Bug 496564 – 32-bit identifiers in MBR

• Status: RESOLVED FIXED
• Product: [OLD] Docs on www.gentoo.org

[Description Vladimir Romanov (RETIRED) 2013-12-31 07:47:45 UTC]

In file hb-install-x86+amd64-disk.xml

The <e>MBR (Master Boot Record)</e> setup uses 32-bit identifiers for partitions.

Well, if you are talking about LBA number of sector of beginning of a partition and for size - it's OK (From this, 2TB Limitation of MBR occurs). But it is not only identifiers in MBR. For example, there is 1-byte partition TYPE stored in MBR. From your message (32-bit identifiers), one may think, that identifier for partition type is also 32-bit wide. And he will be confused later, when you say change partition type to 82 (swap).

Also, GPT uses GUID for partition types, so this is important difference also.

Reproducible: Always

[Comment 1 Sven Vermeulen (RETIRED) 2013-12-31 20:31:31 UTC]

Any suggestions to make it more correct, without having to introduce the MBR structure itself to the user?

Perhaps "The MBR (Master Boot Record) setup uses 32-bit identifiers in its partition structure" ?

I don't think it is necessary to introduce the user here to the gritty details of this any further than what is currently in place.

[Comment 2 Vladimir Romanov (RETIRED) 2014-01-01 05:02:05 UTC]

Something like "MBR uses 32-bit identifiers for start sector and length of partition"

[Comment 3 Sven Vermeulen (RETIRED) 2014-01-23 19:43:43 UTC]

Thanks; I've used that sentence in the docs now (should show up on the site in an hour or so).