Fun with GPT partitioning


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  1. #1
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    Fun with GPT partitioning

    Executive summary : A Linux user can easily partition a Pata or Sata disk with the gpt partitioning scheme. Most modern Linux will run on gpt disks with little bother but MS Windows will find it an uphill struggle. It is something useful to have when the hard disk exceeds 2TB. The gpt disks can happily co-exist with the non-gpt disks.


    I have stayed away from this GUID partition table (GPT) until I bought a 2TB hard disk. The legacy partition table, also called MBR partition table adopted since Dos, has a limitation beyond the 2TB so I was just looking ahead and had a go with the gpt partioning system. A disk partitioned with the legacy type is called Msdos disk whereas a hard disk with a gpt scheme is now called gpt disk.

    In theory the gpt partitioning scheme is ready-make for breaking the 2TB barrier in the hard disks. It will cope well with the future 4k physical sector change as well as the resulting alignment problems created. There is a lot of promises so here I am to find it out.

    Apparently the GPT partition table is part of the Extensible Firmware Interface (EFI). The former can be implemented in Linux using certain partitioning tools but the latter requires a efi-aware motherboard which is not easy to find. None of my PC has it.

    The upshot of it is that the 64-bit MS Windows can be installed and booted if the PC has both efi hardware and gpt hard disk. The 32-bit Windows can never be booted with gpt hard disk. That means the gpt partition table is pretty useless for the majority of the MS systems.

    When it comes to Linux the matter is a lot happier and brighter.

    To make a gpt disk all we need is to run the "parted" command in a root terminal. To create a gpt hard disk, say for device /dev/sdb, the command is
    Code:
    parted /dev/sdb
    mklabel gpt
    The command nukes all existing partitions. To create a partition say from 0Gb to 100Gb is simply
    Code:
    mkpart Ubuntu 0 100G
    quit
    The gpt partition table automatically reserves the front end, about 34 sectors or 34x512= 17408 bytes, for the system use. This is a far cry from the Msdos disk that uses 4x16=64 bytes to describe the 4 primary partitions. The MS systems recognise a gpt disk can have 128 partitions. That apparently also applies in Linux as Post #2 shows how I make a 128 partition under 20 seconds!

    The gpt partition table is recognised as one partition type ee in all Linux's partitioning tool that do not support gpt because the first 512 bytes sector is common in both gpt and MBR disks. This GPT partition uses up the whole disk. If the disk is larger than 2TB then only the first 2TB will be reported in the protective MBR entry but the GPT partition can be a lot larger. This is how my 500Gb disk looks like after partitioned with "parted" and interrogated by "fdisk".
    Code:
    bash-3.1# fdisk -l /dev/sdb
    
    WARNING: GPT (GUID Partition Table) detected on '/dev/sdb'! The util fdisk doesn't support GPT. Use GNU Parted.
    
    
    Disk /dev/sdb: 500.1 GB, 500107862016 bytes
    255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 60801 cylinders
    Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
    Disk identifier: 0x2aa773c4
    
       Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
    /dev/sdb1               1       60802   488386583+  ee  GPT
    bash-3.1#
    I have actually created 5 partitions inside using parted but only a few partitioning tools that support gpt can report it. The list from parted looks like this
    Code:
    bash-3.1# parted -l /dev/sdb
     
    (note: the tabulations of 60 partitions of sda were removed as they are irrelevant)
    
    Model: ATA SAMSUNG HD501LJ (scsi)
    Disk /dev/sdb: 500GB
    Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
    Partition Table: gpt
    
    Number  Start   End    Size    File system  Name       Flags
     1      17.4kB  100GB  100GB   ext3         Ubuntu
     2      100GB   110GB  9999MB  ext3         Mepis
     3      110GB   120GB  10.0GB  ext3         PClinuxOS
     4      120GB   130GB  10.0GB  ext3         LinuxMint
     5      130GB   140GB  9999MB  ext3         Slackware
    
    bash-3.1#
    Thus the Linux kernel sees the content inside the gpt and the /dev/sdbx partitions can be used as in a normal MBR partition table.

    I have installed Ubuntu 10.4 in sdb1 but sdb2 to sdb5 were filled with Mepis, PClinuxOS, Linux Mint and Slackware from other hard disk. They all boot normally with Grub1 but my Linux Mint has Grub2 and I have to manually boot it up first before I could do a Grub-install inside.

    I encountered the following interesting points:-

    (1) Grub1 if patched can see the partitions inside a gpt disk. The standard 0.97 Grub1 only see gpt disk with one partition type ee and cannot boot the internal partitions. As an example my Mepis has a standard v0.97 Grub1. Although I can chainload Mepis using a patched Grub1 from Ubuntu when Mepis is loaded its standard Grub failed to boot up Mepis, claiming the partition did not exist.

    (2) Grub2 has native support for gpt disks so it can be used to boot their internal partitions.

    (3) Some older kernel fail to detect the internal partitions of a gpt disk. As an example I am now using Slackware with a 2.6.29 kernel. I managed to boot it up from sdb5 and was using it, yet when I attempted to mount /dev/sdb2 I got an error message of
    mount: special device /dev/sdb2 does not exist
    . Its /dev directory only has sdb1 device name. Thus the gpt support is still not mature in Linux.

    (4) The UUID numbering system appears to originate from gpt partitioning system.

    (5) Without efi hardware support from the motherboard I could not install any of the 64 bit MS Windows on the gpt disk. For the 32 bit MS system the gpt is a no-go area because the internal partitions won't get mounted at all. This means a ntfs partition created by a 64-bit Win7 cannot be seen in a Xp home. And I originally thought gpt partition table was invented for the MS systems.

    (6) Any hard disk can be created in gpt format. I have tried it on both 500Gb and 2Tb hard disks.

    (7) The partition type numbers appear to have been dropped in gpt system.

    (8) A gpt partition table to a non gpt-aware partitioning tool like fdisk, cfdisk or sfdisk is similar to a LVM partition or an extended partition. It show up as one entry but there can be several partitions inside it.

    (9) When a hard disk is partitioned in gpt the entire space is used up. A maximum of 128 partitions can be created (as showed in Post #2).

    I shall add references to this thread about gpt in the space below from time to time

    --------------------------------------GPT references--------------------------------------------------------------------

    efi as explained in Wikipedia. Best explanation of gpt A comprehensive tutorial (for gdisk) of the current state of gpt from author of gdisk Rod Smith
    Windows and GPT FAQ uefi specification
    Last edited by saikee; 06-06-2010 at 05:49 PM.
    Linux user started Jun 2004 - No. 361921
    Using a Linux live CD to clone XP
    To install Linux and keep Windows MBR untouched
    Adding extra Linux & Doing it in a lazy way
    A Grub menu booting 100+ systems & A "Howto" to install and boot 145 systems
    Just cloning tips Just booting tips A collection of booting tips

    Judge asked Linux "You are being charged murdering Windoze by stabbing its heart with a weapon, what was it?" Replied Linux "A Live CD"

  2. #2
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    Who says Linux isn't fun?

    Here is a script that generate 128 partitions in a gpt disk
    Code:
    saikee-desktop-Mint8 saikee # echo "mklabel gpt" > a2;for ((i=1;i<=180;i++)); do k1=$[(i-1)*10000+1] k2=$[i*10000]; echo "mkpart sde$i $[k1]m $[k2]m"; done >> a2 ;echo "q">>a2
    saikee-desktop-Mint8 saikee # parted /dev/sde < a2
    Basically I used a BASH terminal to create a file called a2 storing the key strokes I would have to press in Parted. I then submitted to parted.

    Here are the 128 partitions (shown in blue at the bottom of the list). It took 29 seconds to generate the 128 partitions.
    Code:
    saikee-desktop-Mint8 saikee # parted -l
    Model: ATA SAMSUNG HD154UI (scsi)
    Disk /dev/sda: 1500GB
    Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
    Partition Table: msdos
    
    Number  Start   End     Size    Type      File system     Flags
     1      32.3kB  57.6GB  57.6GB  primary   fat32           boot, lba
     2      57.6GB  115GB   57.6GB  primary   fat32           hidden, lba
     3      115GB   173GB   57.6GB  primary
     4      173GB   1500GB  1328GB  extended
     5      173GB   174GB   1653MB  logical   linux-swap(v1)
     6      174GB   232GB   57.6GB  logical   ntfs
     7      232GB   290GB   57.6GB  logical   ntfs
     8      290GB   347GB   57.6GB  logical   ntfs
     9      347GB   405GB   57.6GB  logical   ntfs
    10      405GB   462GB   57.6GB  logical   ntfs
    11      462GB   491GB   28.8GB  logical   ext3
    12      491GB   520GB   28.8GB  logical   ext3
    13      520GB   549GB   28.8GB  logical   ext3
    14      549GB   578GB   28.8GB  logical   ext3
    15      578GB   606GB   28.8GB  logical   ext3
    16      606GB   635GB   28.8GB  logical   ext4
    17      635GB   664GB   28.8GB  logical   ext4
    18      664GB   693GB   28.8GB  logical   ext4
    19      693GB   722GB   28.8GB  logical   ext4
    20      722GB   750GB   28.8GB  logical   ext3
    21      750GB   767GB   16.5GB  logical   ext4
    22      767GB   783GB   16.5GB  logical
    23      783GB   800GB   16.5GB  logical
    24      800GB   816GB   16.5GB  logical
    25      816GB   833GB   16.5GB  logical   ext3
    26      833GB   849GB   16.5GB  logical   ext3
    27      849GB   866GB   16.5GB  logical   ext3
    28      866GB   882GB   16.5GB  logical   ext3
    29      882GB   898GB   16.5GB  logical   ext3
    30      898GB   915GB   16.5GB  logical   ext3
    31      915GB   923GB   8233MB  logical   ext3
    32      923GB   931GB   8233MB  logical   ext3
    33      931GB   940GB   8233MB  logical   ext3
    34      940GB   948GB   8233MB  logical   ext3
    35      948GB   956GB   8233MB  logical   ext3
    36      956GB   964GB   8233MB  logical   ext3
    37      964GB   973GB   8233MB  logical   ext3
    38      973GB   981GB   8233MB  logical   ext3
    39      981GB   989GB   8233MB  logical   ext3
    40      989GB   997GB   8233MB  logical   ext3
    41      997GB   1005GB  8233MB  logical   ext3
    42      1005GB  1014GB  8233MB  logical   ext3
    43      1014GB  1022GB  8233MB  logical   ext3
    44      1022GB  1030GB  8233MB  logical   ext3
    45      1030GB  1038GB  8233MB  logical   ext3
    46      1038GB  1047GB  8233MB  logical   ext3
    47      1047GB  1055GB  8233MB  logical   ext3
    48      1055GB  1063GB  8233MB  logical   ext3
    49      1063GB  1071GB  8233MB  logical   ext4
    50      1071GB  1080GB  8233MB  logical
    51      1080GB  1088GB  8233MB  logical   ext3
    52      1088GB  1096GB  8233MB  logical   ext3
    53      1096GB  1104GB  8233MB  logical   ext3
    54      1104GB  1112GB  8233MB  logical   ext3
    55      1112GB  1121GB  8233MB  logical   ext3
    56      1121GB  1129GB  8233MB  logical   ext3
    57      1129GB  1137GB  8233MB  logical   ext3
    58      1137GB  1145GB  8233MB  logical   ext3
    59      1145GB  1154GB  8233MB  logical   ext3
    60      1154GB  1162GB  8233MB  logical
    
    
    Model: ATA SAMSUNG HD501LJ (scsi)
    Disk /dev/sdb: 500GB
    Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
    Partition Table: gpt
    
    Number  Start   End    Size    File system  Name       Flags
     1      17.4kB  100GB  100GB   ext4         Ubuntu
     2      100GB   110GB  9999MB  ext3         Mepis
     3      110GB   120GB  10.0GB  ext3         PClinuxOS
     4      120GB   130GB  10.0GB  ext3         LinuxMint
     5      130GB   140GB  9999MB  ext3         Slackware
    
    
    Model: SAMSUNG HD203WI (scsi)
    Disk /dev/sde: 2000GB
    Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
    Partition Table: gpt
    
    Number  Start   End     Size     File system  Name    Flags
     1      17.4kB  10.0GB  10000MB               sde1
     2      10.0GB  20.0GB  10.0GB                sde2
     3      20.0GB  30.0GB  10.0GB                sde3
     4      30.0GB  40.0GB  10.0GB                sde4
     5      40.0GB  50.0GB  10.0GB                sde5
     6      50.0GB  60.0GB  10.0GB                sde6
     7      60.0GB  70.0GB  10.0GB                sde7
     8      70.0GB  80.0GB  10.0GB                sde8
     9      80.0GB  90.0GB  10.0GB                sde9
    10      90.0GB  100GB   10.0GB                sde10
    11      100GB   110GB   10.0GB                sde11
    12      110GB   120GB   10.0GB                sde12
    13      120GB   130GB   10.0GB                sde13
    14      130GB   140GB   10.0GB                sde14
    15      140GB   150GB   10.0GB                sde15
    16      150GB   160GB   10.0GB                sde16
    17      160GB   170GB   10.0GB                sde17
    18      170GB   180GB   10.0GB                sde18
    19      180GB   190GB   10.0GB                sde19
    20      190GB   200GB   10.0GB                sde20
    21      200GB   210GB   10.0GB                sde21
    22      210GB   220GB   10.0GB                sde22
    23      220GB   230GB   10.0GB                sde23
    24      230GB   240GB   10.0GB                sde24
    25      240GB   250GB   10.0GB                sde25
    26      250GB   260GB   10.0GB                sde26
    27      260GB   270GB   10.0GB                sde27
    28      270GB   280GB   10.0GB                sde28
    29      280GB   290GB   10.0GB                sde29
    30      290GB   300GB   10.0GB                sde30
    31      300GB   310GB   10.0GB                sde31
    32      310GB   320GB   10.0GB                sde32
    33      320GB   330GB   10.0GB                sde33
    34      330GB   340GB   10.0GB                sde34
    35      340GB   350GB   10.0GB                sde35
    36      350GB   360GB   10.0GB                sde36
    37      360GB   370GB   10.0GB                sde37
    38      370GB   380GB   10.0GB                sde38
    39      380GB   390GB   10.0GB                sde39
    40      390GB   400GB   10.0GB                sde40
    41      400GB   410GB   10.0GB                sde41
    42      410GB   420GB   10.0GB                sde42
    43      420GB   430GB   10.0GB                sde43
    44      430GB   440GB   10.0GB                sde44
    45      440GB   450GB   10.0GB                sde45
    46      450GB   460GB   10.0GB                sde46
    47      460GB   470GB   10.0GB                sde47
    48      470GB   480GB   10.0GB                sde48
    49      480GB   490GB   10.0GB                sde49
    50      490GB   500GB   10.0GB                sde50
    51      500GB   510GB   10.0GB                sde51
    52      510GB   520GB   10.0GB                sde52
    53      520GB   530GB   10.0GB                sde53
    54      530GB   540GB   10.0GB                sde54
    55      540GB   550GB   10.0GB                sde55
    56      550GB   560GB   10.0GB                sde56
    57      560GB   570GB   10.0GB                sde57
    58      570GB   580GB   10.0GB                sde58
    59      580GB   590GB   10.0GB                sde59
    60      590GB   600GB   10.0GB                sde60
    61      600GB   610GB   10.0GB                sde61
    62      610GB   620GB   10.0GB                sde62
    63      620GB   630GB   10.0GB                sde63
    64      630GB   640GB   10.0GB                sde64
    65      640GB   650GB   10.0GB                sde65
    66      650GB   660GB   10.0GB                sde66
    67      660GB   670GB   10.0GB                sde67
    68      670GB   680GB   10.0GB                sde68
    69      680GB   690GB   10.0GB                sde69
    70      690GB   700GB   10.0GB                sde70
    71      700GB   710GB   10.0GB                sde71
    72      710GB   720GB   10.0GB                sde72
    73      720GB   730GB   10.0GB                sde73
    74      730GB   740GB   10.0GB                sde74
    75      740GB   750GB   10.0GB                sde75
    76      750GB   760GB   10.0GB                sde76
    77      760GB   770GB   10.0GB                sde77
    78      770GB   780GB   10.0GB                sde78
    79      780GB   790GB   10.0GB                sde79
    80      790GB   800GB   10.0GB                sde80
    81      800GB   810GB   10.0GB                sde81
    82      810GB   820GB   10.0GB                sde82
    83      820GB   830GB   10.0GB                sde83
    84      830GB   840GB   10.0GB                sde84
    85      840GB   850GB   10.0GB                sde85
    86      850GB   860GB   10.0GB                sde86
    87      860GB   870GB   10.0GB                sde87
    88      870GB   880GB   10.0GB                sde88
    89      880GB   890GB   10.0GB                sde89
    90      890GB   900GB   10.0GB                sde90
    91      900GB   910GB   10.0GB                sde91
    92      910GB   920GB   10.0GB                sde92
    93      920GB   930GB   10.0GB                sde93
    94      930GB   940GB   10.0GB                sde94
    95      940GB   950GB   10.0GB                sde95
    96      950GB   960GB   10.0GB                sde96
    97      960GB   970GB   10.0GB                sde97
    98      970GB   980GB   10.0GB                sde98
    99      980GB   990GB   10.0GB                sde99
    100     990GB   1000GB  10.0GB                sde100
    101     1000GB  1010GB  10.0GB                sde101
    102     1010GB  1020GB  10.0GB                sde102
    103     1020GB  1030GB  10.0GB                sde103
    104     1030GB  1040GB  10.0GB                sde104
    105     1040GB  1050GB  10.0GB                sde105
    106     1050GB  1060GB  10.0GB                sde106
    107     1060GB  1070GB  10.0GB                sde107
    108     1070GB  1080GB  10.0GB                sde108
    109     1080GB  1090GB  10.0GB                sde109
    110     1090GB  1100GB  10.0GB                sde110
    111     1100GB  1110GB  10.0GB                sde111
    112     1110GB  1120GB  10.0GB                sde112
    113     1120GB  1130GB  10.0GB                sde113
    114     1130GB  1140GB  10.0GB                sde114
    115     1140GB  1150GB  10.0GB                sde115
    116     1150GB  1160GB  10.0GB                sde116
    117     1160GB  1170GB  10.0GB                sde117
    118     1170GB  1180GB  10.0GB                sde118
    119     1180GB  1190GB  10.0GB                sde119
    120     1190GB  1200GB  10.0GB                sde120
    121     1200GB  1210GB  10.0GB                sde121
    122     1210GB  1220GB  10.0GB                sde122
    123     1220GB  1230GB  10.0GB                sde123
    124     1230GB  1240GB  10.0GB                sde124
    125     1240GB  1250GB  10.0GB                sde125
    126     1250GB  1260GB  10.0GB                sde126
    127     1260GB  1270GB  10.0GB                sde127
    128     1270GB  1280GB  10.0GB                sde128
    
    
    saikee-desktop-Mint8 saikee #
    My script is supposed to generate 180 partitions each 10Gb large but the following error was reported. Here is part of the print out where parted objected to.

    Code:
    (parted) mkpart sde120 1190001m 1200000m                                  
    (parted) mkpart sde121 1200001m 1210000m                                  
    (parted) mkpart sde122 1210001m 1220000m                                  
    (parted) mkpart sde123 1220001m 1230000m                                  
    (parted) mkpart sde124 1230001m 1240000m                                  
    (parted) mkpart sde125 1240001m 1250000m                                  
    (parted) mkpart sde126 1250001m 1260000m                                  
    (parted) mkpart sde127 1260001m 1270000m                                  
    (parted) mkpart sde128 1270001m 1280000m                                  
    (parted) mkpart sde129 1280001m 1290000m                                  
    Error: Too many primary partitions.                                       
    (parted) mkpart sde130 1290001m 1300000m                                  
    Error: Too many primary partitions.                                       
    (parted) mkpart sde131 1300001m 1310000m                                  
    Error: Too many primary partitions.                                       
    (parted) mkpart sde132 1310001m 1320000m                                  
    Error: Too many primary partitions.                                       
    (parted) mkpart sde133 1320001m 1330000m                                  
    Error: Too many primary partitions.                                       
    (parted) mkpart sde134 1330001m 1340000m                                  
    Error: Too many primary partitions.                                       
    (parted) mkpart sde135 1340001m 1350000m
    The 128 partition limit is to match what MS systems have been designed to support.

    It is also interesting to see that even I specified the first partition to start from 1st Mb of the hard disk Parted overruled me to start at 17.4k which is exactly at the 34th sector. As my 2TB Samsung disk has 512 bytes per sector (both physical and logical) 34*512 = 17408 bytes or 17.4k.

    A gpt partition table has

    Sector 1 for the protective MBR
    Sector 2 for the primary header
    Sector 3 to 34 for storing the 128 partition entries. Each partition entry has 128 bytes. Details as per Wikipedia on GUID Partition Table

    Proof of the pudding in the eating

    To prove these partitions work I tried to install a Linux at the 128th partition while using the 1st partition as a swap. Ubuntu seems to take too long and I lost patience. I tried Open Suse 11.3. It apparently has a Grub1 that failed to get installed and the distro became inoperable.

    Finally I installed Fedora 13 X86_64 Live-KDE in the 128th partition and its Grub1 failed again, leaving me with an installed Linux without a boot loader. However I slip in a Grub2 floppy and fired it up manually. I am using this Fedora to add information to the current post. The /boot/grub/grub.conf gave it away that Fedora has only Grub1. The content of /boot/grub directory is nearly empty and the grub.conf has nothing inside.
    Code:
    [root@localhost saikee]# ls /boot/grub
    grub.conf  splash.xpm.gz
    [root@localhost saikee]# cat /boot/grub/grub.conf
    # grub.conf generated by anaconda
    #
    # Note that you do not have to rerun grub after making changes to this file
    # NOTICE:  You do not have a /boot partition.  This means that
    #          all kernel and initrd paths are relative to /, eg.
    [root@localhost saikee]#
    Fedora's /boot has these files
    Code:
    [root@localhost saikee]# ls /boot
    config-2.6.33.3-85.fc13.x86_64  initramfs-2.6.33.3-85.fc13.x86_64.img
    efi                             memtest86+-4.00
    elf-memtest86+-4.00             System.map-2.6.33.3-85.fc13.x86_64
    grub                            vmlinuz-2.6.33.3-85.fc13.x86_64
    [root@localhost saikee]#
    So it can be booted manually with Grub2 commands
    Code:
    set root=(hd1,128)
    linux /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.33.3-85.fc13.x86_64 ro root=/dev/sdb128
    initrd /boot/initramfs-2.6.33.3-85.fc13.x86_64.img
    boot
    The green bits were not typed but using the tab key to complete.

    When installing Fedora I removed one of the hard disks making the gpt disk changed from sde to sdb.

    Some bad news

    (1) If the distro has unpatched Grub1 of V0.97 then the installation can fail with the bootloader unable to read the gpt partition table. The only way out is to boot up the system manually with Grub2 and then install Grub2 inside.

    (2) Grub1, even if patched and able to read a gpt can have an issue of "Selected cylinder exceeds the maximum supported by the BIOS". This happened to me when I tried to use a patched Grub1 from Ubuntu to boot the Fedora in sdb128 which is at the 1280Gb position of the hard disk.

    (3) A distro may have components able to read a gpt yet another component not arranged to service it. An example is Slax and Slackware which have "parted" to show up the 128 partitions yet in the /dev directory only the first partition has been detected and has just the device name /dev/sdb1 available. Some distros may list only the first 15 partitions too if the other are detected.

    (4) Even if the Linux is fully able to work with 128 partitions its installer may not have been written to cope with such a high number of partitions. Typically the installer may freeze in such an encounter.

    (5) I found out two issues with Grub1. (1) The standard Version 0.97 cannot read a gpt disk. This can be overcome by the patched Grub1 available from Ubuntu, Mandriva and Slackware family distros. Just replace the two files stage1 and stage2 in the /boot/grub directory is all one needs. (2) Grub1 even patched will not be able to boot systems located beyond at about 1340Gb in the hard disk. The error is "The cylinder exceeds the maximum supported by the BIOS". So far the only cure is to switch to Grub2. This error applies to both Msdos and gpt disks.
    Last edited by saikee; 06-06-2010 at 07:11 AM.
    Linux user started Jun 2004 - No. 361921
    Using a Linux live CD to clone XP
    To install Linux and keep Windows MBR untouched
    Adding extra Linux & Doing it in a lazy way
    A Grub menu booting 100+ systems & A "Howto" to install and boot 145 systems
    Just cloning tips Just booting tips A collection of booting tips

    Judge asked Linux "You are being charged murdering Windoze by stabbing its heart with a weapon, what was it?" Replied Linux "A Live CD"

  3. #3
    Join Date
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    Newcastle upon Tyne
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    Some GPT partitioning scheme FAQs

    (1) What is gpt partitioning scheme?

    It is one of the several partitioning schemes for a hard disk. Most of us use Msdos partition table in Linux.

    (2) Why can't I stick with the existing Msdos partition table?

    Yes you can. It is just in the Msdos partition table each partition is defined by 16 bytes. The last 2 sets of 4-bytes describe the hard disk position and the number of sectors of the partition. There are 42 bits in 4 bytes and 2^32*512 bytes per sector=2TB. Thus hard disks or RAID exceeding 2TB cannot use Msdos partition table.

    Can I partition any hard disk with gpt scheme?

    I haven't tried Pata disk but there does not seem to be any problem with Sata disk.

    What tool in Linux can we use to do gpt partitions?

    Parted is the main tool. But Gparted and gdisk (also sgdisk) also do gpt partitions.

    Does Linux kernel support gpt?

    There were information indicating gpt supports started in 2000 in Linux. Most distros have no problem with it. Some installers may not have been written to install in a gpt disk. From my experience I haven't found an installer from Slackware family able to read a gpt disk. Its kernel doesn't boot from it but has the program "parted" and so able to see it.

    Linux in general has little problem in using a gpt partitions in exactly the same way as any partition.

    Do other operating systems support gpt?

    MS Windows seem to go in a big way to promote gpt but with 200&#37; effort of Linux to get 25% out of it. All 32-bit MS Windows, possibly the majority of the desktops, are totally blind to gpt because they can't mount it. A 64-bits MS Windows can only boot from gpt if the motherboard is equipped with efi hardware.

    Apple has gone in a big way to support gpt and able to make a good use of it.

    BSD systems are like Linux -- no problem!

    Can Linux boot loaders cope with gpt?


    Since I can't get a Slackware family distro to recognise a gpt disk so I haven't been able to test Lilo fully. I did manage to install Mandriva into the gpt sda7 partition and opted for Lilo as its boot loader. That boot up successfully first in MBR and then withing sda7 when chainloaded by another bootloader. Lilo has a limit not able to recognise a partition number higher than 15 so it is not a big player in booting Linux. There seem to a fair bit of criticism Lilo failing gpt and I did find it behaving differently between a Msdos and gpt disks.

    Standard Grub1 cannot read a gpt disk. This is not a big deal because a standard Grub1 also can't read the Ext4 filing system too but can be "doctored" to do so. Many distros now have Grub1, patched to recognise gpt as well as Ext4, able to read gpt disks. If Grub1 can read gpt it can boot from it.

    Grub2 has been engineered to read gpt from day 1.

    How does a gpt disk respond in the normal partitioning scheme?

    A gpt partitioning scheme retains the MBR layer and has been given Type number "ee". It works just live a LVM (Type 8e). You only see one partition displayed but there can be several components inside. The partition types supported by Linux are :-
    Code:
     0  Empty           24  NEC DOS         81  Minix / old Lin bf  Solaris        
     1  FAT12           39  Plan 9          82  Linux swap / So c1  DRDOS/sec (FAT-
     2  XENIX root      3c  PartitionMagic  83  Linux           c4  DRDOS/sec (FAT-
     3  XENIX usr       40  Venix 80286     84  OS/2 hidden C:  c6  DRDOS/sec (FAT-
     4  FAT16 <32M      41  PPC PReP Boot   85  Linux extended  c7  Syrinx         
     5  Extended        42  SFS             86  NTFS volume set da  Non-FS data    
     6  FAT16           4d  QNX4.x          87  NTFS volume set db  CP/M / CTOS / .
     7  HPFS/NTFS       4e  QNX4.x 2nd part 88  Linux plaintext de  Dell Utility   
     8  AIX             4f  QNX4.x 3rd part 8e  Linux LVM       df  BootIt         
     9  AIX bootable    50  OnTrack DM      93  Amoeba          e1  DOS access     
     a  OS/2 Boot Manag 51  OnTrack DM6 Aux 94  Amoeba BBT      e3  DOS R/O        
     b  W95 FAT32       52  CP/M            9f  BSD/OS          e4  SpeedStor      
     c  W95 FAT32 (LBA) 53  OnTrack DM6 Aux a0  IBM Thinkpad hi eb  BeOS fs        
     e  W95 FAT16 (LBA) 54  OnTrackDM6      a5  FreeBSD         ee  GPT            
     f  W95 Ext'd (LBA) 55  EZ-Drive        a6  OpenBSD         ef  EFI (FAT-12/16/
    10  OPUS            56  Golden Bow      a7  NeXTSTEP        f0  Linux/PA-RISC b
    11  Hidden FAT12    5c  Priam Edisk     a8  Darwin UFS      f1  SpeedStor      
    12  Compaq diagnost 61  SpeedStor       a9  NetBSD          f4  SpeedStor      
    14  Hidden FAT16 <3 63  GNU HURD or Sys ab  Darwin boot     f2  DOS secondary  
    16  Hidden FAT16    64  Novell Netware  af  HFS / HFS+      fb  VMware VMFS    
    17  Hidden HPFS/NTF 65  Novell Netware  b7  BSDI fs         fc  VMware VMKCORE 
    18  AST SmartSleep  70  DiskSecure Mult b8  BSDI swap       fd  Linux RAID auto
    1b  Hidden W95 FAT3 75  PC/IX           bb  Boot Wizard hid fe  LANstep        
    1c  Hidden W95 FAT3 80  Old Minix       be  Solaris boot    ff  BBT            
    1e  Hidden W95 FAT1
    The command
    Code:
    fdisk -l
    yields
    Code:
    WARNING: GPT (GUID Partition Table) detected on '/dev/sda'! The util fdisk doesn't support GPT. Use GNU Parted.
    
    
    Disk /dev/sda: 500.1 GB, 500107862016 bytes
    255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 60801 cylinders
    Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
    Disk identifier: 0x2aa773c4
    
       Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
    /dev/sda1               1       60802   488386583+  ee  GPT
    whereas the command
    Code:
    sfdisk -l
    Code:
    WARNING: GPT (GUID Partition Table) detected on '/dev/sda'! The util sfdisk doesn't support GPT. Use GNU Parted.
    
    
    Disk /dev/sda: 60801 cylinders, 255 heads, 63 sectors/track
    Units = cylinders of 8225280 bytes, blocks of 1024 bytes, counting from 0
    
       Device Boot Start     End   #cyls    #blocks   Id  System
    /dev/sda1          0+  60801-  60802- 488386583+  ee  GPT
    		start: (c,h,s) expected (0,0,2) found (0,0,1)
    /dev/sda2          0       -       0          0    0  Empty
    /dev/sda3          0       -       0          0    0  Empty
    /dev/sda4          0       -       0          0    0  Empty
    The fully contents of a gpt disk is only visible currently with parted command but GUI commands like Gparted also privides a full list.
    Code:
    parted -l
    Code:
    Model: ATA SAMSUNG HD501LJ (scsi)
    Disk /dev/sda: 500GB
    Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
    Partition Table: gpt
    
    Number  Start   End    Size    File system     Name       Flags
     1      17.4kB  100GB  100GB   ext4            Ubuntu
     2      100GB   110GB  9999MB  ext3            Mepis
     3      110GB   120GB  10.0GB  ext3            PClinuxOS
     4      120GB   130GB  10.0GB  ext3            LinuxMint
     5      130GB   140GB  9999MB  ext3            Slackware
     6      200GB   201GB  1000MB  linux-swap(v1)  swap
     7      201GB   210GB  9000MB  ext3            new_Linux
    Can a Linux be moved from a Msdos disk to a gpt disk?

    Yes subject to the normal rules of migrating to a different partition.

    In the above sda disk I only installed Ubuntu but moved Mepis, PCLinuxOS, LinuxMint and Slackware from a Msdos disk. They were in different partition numbers too. All of them boot except the Slackware.

    A brief rundown of Linux migration of Mepis, PCLinuxOS, Linux Mint and Slackware:

    (1) I had to mount the distro at its new location, edit /etc/fstab and /boot/grub/menu.lst (for Grub1) or /boot/grub/grub.cfg(for Grub2) to reflect the new location.

    (2) For Grub1 I simply use a Grub shell or Grub prompt to restore Grub it the distro's root partition. Say this is /dev/sda2 the Grub commands are just
    Code:
    root (hd0,1)
    setup (hd0,1)
    (3) For Grub2 I had to boot manually into the Linux and do a grub-install. For within its root partition, say sda1, will be
    Code:
    grub-install --force /dev/sda1
    for choosing that distro to take control of MBR then the command will be
    Code:
    grub-install  /dev/sda
    (4) I then edited the Grub menu of distro controlling the MBR to chainload all the others.

    Mepis has a standard Grub1. When it booted Grub1 cannot mount any partition so I ended up with a Grub prompt. PCLinuxOS and Slackware have patched Grub1 so I simply copied their stage1 and stage2 files from /boot/grub directory into Mepis. I did the "root" and "setup" commands again and Mepis boots successfully in the gpt disk.

    Ubuntu and Linux Mint use Grub2 so they booted immediately after the migration.

    PCLInuxOS does not like the migration of being moved from sda39 to sda3. It waits 2 minutes for sda39 to appear. After the 2 minutes it boots up normally. This is a speciality of Mandriva family and I have not found a cure to avoid the 2 minutes waiting yet.

    Slackware doesn't boot! It panic complaining could not find sda5. The boot up message shows only sda1 was detected so its kernel can't read a gpt disk. I then tried to install several Slackware family distros and none of them can see the partitions inside.
    Last edited by saikee; 07-30-2011 at 04:56 AM.
    Linux user started Jun 2004 - No. 361921
    Using a Linux live CD to clone XP
    To install Linux and keep Windows MBR untouched
    Adding extra Linux & Doing it in a lazy way
    A Grub menu booting 100+ systems & A "Howto" to install and boot 145 systems
    Just cloning tips Just booting tips A collection of booting tips

    Judge asked Linux "You are being charged murdering Windoze by stabbing its heart with a weapon, what was it?" Replied Linux "A Live CD"

  4. #4
    Join Date
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    Tips for partitioning a hard disk with "parted"

    After trying the gpt on Pata and Sata disks I thought some of the pointers mat be useful to others.

    (A) Do the gpt scheme first and the partitions later.

    This is because I prefer the partitioning with a script with which I could check first before going ahead. To make a hard disk do gpt one just needs a command but it pays to check the disk before and after as I explain with the following example. The red entries are my input while the rest is from the Linux.
    Code:
    linux-ijwr:/home/saikee # parted /dev/sdb
    GNU Parted 2.2
    Using /dev/sdb
    Welcome to GNU Parted! Type 'help' to view a list of commands.
    (parted) p                                                                
    Model: ATA SAMSUNG HD154UI (scsi)
    Disk /dev/sdb: 1500GB
    Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
    Partition Table: msdos
    
    Number  Start   End     Size    Type     File system  Flags
     1      24.7MB  60.4GB  60.4GB  primary               boot, type=bf
    
    (parted) mklabel gpt                                                      
    Warning: The existing disk label on /dev/sdb will be destroyed and all data on this disk will be lost. Do you want to continue?
    Yes/No? yes                                                               
    (parted) p                                                                
    Model: ATA SAMSUNG HD154UI (scsi)
    Disk /dev/sdb: 1500GB
    Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
    Partition Table: gpt
    
    Number  Start  End  Size  File system  Name  Flags
    
    (parted) q                                                                
    Information: You may need to update /etc/fstab.
    The first command "parted /dev/sdb" is to commit myself to partition device sdb. When inside parted I issued the first "p" to print out the existing partition table, which is a Solaris Type "bf" I wished to ditch.

    The main command to turn the disk to gpt is "mklabel gpt".

    Parted wants a confirmation for safety so I answer with a "yes". I then issued the 2nd "p" to print the latest partition table which now show up empty. I then issued "q" to exit parted.

    (B) Partioning by a script

    To do partition I find enjoyment of doing it by a script so I used an editor to write a file called "parted_sda_10_partition"
    Code:
    linux-ijwr:/home/saikee # cat parted_sda_10_partition 
    for ((i=1;i<=10;i++)); 
    do k1=$[(i-1)*20000+1] 
    k2=$[i*20000]; 
    echo "mkpart Partition_$i $[k1]m $[k2]m"; 
    done > a2 ;
    echo "q">>a2
    One can issue it as a bash script to generate a text file called a2.
    Code:
    linux-ijwr:/home/saikee # cat a2
    mkpart Partition_1 1m 20000m
    mkpart Partition_2 20001m 40000m
    mkpart Partition_3 40001m 60000m
    mkpart Partition_4 60001m 80000m
    mkpart Partition_5 80001m 100000m
    mkpart Partition_6 100001m 120000m
    mkpart Partition_7 120001m 140000m
    mkpart Partition_8 140001m 160000m
    mkpart Partition_9 160001m 180000m
    mkpart Partition_10 180001m 200000m
    q
    I checked the partition layout and after satisfied with it I then committed by directing parted to use it as the input.
    Code:
    linux-ijwr:/home/saikee # parted /dev/sdb <a2
    GNU Parted 2.2
    Using /dev/sdb
    Welcome to GNU Parted! Type 'help' to view a list of commands.
    (parted) mkpart Partition_1 1m 20000m                                     
    (parted) mkpart Partition_2 20001m 40000m                                 
    (parted) mkpart Partition_3 40001m 60000m                                 
    (parted) mkpart Partition_4 60001m 80000m                                 
    (parted) mkpart Partition_5 80001m 100000m                                
    (parted) mkpart Partition_6 100001m 120000m                               
    (parted) mkpart Partition_7 120001m 140000m                               
    (parted) mkpart Partition_8 140001m 160000m                               
    (parted) mkpart Partition_9 160001m 180000m                               
    (parted) mkpart Partition_10 180001m 200000m                              
    (parted) q                                                                
    Information: You may need to update /etc/fstab.                           
    
    linux-ijwr:/home/saikee # parted -l
    Model: ATA Maxtor 6Y200P0 (scsi)
    Disk /dev/sda: 204GB
    Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
    Partition Table: gpt
    
    Number  Start   End     Size    File system     Name         Flags
     1      1049kB  10.0GB  9999MB  linux-swap(v1)  partition1
     2      10.0GB  20.0GB  9999MB                  partition2
     3      20.0GB  30.0GB  9999MB                  partition3
     4      30.0GB  40.0GB  9999MB                  partition4
     5      40.0GB  50.0GB  10.0GB                  partition5
     6      50.0GB  60.0GB  9999MB                  partition6
     7      60.0GB  70.0GB  9999MB                  partition7
     8      70.0GB  80.0GB  9999MB                  partition8
     9      80.0GB  90.0GB  10.0GB                  partition9
    10      90.0GB  100GB   9999MB                  partition10
    11      100GB   110GB   9999MB                  partition11
    12      110GB   120GB   9999MB                  partition12
    13      120GB   130GB   10.0GB                  partition13
    14      130GB   140GB   9999MB                  partition14
    15      140GB   150GB   9999MB                  partition15
    16      150GB   160GB   9999MB                  partition16
    17      160GB   170GB   10.0GB                  partition17
    18      170GB   180GB   9999MB                  partition18
    19      180GB   190GB   9999MB  ext4            partition19
    20      190GB   200GB   9999MB                  partition20
    
    
    Model: ATA SAMSUNG HD154UI (scsi)
    Disk /dev/sdb: 1500GB
    Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
    Partition Table: gpt
    
    Number  Start   End     Size    File system  Name          Flags
     1      1049kB  20.0GB  20.0GB               Partition_1
     2      20.0GB  40.0GB  20.0GB               Partition_2
     3      40.0GB  60.0GB  20.0GB               Partition_3
     4      60.0GB  80.0GB  20.0GB               Partition_4
     5      80.0GB  100GB   20.0GB               Partition_5
     6      100GB   120GB   20.0GB               Partition_6
     7      120GB   140GB   20.0GB               Partition_7
     8      140GB   160GB   20.0GB               Partition_8
     9      160GB   180GB   20.0GB               Partition_9
    10      180GB   200GB   20.0GB               Partition_10
    The blue section of the above is the gpt partition table I created.

    For a few partitions there is no need to use a script. I tend to stretch the gpt to the limit so having a script is a lot easier for testing.
    Last edited by saikee; 06-06-2010 at 05:47 PM.
    Linux user started Jun 2004 - No. 361921
    Using a Linux live CD to clone XP
    To install Linux and keep Windows MBR untouched
    Adding extra Linux & Doing it in a lazy way
    A Grub menu booting 100+ systems & A "Howto" to install and boot 145 systems
    Just cloning tips Just booting tips A collection of booting tips

    Judge asked Linux "You are being charged murdering Windoze by stabbing its heart with a weapon, what was it?" Replied Linux "A Live CD"

  5. #5
    Join Date
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    gpt and MS Windows


    (A) Different Windows see a gpt disk differently.

    32-bit Windows cannot see gpt disk interior. This is how a gpt disk showing up in Xp's disk management

    [img]http://groups.google.com/group/hkexf...0one.gif?hl=en[/img]

    It clear show the 2TB gpt as one partition. The other 1.5TB disk has a normal Msdos partition table.

    The 64-bit Windows systems are a bit cleverer and a 64-bit Win7 sees the maximum 128 internal partitions as shown below.

    [img]http://groups.google.com/group/hkexf...disk.PNG?hl=en[/img]

    It is interesting to see the 64-bit sees the gpt disk as its own and attempts to mount all the partitions by assigning a letter to each until the drive letter runs out at z:. Then it stops.

    This is a very unusual behaviour because a standard MS Windows does not mount a partition, gives it a drive letter if the filing system is not recognised. Yet it goes all its way to do it for the gpt disk.

    I have also long been puzzled by MS Windows calling every partition it doesn't recognised or with a vaild filing system as a "primary" partition.

    (B) gpt is a no go area for MS boot loaders

    MS boot loaders from Dos, Win2k, Xp, Vista and Win7 all work on the principle that any one of the 4 primary partitions with the booting flag set "on" shall be booted. There is no distinction between primary and logical partition in a gpt disk and there can be potentially 128 partitions in each. Thus the MS boot loaders break down completly with a gpt disk. No wonder none of the 32 bit MS Windows can boot from a gpt disk.

    The 64-bit MS Windows can boot from a gpt disk only if the motherboard is equipped with the efi hardware which provides its own boot loader. This will be very hard to catch on. In the mean time many MS Windows systems are reaching the end of the road with a hard disk limited at 2TB. May be the 4k physical block addressing will buy them some extra time.

    The superiority of the Linux boot loaders is evident when comparing with the MS systems.

    It comes no surprise that I found Lilo and Grub can work normally with a gpt disk.

    Linux kernel is a lot saner when coming to partitions. Unless one specifies them in /etc/fstab none of the partitions will be mounted. If a user wants he/she can always mounts a partition manually or automatically with fstab.

    A MS Windows system tends to be obssessed with other systems using their resources so on every boot-up it will go through every partition in each hard disk. This takes a long time and doing the disk no good at all.
    Linux user started Jun 2004 - No. 361921
    Using a Linux live CD to clone XP
    To install Linux and keep Windows MBR untouched
    Adding extra Linux & Doing it in a lazy way
    A Grub menu booting 100+ systems & A "Howto" to install and boot 145 systems
    Just cloning tips Just booting tips A collection of booting tips

    Judge asked Linux "You are being charged murdering Windoze by stabbing its heart with a weapon, what was it?" Replied Linux "A Live CD"

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Apr 2011
    Posts
    2
    Saikee, I need your help!

    I have been using a 500GB SATA drive (same model as your example - Samsung 501LJ) which is (somehow) a GPT format (I probably had OSX on there at some point).

    I used to boot off a third (unused) NTFS MBR formatted drive, so the bootloader is still intact on that HDD I believe. My problem is THIS, I have transferred the drive to a new machine, and it now will not boot Linux (Mint 10 Julia). There is probably a very simple fix to this, probably replacing the MBR (GPT?) with a simple dd line.

    For an OS that supports GPT, I am having a nightmare getting grub reinstalled off the boot CD.

    I now have the linux boot drive connected via a PCI Sata card, which identifies the disk as SCSI I believe, although it mounts fine with a default mount command. All the files on the disk look intact...

    Any help would be very useful to me... You should be able to email me via this forum.

    Many thanks...

    themacmeister

  7. #7
    Join Date
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    Location
    Newcastle upon Tyne
    Posts
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    themacmeister,

    Welcome to Justlinux!


    I think your boot loader might have been broken by the disk order as you seem to several hard disk so there would have been a disk order 0, 1, 2 etc.

    The MBR for a MSdos and gpt partition disk is the same. The only difference is a gpt has a large boot sector storing all the necessary information for the 128 partitions. It also has a dulpication of its partition table at the rear end of the disk making salvage work possible.

    As far as I am aware Grub2 works with gpt disks the same way as MSdos disks so your rescue lies with identify the correct disk and partition if the Grub2 has been installed into the gpt disk.

    For assistance you will have to describe the situation before the change and after the change. Location of the boot loader, which should be in one of the Linux, /boot/grub/grub.cfg, /boot/grub/device.map and /etc/fstab will helps us to understand your configuration.

    As a rule you should be able to restore Grub2 with any Linux Live CD that has Grub2 inside.
    Linux user started Jun 2004 - No. 361921
    Using a Linux live CD to clone XP
    To install Linux and keep Windows MBR untouched
    Adding extra Linux & Doing it in a lazy way
    A Grub menu booting 100+ systems & A "Howto" to install and boot 145 systems
    Just cloning tips Just booting tips A collection of booting tips

    Judge asked Linux "You are being charged murdering Windoze by stabbing its heart with a weapon, what was it?" Replied Linux "A Live CD"

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Apr 2011
    Posts
    2
    Never mind, I reformatted the drive, and will eventually reinstall Mint Linux. Thanks for your reply - it will be helpful in the future.

  9. #9
    Join Date
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    How Seagate manage a 3TB to suit operating systems

    Bought a 3TB external hard disk today. It is one of those Seagate Geoflex series. It does not have a gpt partition table but a special or interesting Msdos partition table

    The saying is a 32-bit operating system has a limit of addressing up to a maximum just below 2.2TB and so this becomes the limit of the MSDOS partition table based on each record the hard disk read or write is 512 bytes.

    The trend is go for the gpt partition table but that is still too immature or too new for many PC users.

    Seagate in order to sell their 3TB hard disks has increased the sector size from 512 bytes to 4096 bytes. Thus the number of records to search is artificially reduced so that the hard disk hooked up as an external drive (not required for booting) can be used by the common operating systems.

    Here is the disk geometry of Seagate 3TB hard disk, factory-preformatted to one NTFS partition.
    Code:
    Note: sector size is 4096 (not 512)
    
    Disk /dev/sdb: 3000.6 GB, 3000592977920 bytes
    1 heads, 7 sectors/track, 104652377 cylinders
    Units = cylinders of 7 * 4096 = 28672 bytes
    Sector size (logical/physical): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes
    I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes
    Disk identifier: 0xa4b57300
    
       Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
    /dev/sdb1               2   104652001  2930256000    7  HPFS/NTFS
    Partition 1 does not start on physical sector boundary.
    Thus the hard disk is still reading 512 bytes per sector physically but the controller of the external hdd enclosure changes it to 4096 bytes.

    This 3TB USB disk is automatically mounted by Xp (32-bit), Win7 (64-bit) and Ubuntu (32-bit) and operates normally.
    Last edited by saikee; 06-23-2011 at 04:27 PM.
    Linux user started Jun 2004 - No. 361921
    Using a Linux live CD to clone XP
    To install Linux and keep Windows MBR untouched
    Adding extra Linux & Doing it in a lazy way
    A Grub menu booting 100+ systems & A "Howto" to install and boot 145 systems
    Just cloning tips Just booting tips A collection of booting tips

    Judge asked Linux "You are being charged murdering Windoze by stabbing its heart with a weapon, what was it?" Replied Linux "A Live CD"

  10. #10
    Join Date
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    Thumbs up Great Stuff

    Writing, content, understandability, reading great stuff http://www.justlinux.com/forum/image...es/biggrin.gif

  11. #11
    Join Date
    Jun 2004
    Location
    Newcastle upon Tyne
    Posts
    2,978
    PaulTabo,

    Welcome to Justlinux!
    Linux user started Jun 2004 - No. 361921
    Using a Linux live CD to clone XP
    To install Linux and keep Windows MBR untouched
    Adding extra Linux & Doing it in a lazy way
    A Grub menu booting 100+ systems & A "Howto" to install and boot 145 systems
    Just cloning tips Just booting tips A collection of booting tips

    Judge asked Linux "You are being charged murdering Windoze by stabbing its heart with a weapon, what was it?" Replied Linux "A Live CD"

  12. #12
    Join Date
    May 2012
    Posts
    3
    hi saikee
    i have a T420s with a 160GB SSD and i have discovered (i am a newbie:-) ) that
    the disk label is msdos and i want as little as possible from MS so i booted from a live-USB and changed the disk label to GPT and reinstalled linux mint 12. but now when i switch on the computer, it doesnt even load the grub.. the only error message is: exiting intel boot agent.. any suggestions?

  13. #13
    Join Date
    Jun 2004
    Location
    Newcastle upon Tyne
    Posts
    2,978
    It sounds to me that you might have not installed Grub properly so that the computer trying to obtain a boot code from the Intel booting agent which I assume is the one residing in the PC hardware.

    What you can do is to boot up the Mint CD and post here the output of
    Code:
    sudo su
    fdisk -l
    parted -l /dev/sda
    to confirm the disk partitions. The "l" in the above is the lower case of "L". The Mint CD should enable you to use the Internet.
    Last edited by saikee; 05-06-2012 at 06:23 PM.
    Linux user started Jun 2004 - No. 361921
    Using a Linux live CD to clone XP
    To install Linux and keep Windows MBR untouched
    Adding extra Linux & Doing it in a lazy way
    A Grub menu booting 100+ systems & A "Howto" to install and boot 145 systems
    Just cloning tips Just booting tips A collection of booting tips

    Judge asked Linux "You are being charged murdering Windoze by stabbing its heart with a weapon, what was it?" Replied Linux "A Live CD"

  14. #14
    Join Date
    May 2012
    Posts
    3
    ok, but in all distros i ve tried (except arch) one can just partition the disk manually and click: install bootloader on /dev/sd*.. can one install a live cd with command line tools to have more control?

    here are my outputs: (i'm not sure if i've changed something since installation, i've maybe messed around with..)

    PHP Code:
    mint mint # fdisk -l
    WARNINGGPT (GUID Partition Tabledetected on '/dev/sda'The util fdisk doesn't support GPT. Use GNU Parted.

    Disk /dev/sda: 160.0 GB, 160041885696 bytes
    255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 19457 cylinders, total 312581808 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: 0x00000000

       Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
    /dev/sda1               1   312581807   156290903+  ee  GPT 
    PHP Code:
    mint mint # parted -l /dev/sda
    ModelATA INTEL SSDSA2BW16 (scsi)
    Disk /dev/sda160GB
    Sector size 
    (logical/physical): 512B/512B
    Partition Table
    gpt

    Number  Start   End     Size    File system     Name  Flags
     1      17.4kB  10.0GB  10.0GB  ext4
     2      10.0GB  50.0GB  40.0GB  ext4
     3      50.0GB  62.0GB  12.0GB  linux
    -swap(v1)

    WarningUnable to open /dev/sr0 read-write (Read-only file system).  /dev/sr0
    has been opened read
    -only.
    ErrorInvalid partition table recursive partition on /dev/sr0.         
    Ignore/Cancel

  15. #15
    Join Date
    May 2012
    Posts
    3
    i ran "boot info script" too, should i'll post the output? its pretty long:-)

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