[parted-devel] [PATCH 0/2] gpt: Preserve relocated primary partition table

[Brian C. Lane]

On Wed, Nov 19, 2025 at 06:42:59PM +0000, Pascal Hambourg wrote:
> The primary GPT partition entry array may start at a LBA other than the
> default in order to not interfere with the boot loader for some ARM SoC
> E.g.:
> - The boot loader for Freescale/NXP i.MX < 8 family must start at LBA 2.
> - The boot loader for older Allwinner sunxi family must start at LBA 16.
> 
> This patchset also splits the metadata at the beginning of the disk in
> two:
> - protective MBR + primary GPT header
> - primary GPT partition entry array
> 
> This makes it possible to see the gap between them and check if the
> metadata layout may interfere with the boot loader. However it would be
> better if the gap was not reported as free space. Is there a way to
> avoid this ?

Thanks for the patches. I'm not really comfortable with guessing at the
location of the primary partition array when using the backup header. It
would be better to use the backup table to try and search for the
primary, maybe?

This would also need tests, but I don't think we're quite at that point
yet.

Brian

-- 
Brian C. Lane (PST8PDT) - weldr.io - lorax - parted - pykickstart