Public bug reported: For disks larger than 2TB (the amount addressable by MBR), growpart will mess up partition tables. It also fails in such a way that it ends up shrinking the partition table, see below for an example.
In reality, this is probably an sfdisk bug, but I can work around it in growpart by just knowing the max size. $ sudo growpart -v --dry-run /dev/sdb 1 geometry is -C 364801 -H 255 -S 63. total size=5860528065 max_end=5860528065 tot=5860528065 pt_end=209715200 pt_start=2048 pt_size=209713152 CHANGE: partition=1 start=2048 old: size=209713152 end=209715200 new: size=5860526017,end=5860528065 # === old sfdisk -d === # partition table of /dev/sdb unit: sectors /dev/sdb1 : start= 2048, size=209713152, Id=83, bootable /dev/sdb2 : start= 0, size= 0, Id= 0 /dev/sdb3 : start= 0, size= 0, Id= 0 /dev/sdb4 : start= 0, size= 0, Id= 0 # === new sfdisk -d === # partition table of /dev/sdb unit: sectors /dev/sdb1 : start= 2048, size=5860526017, Id=83, bootable /dev/sdb2 : start= 0, size= 0, Id= 0 /dev/sdb3 : start= 0, size= 0, Id= 0 /dev/sdb4 : start= 0, size= 0, Id= 0 $ sudo growpart /dev/sdb 1 CHANGED: partition=1 start=2048 old: size=209713152 end=209715200 new: size=5860526017,end=5860528065 $ grep "sdb" /proc/partitions 8 16 2930266584 sdb 8 17 782779360 sdb1 $ sudo sfdisk -l /dev/sdb -u -S unrecognized format - using sectors Disk /dev/sdb: 364801 cylinders, 255 heads, 63 sectors/track Units = sectors of 512 bytes, counting from 0 Device Boot Start End #sectors Id System /dev/sdb1 * 2048 1565560768 1565558721 83 Linux /dev/sdb2 0 - 0 0 Empty /dev/sdb3 0 - 0 0 Empty /dev/sdb4 0 - 0 0 Empty ProblemType: Bug DistroRelease: Ubuntu 12.04 Package: cloud-utils 0.25-0ubuntu5 ProcVersionSignature: User Name 3.2.0-57.87-generic 3.2.52 Uname: Linux 3.2.0-57-generic x86_64 ApportVersion: 2.0.1-0ubuntu17.6 Architecture: amd64 Date: Tue Dec 10 21:28:44 2013 MarkForUpload: True PackageArchitecture: all ProcEnviron: TERM=screen PATH=(custom, no user) LANG=en_US.UTF-8 SHELL=/bin/bash SourcePackage: cloud-utils UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install) ** Affects: cloud-utils (Ubuntu) Importance: Undecided Status: New ** Tags: amd64 apport-bug precise -- You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu Bugs, which is subscribed to Ubuntu. https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1259703 Title: growpart on disk larger than 2TB fails To manage notifications about this bug go to: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/cloud-utils/+bug/1259703/+subscriptions -- ubuntu-bugs mailing list ubuntu-bugs@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-bugs