core-storagedual-bootmacospartitionunix
I've just bought a new Macbook Air (running Yosemite) and I am trying to create a partition from my Macintosh HD SSD for dual-booting Ubuntu. However when I try to create a partition in Disk Utilities, I keep getting the error "This Core Storage operation is not allowed on a sparse logical volume group." I have tried restarting the system in Recovery Mode and verifying and repairing the disk, but it did not work. What can I do to partition? (I would prefer to not format the SSD.)
Boot into Recovery HD, open Disk Utility. Choose Yo Drive in the list and select the Restore tab. Make Yo Drive the Source and Macintosh HD the Destination. This will erase all content on Macintosh HD and replace it with the contents of Yo Drive. Back up anything important on Yo Drive before hand in case of failure during the restore. After that you should be able to erase the second partition and extend to take up the whole drive.
This Mac Book Retina was originally delivered with Mountain Lion. The upgrade history contains Mavericks, several Yosemite DPs and finally the Yosemite GM Candidate.
One of the Yosemite Developer Previews transformed the previous Apple_HFS partition into a Logical Volume Group.
The (only) Logical Volume is not revertible:
The Boot Camp assistant can't modify the partition map and shrink such a LVG to free up some unallocated space for a Windows installation on a hard disk.
The only possibility (we found) to solve the problem is a complete reinstall:
Internet Recovery Mode by pressing altcmdRTerminal from the menubar/utilitiesdiskutil cs list
Run the following command:
diskutil cs delete UUID
According to the number found above it would be:
diskutil cs delete 312C0A5B-AC3E-4008-895F-6EDFDD386825
This will delete your CoreStorage volume and your Recovery HD and reformat it as a simple HFS+ volume.
TerminalDisk Utility and format/partition/rename the internal drive. Choose 1 Partition, Mac OS Extended (Journaled) and GUID partition table (available with the option button). Quit Disk Utility.Boot Camp Assistant, repartiton your Mac and install WindowsAt step 10 one may boot alternatively to a Mavericks or Mountain Lion Install Thumb Drive if available and install the respective OS X.
Starting into Recovery Mode at step 3 doesn't help because it's impossible to delete the LGV then.
Best Answer
You have to boot from another device or to Internet Recovery Mode and then use the command line to modify the CoreStorage volume.
Preparation:
Restart to Internet Recovery Mode by pressing alt cmd R at startup.
The prerequisites are the latest firmware update installed, either ethernet or WLAN (WPA/WPA2) and a router with DHCP activated.
On a 50 Mbps-line it takes about 4 min (presenting a small animated globe) to boot to a recovery netboot image which usually is loaded from an apple/akamai server.
I recommend ethernet because it's more reliable. If you are restricted to WIFI and the boot process fails, just restart your Mac until you succeed booting.
Alternatively you may start from a bootable installer thumb drive (Mavericks or Yosemite) or a thumb drive containing a full system (Mavericks or Yosemite).
Modify CoreStorage:
diskutil cs listdiskutil cs resizeStack LVUUID sizewith LVUUID: UUID of the logical volume and size: the final size of your Macintosh HDExample:
diskutil cs resizeStack DC2473AF-0833-4DBD-BF8F-D5D60063554A 200gexitand quit Terminal.