Re: [Gptfdisk-general] [PATCH] Add partition type GUIDs for encrypted Linux partitions

[Rod S. <rod...@ro...>]

On 05/30/2015 12:41 PM, Daniel Milewski wrote:
> I saw them missing in gptfdisk. Here are the resources I took
> these types from:

The type codes you're suggesting be added were proposed on a mailing
list over a year ago:

http://www.saout.de/pipermail/dm-crypt/2014-January/thread.html#3855

I believe it was also posted to the parted mailing list, and maybe
even here.

The trouble is that the response from Linux developers was
overwhelmingly negative. No Linux developer found the case for the
existence of such a code to be compelling, and the redundant
information poses a risk of getting out of sync with actual partition
contents. No Linux partitioning tool or encryption utility actually
uses those codes. I just did a Google search and found no evidence of
greater acceptance since the code was proposed.

Furthermore, although the number of GUIDs is huge, supporting every
possible code somebody might dream up is impractical for GPT fdisk,
because it increases the size of the list shown when a user types "L"
to get that code list. An increased list size makes it harder to find
the codes that are actually being used, so supporting these codes
would degrade GPT fdisk's user interface experience.

Thus, unless and until I learn that these codes are actually being
used, I will not add them to GPT fdisk's code list. An individual who
wants to use them may still do so by entering the GUID value directly,
but there's really very little benefit to this. From a user interface
perspective, the partition description is a more flexible way to
identify the partition's purpose for humans. The type codes are most
useful for OSes and utilities.

> * 
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GUID_Partition_Table#Partition_type_GUIDs
>
> 
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Partition_type#List_of_partition_IDs
> 
> I think they are reliable since they link to the previous
> discussion on the dm-crypt mailing list.
> 
> diff -ruN gptfdisk-1.0.0.original/parttypes.cc
> gptfdisk-1.0.0/parttypes.cc ---
> gptfdisk-1.0.0.original/parttypes.cc        2015-03-17
> 23:50:38.000000000 +0100 +++ gptfdisk-1.0.0/parttypes.cc 2015-05-30
> 17:06:36.976927570 +0200 @@ -203,6 +203,10 @@ AddType(0xc001,
> "75894C1E-3AEB-11D3-B7C1-7B03A0000000", "HP-UX data"); 
> AddType(0xc002, "E2A1E728-32E3-11D6-A682-7B03A0000000", "HP-UX
> service");
> 
> +   // Encrypted Linux partitions +   AddType(0xe800,
> "CA7D7CCB-63ED-4C53-861C-1742536059CC", "Linux LUKS"); +
> AddType(0xe801, "7FFEC5C9-2D00-49B7-8941-3EA10A5586B7", "Linux
> dm-crypt"); + // See
> http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Specifications/BootLoaderSpec 
> AddType(0xea00, "BC13C2FF-59E6-4262-A352-B275FD6F7172",
> "Freedesktop $BOOT");
> 
> 
> 
> 
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> 
> 
> 
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> 


-- 
Rod Smith
rod...@ro...
http://www.rodsbooks.com