[parted-devel] [parted 1.8.8] boot partitions on disks larger than 2TB (was: msdos label and file system corruption issues with > 2TB disk)

Michael Reed mdr at sgi.com
Wed Jan 30 14:12:22 UTC 2008



H. Peter Anvin wrote:
> Jim Meyering wrote:
>>> Is there any discussion in the community about being able to boot a
>>> BIOS based system from a disk that is larger than 2 TB?  I'd like to
>>> get hooked into any discussions in this area.
>> I don't know off hand, but this is a good place to ask.
>> Also, you might want to monitor #parted @irc.freenode.net on IRC.
>>
> 
> The only consensus (and, in particular, the only thing that works for 
> multiple operating systems) is:
> 
> - boot partitions < 2 TB
> - boot partitions are aliased as MBR partitions in the PMBR
> 
> That is the protocol that's available, and the only thing that will work 
> with Redmond OSes.  It will let normal MBR-loading code work, and the OS 
> can then pick up its filesystem partitions from the GPT table.
> 
> 	-hpa

Great minds....  The one thing I thought about with this idea is that
it appears to be a mild violation of the Intel EFI spec regarding the
content of PMBR.  Specs can change....

As I haven't tried this yet, does it require the
"gpt" kernel parameter to override PMBR validation errors?

Can the mentioned partition layout be created with parted?

Thanks,
 Mike



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