From owner-freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Tue May 22 19:14:45 2007 Return-Path: X-Original-To: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org Delivered-To: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [69.147.83.52]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 5BBA916A400 for ; Tue, 22 May 2007 19:14:45 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from xcllnt@mac.com) Received: from smtpout.mac.com (smtpout.mac.com [17.250.248.173]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 4608413C44B for ; Tue, 22 May 2007 19:14:45 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from xcllnt@mac.com) Received: from mac.com (smtpin08-en2 [10.13.10.153]) by smtpout.mac.com (Xserve/smtpout03/MantshX 4.0) with ESMTP id l4MJEh0L001602; Tue, 22 May 2007 12:14:43 -0700 (PDT) Received: from [172.24.104.227] (natint3.juniper.net [66.129.224.36]) (authenticated bits=0) by mac.com (Xserve/smtpin08/MantshX 4.0) with ESMTP id l4MJEDrV022462 (version=TLSv1/SSLv3 cipher=AES128-SHA bits=128 verify=NO); Tue, 22 May 2007 12:14:20 -0700 (PDT) In-Reply-To: <20070522185843.GB15806@nowhere> References: <20070522134224.GA15806@nowhere> <947EA233-415A-4086-A965-76C6EF6A8830@mac.com> <20070522185843.GB15806@nowhere> Mime-Version: 1.0 (Apple Message framework v752.3) Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; delsp=yes; format=flowed Message-Id: Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit From: Marcel Moolenaar Date: Tue, 22 May 2007 12:14:12 -0700 To: Craig Boston X-Mailer: Apple Mail (2.752.3) X-Brightmail-Tracker: AAAAAA== X-Brightmail-scanned: yes Cc: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org, Ivan Voras Subject: Re: GPT boot loader? X-BeenThere: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Technical Discussions relating to FreeBSD List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Tue, 22 May 2007 19:14:45 -0000 On May 22, 2007, at 11:58 AM, Craig Boston wrote: > On Tue, May 22, 2007 at 02:34:02PM -0400, Marcel Moolenaar wrote: >> GPT is not designed to be a sub-partitioning scheme. It can not be >> used within a partition. As such, absolute block addresses are the >> same as relative block addresses. As such, no mistake has been made >> yet. > > Ah, that does make sense. Does the GPT specification actually say > absolute block addresses? No. It actually hints strongly towards relative addressing: "The EFI firmware produces a logical BLOCK_IO device for each EFI Partition Entry, El Torito logical device volume, and if no EFI Partition Table is present any partitions found in the partition tables. Logical block address zero of the BLOCK_IO device will correspond to the first logical block of the partition." ... "EFI supports the nesting of legacy MBR partitions, by allowing any legacy MBR partition to contain more legacy MBR partitions. This is accomplished by supporting the same partition discovery algorithm on every logical block device. It should be noted that the GUID Partition Table does not allow nesting of GUID Partition Table Headers. Nesting is not needed since a GUID Partition Table Header can support an arbitrary number of partitions (the addressability limits of a 64-bit LBA is the limiting factor)." So: addressing is relative by implication (i.e. by the use of logical block addresses) and the only reason GPT cannot be nested is that it's considered unnessesary. Not because GPT is not to use relative/logical block addresses. > That would seem to be redundant if the spec > also forbids its use inside a partition. I can't seem to find the > actual documents for GPT anywhere. GPT is defined in the EFI specification. Look for the EFI specification. I consider that the authoritative specification. >> FreeBSD actually creates a GPT with relative addresses, which means >> that if we allow it to be used to sub-partition partitions, it would >> not have the same problem as the BSD label. > > I suppose we're being nonstandard either way, so I'll keep my fingers > crossed that this continues to be the case :) Not is this respect. We still don't allow GPTs to be nested so the issue is moot :-) -- Marcel Moolenaar xcllnt@mac.com