GNU Parted, linuxppc support coming :-)

GNU Parted, linuxppc support coming :-)

[Andrew Clausen]

Hi all,

I've started hacking on linuxppc (on Macs) support for GNU Parted, a
partition program.  It's like fdisk (or pdisk), but it can also
create, copy and resize file systems that it has special support for.
More info at:

	www.gnu.org/software/parted

I'm trying to support the Mac partition map, but I'll need some help,
since I don't have a PowerPC :-(

Could someone send me their partition map?  You can get this with:

	# dd if=/dev/hda bs=512 count=MAP-SIZE | gzip | map.gz

If you don't know how big your partition map (+1 for driver block) is,
then 64 should do (?).  (What's a reasonable size for a partition
map?)

Note: I'm not adding HFS support at this stage - it's a LOT of work.
So you'll be able to resize ext2 partitions in the near future, but
not HFS partitions :-/  Unless there are some volunteers...

Of course, I'd also be happy very if someone could help with the code,
or just testing :-)

Thanks!
Andrew Clausen

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Re: GNU Parted, linuxppc support coming :-)

[Hollis Blanchard]

Andrew Clausen wrote:
>
> I'm trying to support the Mac partition map, but I'll need some help,
> since I don't have a PowerPC :-(

Just about everything you need is at
http://developer.apple.com/techpubs/mac/Devices/Devices-121.html#HEADING121-50

At least, I know that myself and a few other people have been able to
code based off of that.

> Could someone send me their partition map?  You can get this with:
>
>         # dd if=/dev/hda bs=512 count=MAP-SIZE | gzip | map.gz
>
> If you don't know how big your partition map (+1 for driver block) is,
> then 64 should do (?).  (What's a reasonable size for a partition
> map?)

I forget, but I don't think *anyone* has more than 20 (on most Macs, the
first 7 contain drivers etc), so 20 x sizeof(partition) (see above URL).

> Note: I'm not adding HFS support at this stage - it's a LOT of work.
> So you'll be able to resize ext2 partitions in the near future, but
> not HFS partitions :-/  Unless there are some volunteers...

There seems to be a shortage of HFS folks these days. :) But ext2
resizing sounds very cool.

-Hollis

P.S. Can't get you a real map right now, but email me later if you want
it.

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Re: GNU Parted, linuxppc support coming :-)

[Andrew Clausen]

Hollis Blanchard wrote:
>
> Andrew Clausen wrote:
> >
> > I'm trying to support the Mac partition map, but I'll need some help,
> > since I don't have a PowerPC :-(
>
> Just about everything you need is at
> http://developer.apple.com/techpubs/mac/Devices/Devices-121.html#HEADING121-50

Yeah, I've read it... :-)

> At least, I know that myself and a few other people have been able to
> code based off of that.

Yep.

> > Could someone send me their partition map?  You can get this with:
> >
> >         # dd if=/dev/hda bs=512 count=MAP-SIZE | gzip | map.gz
> >
> > If you don't know how big your partition map (+1 for driver block) is,
> > then 64 should do (?).  (What's a reasonable size for a partition
> > map?)
>
> I forget, but I don't think *anyone* has more than 20 (on most Macs, the
> first 7 contain drivers etc), so 20 x sizeof(partition) (see above URL).

Each partition gets one block (yes?).  So thats 20 * 512?
(From comments in various programs, most disks have 512 byte blocks...)

> > Note: I'm not adding HFS support at this stage - it's a LOT of work.
> > So you'll be able to resize ext2 partitions in the near future, but
> > not HFS partitions :-/  Unless there are some volunteers...
>
> There seems to be a shortage of HFS folks these days. :) But ext2
> resizing sounds very cool.

Excuse my ignorance... what FS's do people usually use with MacOS?
HFS/HFS+?

(Is the point "no-one uses MacOS", or "no-one's hacking on HFS
in Linux"?)

> P.S. Can't get you a real map right now, but email me later if you want
> it.

That would be useful, thanks :-)

Andrew Clausen

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Re: GNU Parted, linuxppc support coming :-)

[Daniel Jacobowitz]

On Wed, Jul 05, 2000 at 09:07:49AM +1000, Andrew Clausen wrote:
> Each partition gets one block (yes?).  So thats 20 * 512?
> (From comments in various programs, most disks have 512 byte blocks...)

CDROMs, for example, often have 2048-byte blocks.  You can get the
block size out of the disk header somewhere, IIRC.

> > There seems to be a shortage of HFS folks these days. :) But ext2
> > resizing sounds very cool.
>
> Excuse my ignorance... what FS's do people usually use with MacOS?
> HFS/HFS+?

Yes, that's right.

> (Is the point "no-one uses MacOS", or "no-one's hacking on HFS
> in Linux"?)

The latter.

Dan

/--------------------------------\  /--------------------------------\
|       Daniel Jacobowitz        |__|        SCS Class of 2002       |
|   Debian GNU/Linux Developer    __    Carnegie Mellon University   |
|         dan@debian.org         |  |       dmj+@andrew.cmu.edu      |
\--------------------------------/  \--------------------------------/

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Re: GNU Parted, linuxppc support coming :-)

[Michel Lanners]

Hi all,

>> Excuse my ignorance... what FS's do people usually use with MacOS?
>> HFS/HFS+?

Something  wanted to add to a previous mail in the thread:

Don't forget that there are lots of Macs that _absolutely_ need at least
one HFS partition and an Aple partition map on one of there disks,
because that's the only thing the ROM can boot some OS from.

AFAICT, all pre-NewWorld machines are in this case, except maybe some
that can be tweaked to network boot...

Michel

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Michel Lanners                 |  " Read Philosophy.  Study Art.
23, Rue Paul Henkes            |    Ask Questions.  Make Mistakes.
L-1710 Luxembourg              |
email   mlan@cpu.lu            |
http://www.cpu.lu/~mlan        |                     Learn Always. "


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Re: GNU Parted, linuxppc support coming :-)

[Ethan Benson]

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On Thu, Jul 06, 2000 at 07:37:34AM +0200, Michel Lanners wrote:
> 
> Hi all,
> 
> >> Excuse my ignorance... what FS's do people usually use with MacOS?
> >> HFS/HFS+?
> 
> Something  wanted to add to a previous mail in the thread:
> 
> Don't forget that there are lots of Macs that _absolutely_ need at least
> one HFS partition and an Aple partition map on one of there disks,
> because that's the only thing the ROM can boot some OS from.
> 
> AFAICT, all pre-NewWorld machines are in this case, except maybe some
> that can be tweaked to network boot...

oldworld macs this is true i think.  newworld macs CAN boot from a
disk with DOS partition tables, but you have to configure OpenFirmware
to non-standard settings.  with a small Apple_Bootstrap partition in
HFS format setup by ybin will boot with defaults.

-- 
Ethan Benson
http://www.alaska.net/~erbenson/

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Re: GNU Parted, linuxppc support coming :-)

[Timothy A. Seufert]

At 9:07 PM -0800 7/7/00, Ethan Benson wrote:
>On Thu, Jul 06, 2000 at 07:37:34AM +0200, Michel Lanners wrote:
>>
>>  Hi all,
>>
>>  >> Excuse my ignorance... what FS's do people usually use with MacOS?
>>  >> HFS/HFS+?
>>
>>  Something  wanted to add to a previous mail in the thread:
>>
>>  Don't forget that there are lots of Macs that _absolutely_ need at least
>>  one HFS partition and an Aple partition map on one of there disks,
>>  because that's the only thing the ROM can boot some OS from.
>>
>>  AFAICT, all pre-NewWorld machines are in this case, except maybe some
>>  that can be tweaked to network boot...
>
>oldworld macs this is true i think.

Not completely true.  They do have to have a Mac partition table but
I'm pretty sure you can get away without any HFS partitions if you
use quik to boot.  Granted, that's a pain, but it can be done.

   Tim Seufert

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Re: GNU Parted, linuxppc support coming :-)

[Michel Lanners]

Hi all,

On   8 Jul, this message from Timothy A. Seufert echoed through cyberspace:
>>>  Don't forget that there are lots of Macs that _absolutely_ need at least
>>>  one HFS partition and an Aple partition map on one of there disks,
>>>  because that's the only thing the ROM can boot some OS from.
>>>
>>>  AFAICT, all pre-NewWorld machines are in this case, except maybe some
>>>  that can be tweaked to network boot...
>>
>>oldworld macs this is true i think.
>
> Not completely true.  They do have to have a Mac partition table but
> I'm pretty sure you can get away without any HFS partitions if you
> use quik to boot.  Granted, that's a pain, but it can be done.

You are right. OF only accesses the boot block of a partition marked
bootable. It probably doesn't know filesystems at all.

Michel

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Michel Lanners                 |  " Read Philosophy.  Study Art.
23, Rue Paul Henkes            |    Ask Questions.  Make Mistakes.
L-1710 Luxembourg              |
email   mlan@cpu.lu            |
http://www.cpu.lu/~mlan        |                     Learn Always. "


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Re: GNU Parted, linuxppc support coming :-)

[Michel Dänzer]

Andrew Clausen wrote:
>
> I'm trying to support the Mac partition map, but I'll need some help,
> since I don't have a PowerPC :-(
>
> Could someone send me their partition map?  You can get this with:
>
>         # dd if=/dev/hda bs=512 count=MAP-SIZE | gzip | map.gz
>
> If you don't know how big your partition map (+1 for driver block) is,
> then 64 should do (?).  (What's a reasonable size for a partition
> map?)

Does parted support Amiga partition maps? If not, I'm sure APUS users will
gladly send you their partition maps...


Michel


--
UNIX is like Sex:
If you don't know it, you don't miss it. But if you know it, you'll need it.
______________________________________________________________________________
Earthling Michel Dänzer (MrCooper)  \  CS student and free software enthusiast
Debian GNU/Linux (powerpc,i386) user \   member of XFree86, Team *AMIGA*, AUGS

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Re: GNU Parted, linuxppc support coming :-)

[Andrew Clausen]

Michel Dänzer wrote:
> Does parted support Amiga partition maps?

No.  Not yet ;-)

> If not, I'm sure APUS users will gladly send you their partition
> maps...

I'm not ready for that yet :-/  Are there any good docs around?

Thanks!
Andrew clausen

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Re: GNU Parted, linuxppc support coming :-)

[Iain Sandoe]

Andrew Clausen wrote:
> Hollis Blanchard wrote:
>> Andrew Clausen wrote:

>> > Note: I'm not adding HFS support at this stage - it's a LOT of work.
>> > So you'll be able to resize ext2 partitions in the near future, but
>> > not HFS partitions :-/  Unless there are some volunteers...
>>
>> There seems to be a shortage of HFS folks these days. :) But ext2
>> resizing sounds very cool.
>
> Excuse my ignorance... what FS's do people usually use with MacOS?
> HFS/HFS+?
>
> (Is the point "no-one uses MacOS", or "no-one's hacking on HFS
> in Linux"?)

People are still using a hybrid of both - this is because dual-boot machines
(e.g. all of mine) must use HFS if they want to talk to linux.

However, HFS is deprecated in the Mac world and is/will be replaced by HFS+
which includes the necessary support for MacOS X/Darwin and fits more
comfortably into the u*ix world (in general).

There is an Apple Paper on the issues
(http://www.mit.edu/people/wsanchez/papers/USENIX_2000/) which is quite
readable.

There are also some developers on the list who are actively working on HFS+
(I should be contributing, sorry guys, but am a bit tied up with audio stuff
right now).

We should keep HFS/HFS+ support - because there are still reasons to
dual/multi-boot Macs (e.g. Darwin work and some apps/stuff which just isn't
there on Linux... yet).

Hope that helps,
Iain.

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