• To load the current partition table to check the number of the partition that needs to be deleted:
  • After "Command (m for help):", enter: p
• To delete /dev/sda5:
  • After "Command (m for help):", enter: d
  • After "Partition number 1,2, 5-7, default 7):", enter the partition number: 5
  • You'll see: "Partition 5 has been deleted"
• To reload the partition table and check the intended change was made:
  • After "Command (m for help):", enter: p
• To save the changes:
  • After "Command (m for help):" enter: w