Create one partition occupying all the space on the drive with gparted?

Question

I am following the instructions here: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/InstallingANewHardDrive

It says:

4) Create one partition occupying all the space on the drive:

(parted) mkpart primary 0 0

5) Check that the results are correct:

(parted) print

However when I do this I get:

$sudo parted /dev/sda
GNU Parted 3.2
Using /dev/sda
Welcome to GNU Parted! Type 'help' to view a list of commands.
(parted) mklabel gpt
(parted) unit GB
(parted) mkpart primary 0 0
(parted) print
Model: ATA Some SSD (scsi)
Disk /dev/sda: 240GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: gpt
Disk Flags:

Number  Start   End     Size    File system  Name     Flags
 1      0.00GB  0.00GB  0.00GB               primary

The Start and End of 0GB and Size of 0GB is making me think this isn't correct. I would have thought the size should have been 240GB (or close to it). Are these instructions correct? If not, what is the correct way to make a single partition that covers the entire disk?

Solution 1

Using 0% for the start causes parted to automatically align the sectors for best performance:

(parted) mkpart primary 0% 100%

Credits to comments in article at https://rainbow.chard.org/2013/01/30/how-to-align-partitions-for-best-performance-using-parted/

PS: u could also specify the filesystem type in same command, e.g for xfs:

(parted) mkpart primary xfs 0% 100%

Solution 2

Your mkpart line is wrong. The parameters are: partition-name, start-position and size.

In parted, run

`rm primary` 
`mkpart primary 2048s 100%`

to remove the old, wrong, partition and recreate a new that spans the whole disk.

Comments

[User]

What does p1 and 2048s stand for?

[Soren A]

p1 is the partition name, you can use any name, p1, primary or what you like. 2048s is the start sector for the partiton. This is needed for some disks / disk-arrays to get proper alignment of the partiton and optimal IO performance. This post explains how to calculate this value: rainbow.chard.org/2013/01/30/…

[Soren A]

If you are in doubt of what commands or parameters does, read the manual-page: man parted.

[User]

The man page on Ubuntu says the first parameter of mkpart is part-type should be one of "primary", "logical", or "extended". Is using an arbitrary name correct?

[Soren A]

Primary / logical extended is only for MSDOS / MBR partitioning. The line I initially wrote will work, but I have changed the answer so that it matches what the manual says ;-)