[SOLVED] Encrypted LVM 32-bit installer lost 4GB from drives

[crmrhm]

I've been testing the 32-bit installations of 18.04 on a ThinkPad X41. The standard installations went fairly well. The installation with encrypted LVM failed (bug reported). The X41 has two drives, one 64GB, the other 60 GB. After the failed installation both of the drives had lost 4GB of capacity. I tried KDE partition manager and cfdisk in a 16.04 live session, and gparted live. I deleted partitions, installed new partition tables, formatted the drives. Nothing restored full capacity.

I installed 16.04 on the nominal 64GB drive. The installer saw it as 64GB capacity, but after installation, KDE Partition Manager shows only 60GB. There is 58GB /, and 2GB swap, although swap usage is reported as 8GB !?!

This was my first experience with encryption and LVM, so I have no idea what to try next. Any suggestions?

Thanks,
Howard

[jlittle]

Just in case you haven't thought of this, are you aware of the confusing difference between GiB (gibibytes, 2³⁰, or 1,073,741,824 bytes) and GB (gigabytes, 10⁹ or 1,000,000,000 bytes? My KDE Partition Manager uses GiB, but drive manufacturers usually use GB.

I mention this because 64 GB is about 60 GiB.

[GreyGeek]

Yup.
From Wikipedia:

The use of gigabyte (GB) to refer to 1000000000 bytes in some contexts and to 1073741824 bytes in others, sometimes in reference to the same device, has led to claims of confusion, controversies, and lawsuits.[4][5][6][7] The IEC created the binary prefixes (kibi, mebi, gibi, etc.) in an attempt to reduce such confusion. They are increasingly used in technical literature and open-source software, and are a component of the International System of Quantities.[8]

[crmrhm]

Just in case you haven't thought of this, are you aware of the confusing difference between GiB (gibibytes, 2³⁰, or 1,073,741,824 bytes) and GB (gigabytes, 10⁹ or 1,000,000,000 bytes? My KDE Partition Manager uses GiB, but drive manufacturers usually use GB.

I mention this because 64 GB is about 60 GiB.

I was indeed confused by the GiB use. That is exactly the issue. The nominal 64 GB converts to 59.6 GiB, which is what KDE Partition Manager reports. I had rounded to 60 for simplicity. Case closed.
Thanks,
Howard