out = exec_cmd("%s -sm %s unit B print" % (self.parted, self.imagepath))
             parttype = namedtuple("Part", "pnum start end size fstype")
             splitted = out.splitlines()
-            lsector_size, psector_size, self._ptable_format = splitted[1].split(":")[3:6]
+            # skip over possible errors in exec_cmd output
+            try:
+                idx =splitted.index("BYT;")
+            except ValueError:
+                raise WicError("Error getting partition information from %s" % (self.parted))
+            lsector_size, psector_size, self._ptable_format = splitted[idx + 1].split(":")[3:6]
             self._lsector_size = int(lsector_size)
             self._psector_size = int(psector_size)
-            for line in splitted[2:]:
+            for line in splitted[idx + 2:]:
                 pnum, start, end, size, fstype = line.split(':')[:5]
                 partition = parttype(int(pnum), int(start[:-1]), int(end[:-1]),
                                      int(size[:-1]), fstype)