mke2fs defaults aren't working with ext4 on Ubuntu 12.04

Question

Ubuntu 12.04 LTS, I've added a new drive to the system, partitioned it with fdisk and am now trying to format it with mke2fs. The command is failing because it thinks the inodes_count and number of blocks are zero.

NOTE: -n = simulate actions

$ sudo mke2fs -c -L backups -t ext4 -T default -v -n /dev/sdc1
mke2fs 1.42 (29-Nov-2011)
fs_types for mke2fs.conf resolution: 'ext4'
mke2fs: inode_size (256) * inodes_count (0) too big for a
        filesystem with 0 blocks, specify higher inode_ratio (-i)
        or lower inode count (-N).

Here's the partition info from sudo fdisk /dev/sdc using the p command:

Disk /dev/sdc: 146.8 GB, 146814976000 bytes
61 heads, 35 sectors/track, 134308 cylinders, total 286748000 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 identifier: 0x8b4573b5

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdc1            2048   286747999   143372976    5  Extended

So I added that block count 143372976:

$ sudo mke2fs -c -L backups -t ext4 -T default -v -n /dev/sdc1 143372976
mke2fs 1.42 (29-Nov-2011)
fs_types for mke2fs.conf resolution: 'ext4'
Filesystem label=backups
OS type: Linux
Block size=4096 (log=2)
Fragment size=4096 (log=2)
Stride=0 blocks, Stripe width=0 blocks
8962048 inodes, 35843244 blocks
1792162 blocks (5.00%) reserved for the super user
First data block=0
Maximum filesystem blocks=4294967296
1094 block groups
32768 blocks per group, 32768 fragments per group
8192 inodes per group
Superblock backups stored on blocks:
        32768, 98304, 163840, 229376, 294912, 819200, 884736, 1605632, 2654208,
        4096000, 7962624, 11239424, 20480000, 23887872

Ok, looks good. However, when I remove "-n" to actually perform the action, it says Filesystem larger than apparent device size:

$ sudo mke2fs -c -L backups -t ext4 -T default -v /dev/sdc1 143372976
mke2fs 1.42 (29-Nov-2011)
mke2fs: Filesystem larger than apparent device size.
Proceed anyway? (y,n)

And when I enter y to proceed, I get a screen full of errors:

badblocks: Invalid argument during seek

What am I missing?

EDIT

Here are the contents of /etc/mke2fs.conf:

$ cat /etc/mke2fs.conf
[defaults]
        base_features = sparse_super,filetype,resize_inode,dir_index,ext_attr
        default_mntopts = acl,user_xattr
        enable_periodic_fsck = 0
        blocksize = 4096
        inode_size = 256
        inode_ratio = 16384

[fs_types]
        ext3 = {
                features = has_journal
        }
        ext4 = {
                features = has_journal,extent,huge_file,flex_bg,uninit_bg,dir_nlink,extra_isize
                auto_64-bit_support = 1
                inode_size = 256
        }
        ext4dev = {
                features = has_journal,extent,huge_file,flex_bg,uninit_bg,dir_nlink,extra_isize
                inode_size = 256
                options = test_fs=1
        }
        small = {
                blocksize = 1024
                inode_size = 128
                inode_ratio = 4096
        }
        floppy = {
                blocksize = 1024
                inode_size = 128
                inode_ratio = 8192
        }
        big = {
                inode_ratio = 32768
        }
        huge = {
                inode_ratio = 65536
        }
        news = {
                inode_ratio = 4096
        }
        largefile = {
                inode_ratio = 1048576
                blocksize = -1
        }
        largefile4 = {
                inode_ratio = 4194304
                blocksize = -1
        }
        hurd = {
             blocksize = 4096
             inode_size = 128
        }

Solution

“Extended” is not the correct partition type. An extended partition is a special container for “logical volumes”. In essence, it’s a nested partitioning schema within the MBR schema.

Delete this partition, and create a new primary partition. It should already have the correct type (0x83, Linux filesystem) by default.

Comments

[phoops]

Why do you use -T default? What are the contents of /etc/mke2fs.conf ?

[phoops]

Just try executing mkfs.ext4 -L backups /dev/sdc1

[Alan]

It was defaulting to 'floppy', presumably because the inode count was so low (zero).

[phoops]

Can you try mkfs.ext4 -L backups /dev/sdc1 ?

[Alan]

Same result: $ sudo mkfs.ext4 -L backups /dev/sdc1 mke2fs 1.42 (29-Nov-2011) mkfs.ext4: inode_size (128) * inodes_count (0) too big for a filesystem with 0 blocks, specify higher inode_ratio (-i) or lower inode count (-N).

[phoops]

I see, then check Daniel's answer, maybe that will help

[Alan]

omg, that was it. I thought that because this wasn't going to be a boot drive, that it shouldn't be a primary partition. Thanks!