Q: Does/Will Alt-F support GPT partitioning (i.e. HDDs larger than 3TB)

[scaramanga]

Does Alt-F support GPT partitioning (i.e. HDDs larger than 3TB)?
If not, will this feature be added?

[Joao Cardoso]

On Fri, May 20, 2011 at 8:54 PM, scaramanga <smur...@gmail.com> wrote:

Does Alt-F support GPT partitioning (i.e. HDDs larger than 3TB)?

No, only classical partitioning
 

If not, will this feature be added?

It is not in my plans.

Perhaps if busybox supports it with negligible code-memory requirements I will change my mind.
The gdisk executable, for the 86 family, takes about 400KB, and we are low on flash space -- what could we drop in order to free some memory space?

[scaramanga]

Flash memory is a problem, I agree, but, maybe, there's a way around
it. Correct my if I'm wrong here, but since we don't boot from the
HDDs, supporting GPT can be broken into two parts:
1. A Kernel that supports GPT.
2. Tools that create/edit GPT partitions.

Maybe compiling the Kernel with the options that add support for GPT
won't require that much more memory. Then 2 can be added as an extra
package. Can this be done?

I should've added that the reason I'm asking about it is because 3TB
drives are becoming very common. Also, it seems like D-Link answers
regarding GPT support are not encouraging.

On May 21, 4:08 am, Joao Cardoso <whoami.jc...@gmail.com> wrote:

[Joao Cardoso]

On May 21, 4:24 pm, scaramanga <smurf...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Flash memory is a problem, I agree, but, maybe, there's a way around
> it. Correct my if I'm wrong here, but since we don't boot from the
> HDDs, supporting GPT can be broken into two parts:
> 1. A Kernel that supports GPT.
> 2. Tools that create/edit GPT partitions.
>
> Maybe compiling the Kernel with the options that add support for GPT
> won't require that much more memory. Then 2 can be added as an extra
> package. Can this be done?

It's like the egg-chicken problem: to use the package files the
partition has to be mounted, and to mount it we need the package
files.

Of course one could put the package in a disk with a MBR-based
partitioning, but it would be difficult and prone to errors.
Also, device enumeration occurs asynchronously, and only once -- if
the disk/partition kernel event is lost or ignored because the
package files are not yet available, the disk/partition event will be
lost and the disk not seen by the "hot-pluger".
Of course one could rescan the /sys/block tree after the package files
are available (in the MBR-based disk) but again it is not a clean
design.

> I should've added that the reason I'm asking about it is because 3TB
> drives are becoming very common.

Really?

> Also, it seems like D-Link answers
> regarding GPT support are not encouraging.

Sorry :-(

I can still provide gdisk as a package, and you could mount the
partitions manually. But you still need one MBR-based partitioned disk

[scaramanga]

Saying 3TB drives are "very common" was a mistake on my part. I
should've written they're becoming more common. Sorry about that.
You clearly understood what I was hoping can be accomplished. And I
agree, it's not a clean design, but at least it's doable, which might
be more than what D-Link is willing to provide (still need to see
about that).

Having an upgrade path from MBR to GPT is better than nothing.

Thank you.