GPT Partitioning

Support

1. booting and utilising GPT-partitioned disks is supported by the kernel (from late 2.6 kernels) & core utilities
   • many distributions, particularly smalller ones, do not implement this support by default
     • a pointer to lack of support is that the live-CD boots & runs normally, but the installer finds no suitable HDD

Pre-Requisites

Bootloader

either

1. GPT-aware bootloader
   • patched GRUB >= 0.97
   • GRUB 2
   • elilo
2. second boot device
   • CD/DVD
   • USB
   • MBR HDD

Kernel & Utilities

1. the bootloader, wherever located, must then boot an operating system, that is GPT-aware

Transition Phase

GPT is part of the emerging UEFI environment for computers. Various combinations of pre-UEFI & UEFI equipment will cause complications during the transition phase. For more detail and solutions to some combinations see

http://www.rodsbooks.com

http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/linux/library/l-gpt/index.html

As a general rule, the following combinations can be booted directly:

1. BIOS mainboard firmware (or UEFI firmware behaving as a BIOS) plus GPT partitioned HDD
   • HDD requires (first) partition pre-configured as type ef02 and
   • "apparent partition 1" pre-configured with boot flag, using fdisk or cfdisk
     • non-GPT tools must be used to set this flag
2. UEFI mainboard firmware plus GPT partitioned HDD
   • Linux installer should set this up automatically by
     • creating partition 1 as type ef00 and formatting as FAT32
     • installing UEFI & GPT aware bootloader

--Rpeters09:34, 22 October 2012 (EST) --