Is Mandriva 2010.1 ready for GPT partition tables?

[boatman9]

After reading "Make the most of large drives with GPT and Linux" I would like to try GPT partitioning. Can Mandriva 2010.1 recognize and boot from GPT partitions? Is there any Mandriva rpm which provides GPT fdisk (consisting of the gdisk and sgdisk programs)?

[ianw1974]

It might not just be that, depends if grub is also patched to deal with it. Interesting article though, thanks for that, gets me thinking :)

[ianw1974]

This is useful:

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GUID_Partition_Table

[boatman9]

According to the GRUB project home page: "GRUB 2 has replaced what was formerly known as GRUB (i.e. version 0.9x), which has, in turn, become GRUB Legacy".

 

Apparently GRUB 2 can boot from GPT partitions. My Mandriva 2010.1 install uses GRUB 0.97 also known as GRUB Legacy. There is a GRUB 2 rpm in the repository, I don't know if Mandriva's installer will use GRUB 2 when installing to a GPT partitioned disk.

[ianw1974]

You can always try it and see if you have a spare machine for testing on moving to GPT partitions. However, from what I understand and reading, GPT partitions are only going to be useful for 2.2 TB or higher. If you don't have disks larger than this, then I don't know what benefits it will give you other than testing the ability for installing and using GPT should you ever have disks that large.

 

My largest desktop at home has 4 x 500GB disks, so there's no benefit there for me to change other than proof of concept.

[boatman9]

I want to use GPT partitioning for two benefits; firstly there's no distinction between primary and extended partitions, and also because a backup copy of the partition table is placed at the end of the disk for use if the first partition table is lost.

 

After converting my new laptop to GPT partitioning it didn't boot, so I had to restore the MBR partitioning.

[ianw1974]

I can see where you're coming from. I haven't read, so I don't know if GPT allows more than the 15 partitions that is possible with Primary/Logical setup. In which case that would offer a benefit.

 

However, in the event that you cannot, this is not a problem either. I generally have a system with three partitions:

 

1. swap

2. /boot

3. LVM

 

then the LVM does the rest of the system. No limits on the amount of partitions, since you can have as many as your disk space allows.