From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: util-linux-owner@vger.kernel.org Received: from mail-ie0-f174.google.com ([209.85.223.174]:61426 "EHLO mail-ie0-f174.google.com" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1757747Ab3K0UXq (ORCPT ); Wed, 27 Nov 2013 15:23:46 -0500 Received: by mail-ie0-f174.google.com with SMTP id at1so12658030iec.5 for ; Wed, 27 Nov 2013 12:23:45 -0800 (PST) Message-ID: <529654CF.1010904@gmail.com> Date: Wed, 27 Nov 2013 13:23:43 -0700 From: Curtis Gedak MIME-Version: 1.0 To: Phillip Susi , Karel Zak CC: Marc MERLIN , util-linux@vger.kernel.org Subject: Re: Severe fdisk problem leading to data loss? References: <20131118102051.GA31813@merlins.org> <20131124135226.GH11389@merlins.org> <20131125103124.GQ5572@x2.net.home> <529605B7.3020903@ubuntu.com> <20131127145840.GB32483@x2.net.home> <52963910.60800@ubuntu.com> <52964ED3.8030504@gmail.com> <5296515A.1070505@ubuntu.com> In-Reply-To: <5296515A.1070505@ubuntu.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Sender: util-linux-owner@vger.kernel.org List-ID: On 13-11-27 01:08 PM, Phillip Susi wrote: > On 11/27/2013 2:58 PM, Curtis Gedak wrote: >> Unfortunately at least one company produces devices that have >> partitions with ID set to 0, yet these same partitions contain >> data. >> >> An Apple iPod Shuffle is such an example as shown in the following >> fdisk output: > Wow, what is in there? And more hilariously, what happens when you > plug the thing into a Windows machine and try to create a partition in > the "free space"? > > Also, I thought iPods don't use the USB MASS STORAGE protocol so they > don't show up as a block device at all; you have to use iTunes to > access them. IIRC, the partition with ID = 0 contains the firmware for the Apple iPod. The device is recognized in GNU/Linux, and files can be copied to and from the FAT partition. However, since the iPod firmware uses a database to keep track of songs, only songs transferred to the device using "iPod aware" software will be seen by the iPod music player. Amarok is an example of a native GNU/Linux application that is iPod aware. IMHO Apple's choice of using an ID of zero for the firmware partition is a poor decision. With that being said, these devices with this strange ID setting do exist in the real world. Curtis