From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Received: from mailman by lists.gnu.org with archive (Exim 4.43) id 1OLKBZ-0004ZA-2M for mharc-grub-devel@gnu.org; Sun, 06 Jun 2010 14:03:01 -0400 Received: from [140.186.70.92] (port=37032 helo=eggs.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1OLKBV-0004XC-KW for grub-devel@gnu.org; Sun, 06 Jun 2010 14:02:58 -0400 Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1OLKBQ-0005hm-JY for grub-devel@gnu.org; Sun, 06 Jun 2010 14:02:57 -0400 Received: from mail-ww0-f41.google.com ([74.125.82.41]:34048) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1OLKBQ-0005hd-Ff for grub-devel@gnu.org; Sun, 06 Jun 2010 14:02:52 -0400 Received: by wwb24 with SMTP id 24so2244354wwb.0 for ; Sun, 06 Jun 2010 11:02:50 -0700 (PDT) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=gmail.com; s=gamma; h=domainkey-signature:received:received:message-id:date:from :user-agent:mime-version:to:subject:content-type :content-transfer-encoding; bh=w0dC8XgQHdGL3Zh/43ezQj6PhnuyqmdOQMKJz+bN0iQ=; b=fFYKLzwPGt4lTuw8crngbik+eoq6wi4tCcDYUtjS3nGiPGypWB++hdSZvxB1vvkZEi dIRkV85iYUQ0AkekDupuUaqOUN+XkLd4+P+BNfXmgA0CEKbiJXydmdW8XS8pCGeZ3fiI 9YDYnN6CSJ51flQDYKxPbuUxS8Mg8ofYoe2sI= DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; c=nofws; d=gmail.com; s=gamma; h=message-id:date:from:user-agent:mime-version:to:subject :content-type:content-transfer-encoding; b=K56W/MXvBLtHz9NxaXk71DlcWWyB8afQMPARH07Q7x8iNU8eI35pjEt3Q1blcFM+Kz gnoytS8KI2hfPTPaw+hMiOj3lO+CJLM0IQHs/QuAxmww/FHx3Bvt8mq/CdllyXCWDNsY anpLnK8AVUc9TfksxxXKCl4ff8lRX+NjowPIY= Received: by 10.227.156.139 with SMTP id x11mr13111597wbw.104.1275847370820; Sun, 06 Jun 2010 11:02:50 -0700 (PDT) Received: from [192.168.1.50] ([88.160.112.182]) by mx.google.com with ESMTPS id u36sm30478480wbv.18.2010.06.06.11.02.50 (version=TLSv1/SSLv3 cipher=RC4-MD5); Sun, 06 Jun 2010 11:02:50 -0700 (PDT) Message-ID: <4C0BE2C7.4020407@gmail.com> Date: Sun, 06 Jun 2010 20:02:47 +0200 From: =?ISO-8859-1?Q?Gr=E9goire_Sutre?= User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux x86_64; en-US; rv:1.9.1.9) Gecko/20100411 Icedove/3.0.4 MIME-Version: 1.0 To: The development of GNU GRUB Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit X-detected-operating-system: by eggs.gnu.org: GNU/Linux 2.6 (newer, 2) Subject: Which partitioning schemes should be supported by GRUB? X-BeenThere: grub-devel@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list Reply-To: The development of GNU GRUB List-Id: The development of GNU GRUB List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Sun, 06 Jun 2010 18:02:59 -0000 Hi, Tests of GRUB on NetBSD (and FreeBSD) have raised several issues (most of them reported on the list) regarding partition detection. However, I have the feeling that some of these issues are not considered as real issues since the test configuration is not supported by GRUB. This surprises me since I naively thought that most user configurations should be supported. So I ask the question: Which partitioning schemes are (or shall be) supported by GRUB on i386-pc (with standard BIOS)? To start the discussion, I'll focus on a few examples (the list is surely not exhaustive). Maybe some configurations simply cannot exist, in which case please let me know. 1. A single top-level partition map (a) MS-DOS (b) GPT (c) BSD disklabel (d) Apple partition map (e) Sun label 2. Hybrid: top-level MS-DOS + another *top-level* partition map (a) MS-DOS + GPT (i.e. GPT + at-least one non 0xEE MS-DOS partition) (b) MS-DOS + BSD (c) ... If I read the code correctly, grub-setup (on i386-pc) only supports 1(a) and 1(b). However, on NetBSD, 1(c) is very common, and 2(b) is not rare. Also, some OSes are fine with 2(a), e.g. FreeBSD. Personally, I would rather support all possible configurations, unless some technical reason prevents it. So grub-setup would not test for some specific configurations, but would instead use a generic (and simple) approach. If it fails, it should be for a good reason, and not because "No DOS-style partitions [were] found". What's your opinion? Grégoire