From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Received: from mailman by lists.gnu.org with archive (Exim 4.43) id 1OLjDl-0001Bi-3p for mharc-grub-devel@gnu.org; Mon, 07 Jun 2010 16:46:57 -0400 Received: from [140.186.70.92] (port=49638 helo=eggs.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1OLjDh-0001BR-MC for grub-devel@gnu.org; Mon, 07 Jun 2010 16:46:55 -0400 Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1OLjDf-0006AK-R7 for grub-devel@gnu.org; Mon, 07 Jun 2010 16:46:53 -0400 Received: from mail-ew0-f214.google.com ([209.85.219.214]:46475) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1OLjDf-0006A8-La for grub-devel@gnu.org; Mon, 07 Jun 2010 16:46:51 -0400 Received: by ewy6 with SMTP id 6so2490075ewy.32 for ; Mon, 07 Jun 2010 13:46:50 -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:references:in-reply-to :x-enigmail-version:content-type; bh=aG8GXCvEo9FsF/mflAdnQkK10clhwW1mkyVzBFHPRC4=; b=OniDHNzJBfvzQhDAyhUqUS/hMuN11nzCYhq+RQfRZuT6ft4/IAfNlAHZfQZhaM41un AJeo7qpu5R6om+8R+ZgkYXjCrkvPVoFiiP/cXYcajRHu805JolxdC5VTzeNqrUPhs9gy RHJ2fRB5zyqL8qiZ8gwOIKeaILZuJ/OTv2lzE= DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; c=nofws; d=gmail.com; s=gamma; h=message-id:date:from:user-agent:mime-version:to:subject:references :in-reply-to:x-enigmail-version:content-type; b=fqRGRfUr1uSImQwu9930kX5GnKYgQzDfkE03CdGODy1F7TmK6HOzQuL3/FEPBsIvaR Ijn7jIoDj1C7eb3EOytxMPLZ4DKHat0W/8Mst1sCz9tARVOqvszZSM6+KMdR172b8Eze xNwqttdWXKATaCSVXHZLaA11f8LXONpPj0THs= Received: by 10.213.101.8 with SMTP id a8mr1153606ebo.31.1275943610705; Mon, 07 Jun 2010 13:46:50 -0700 (PDT) Received: from debian.bg45.phnet (gprs27.swisscom-mobile.ch [193.247.250.27]) by mx.google.com with ESMTPS id 13sm2869450ewy.9.2010.06.07.13.46.46 (version=TLSv1/SSLv3 cipher=RC4-MD5); Mon, 07 Jun 2010 13:46:48 -0700 (PDT) Message-ID: <4C0D5AAE.6070504@gmail.com> Date: Mon, 07 Jun 2010 22:46:38 +0200 From: =?UTF-8?B?VmxhZGltaXIgJ8+GLWNvZGVyL3BoY29kZXInIFNlcmJpbmVua28=?= User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux x86_64; en-US; rv:1.9.1.9) Gecko/20100515 Icedove/3.0.4 MIME-Version: 1.0 To: The development of GNU GRUB References: <4C0BE2C7.4020407@gmail.com> In-Reply-To: <4C0BE2C7.4020407@gmail.com> X-Enigmail-Version: 1.0.1 Content-Type: multipart/signed; micalg=pgp-sha512; protocol="application/pgp-signature"; boundary="------------enig40B635AC53AA315EF49C9962" X-detected-operating-system: by eggs.gnu.org: GNU/Linux 2.6 (newer, 2) Subject: Re: 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: Mon, 07 Jun 2010 20:46:55 -0000 This is an OpenPGP/MIME signed message (RFC 2440 and 3156) --------------enig40B635AC53AA315EF49C9962 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable On 06/06/2010 08:02 PM, Gr=C3=A9goire Sutre wrote: > 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)? There are two parts of this question: 1) Which partition schemes should GRUB be able to read modules and payloads from ? It's platform-indepedent and 2 conditions apply: - Usage. There are OS which are able to boot from such OS and such configuration isn't considered obscure by them. - Non-confusability. The risk of false positive of this partition config which would prevent normal function is small. If at least one condition is met it's worth considering. If both conditions are met it should be supported. 2) Support for embedding. Embedding is a potentially dangerous operation so we have to be cautious. Using a dedicated embedding partition if it can be unambiguously identified as such is a sane solution. > > 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? > > Gr=C3=A9goire > > > _______________________________________________ > Grub-devel mailing list > Grub-devel@gnu.org > http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/grub-devel > --=20 Regards Vladimir '=CF=86-coder/phcoder' Serbinenko --------------enig40B635AC53AA315EF49C9962 Content-Type: application/pgp-signature; name="signature.asc" Content-Description: OpenPGP digital signature Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="signature.asc" -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.10 (GNU/Linux) Comment: Using GnuPG with Mozilla - http://enigmail.mozdev.org/ iF4EAREKAAYFAkwNWq4ACgkQNak7dOguQgkUWAEAlgII6SnLMQGcelx8kmvJbTy+ 1F5kSVpIlLTxZW5C7JMA/0VeTheQN79SC+cZMcJA4j0zkNZF0R25ZJm4nVw/BZV9 =yq1U -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- --------------enig40B635AC53AA315EF49C9962--