From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: util-linux-owner@vger.kernel.org Received: from mta02.eastlink.ca ([24.224.136.13]:54453 "EHLO mta02.eastlink.ca" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1750966AbdJDJ33 (ORCPT ); Wed, 4 Oct 2017 05:29:29 -0400 Received: from emgw02.eastlink.ca ([71.7.199.174]) by mta02.eastlink.ca (Oracle Communications Messaging Server 7.0.5.37.0 64bit (built Jan 25 2016)) with ESMTP id <0OXA0055AJN4Q4B1@mta02.eastlink.ca> for util-linux@vger.kernel.org; Wed, 04 Oct 2017 05:59:28 -0300 (ADT) Date: Wed, 04 Oct 2017 05:59:26 -0300 To: Karel Zak Cc: Bruce Dubbs , Util-Linux Subject: Re: fdisk request for functionality (or info) Message-id: <20171004085926.GI18363@cordes.ca> References: <59D3C162.4050005@gmail.com> <20171004082728.if274peupxjljbxd@ws.net.home> MIME-version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii In-reply-to: <20171004082728.if274peupxjljbxd@ws.net.home> From: Peter Cordes Sender: util-linux-owner@vger.kernel.org List-ID: On Wed, Oct 04, 2017 at 10:27:28AM +0200, Karel Zak wrote: > The tricky thing is that fdisks by default see GPT partition, so you > have to force the tools to ignore GPT and use PMBR. Would it be possible to add a more user-friendly way to present this to the user? Maybe a special command to toggle the PMBR bootable flag while looking at the GPT? That would make the complexity / existence of the PMBR more discoverable for users, because it would show up in the built-in help command output while looking at the GPT. Toggling bootable is just about the only useful thing you can do with the PMBR on a GPT disk, and by far the most common, so "hiding" that functionality / status when looking at the bootability of GPT isn't ideal. > 3) use sfdisk: > > sfdisk --label-nested dos --activate /dev/sda 1 That's pretty non-obvious. I don't think many people would come up with that on their own if they aren't partitioning / sfdisk experts. Of course it makes a good recipe, so hopefully people will find it with google. -- #define X(x,y) x##y Peter Cordes ; e-mail: X(peter@cor , des.ca) "The gods confound the man who first found out how to distinguish the hours! Confound him, too, who in this place set up a sundial, to cut and hack my day so wretchedly into small pieces!" -- Plautus, 200 BC