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author | srs5694 <srs5694@users.sourceforge.net> | 2010-05-23 13:06:10 -0400 |
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committer | srs5694 <srs5694@users.sourceforge.net> | 2010-05-23 13:06:10 -0400 |
commit | 0e197dc9a45789ea52ff65d7378822843894f135 (patch) | |
tree | 12109053b7a33ce8e841e3a921747603c8a9cac4 /NEWS | |
parent | 9ba5421f920e192dbb808d30aa6d34849938bab4 (diff) | |
download | gptfdisk-0e197dc9a45789ea52ff65d7378822843894f135.tar.gz |
Added NEWS file
Diffstat (limited to 'NEWS')
-rw-r--r-- | NEWS | 628 |
1 files changed, 628 insertions, 0 deletions
@@ -0,0 +1,628 @@ +0.6.8 (5/23/2010): +------------------ + +- Added tests to see if the file to be opened is a directory, + character device, FIFO, or socket; program now terminates if any of + these conditions is met. (Linux/FreeBSD/OS X only.) Thanks to an + anonymous contributor for this patch. + +- Added 'f' option on gdisk's experts' menu (-G/--randomize-guids in + sgdisk). This option randomizes the disk's GUID and all partitions' + GUIDs. Intended for use after cloning a disk with a utility that copies + the GUIDs intact (such as a raw dd copy) if you want each disk copy to + have its own set of GUIDs. + +- Added -u/--partition-guid and -U/--disk-guid options to sgdisk. These are + the equivalents of the 'g' and 'c' options, respectively, on the gdisk + experts' menu: They enable adjusting an individual partition's GUID or a + disk's GUID. The GUID may be either a fully specified GUID value or 'R' + or 'r' to set a random GUID value. + +- Fixed compile problem for FreeBSD (its math library lacks a log2() + function). Also created separate Makefile.freebsd with a couple of + FreeBSD-specific options. + +- Added -N (--largest-new) command to sgdisk. This command creates a single + partition that fills the largest single unpartitioned block of space on + the disk. + +- Fixed sgdisk man page error: the --change-name option was incorrectly + listed as --change. + +- Added 'h' option to gdisk experts' menu (-C or --recompute-chs in sgdisk) + to recompute all protective/hybrid MBR CHS values. This option is + intended to work around a bug in at least one BIOS that prevents the + computer from booting when the GPT-mandated (but technically illegal) + 0xFFFFFF CHS value is used as the end point for a protective MBR. The + recomputed values will be legal (e.g., 0xFEFFFF instead of 0xFFFFFF), + but incorrect in GPT terms, and will therefore enable at least one + BIOS to boot with a GPT disk. See http://www.rodsbooks.com/gdisk/bios.html + for all I know about BIOS/GPT incompatibilities. + +0.6.7 (5/1/2010): +----------------- + +- Undid earlier change, with version 0.6.4, that wiped the MBR boot loader + when doing MBR-to-GPT conversions. I've now become skeptical that MBR + boot loaders were causing any real problems on GPT disks, so I'm going + back to the philosophy of leaving as much alone as possible. + +- Fixed bug that caused incorrect reporting of free space on 0-size disks + (e.g., files of 0 length passed as disk images). + +- Fixed bug that caused segfault on some invalid disks + +- Fixed bug that caused incorrect partition numbers to be displayed for + some verify problems. + + +0.6.6 (3/21/2010): +----------------- + +- Added support for the "no block IO protocol" (referred to as "hide from + EFI" in GPT fdisk) and "legacy BIOS bootable" attribute bits. See Table + 19 of the UEFI 2.3 specification (p. 153) for details. + +- Changed the sequence in which GPT data structures are written to disk; + backups are now written first, followed by the main structures. This is + as recommended in the UEFI 2.3 specification, since it's safer in the + extremely unlikely event that a RAID array's size is increased and + there's a power outage mid-write. (If the main structures are written + first in this case, they'll point to data that's not yet been written; + but by writing the backups first, the old main structures will still + point to the valid old backup structures.) + +- Protective MBRs now have disk signatures of 0x00000000, to better + conform with GPT as described in the UEFI 2.3 specification. + +- Added alignment information to the summary data produced by the + 'p' main-menu option in gdisk or the -p option to sgdisk. + +- More alignment changes: GPT fdisk now attempts to determine the alignment + value based on alignment of current partitions, if any are defined. If no + partitions are defined, a default value of 2048 is set. If the computed + value is less than 8 on drives over about 596GiB, it's reset to 8, since + the drive might be a WD Advanced Format unit that requires an 8-sector + (or larger power-of-2) alignment value for best performance. The + 2048-sector default provides better alignment in some RAID + configurations. + +- Changed behavior when a backup restore fails. Previously, GPT fdisk + would create a fresh blank set of partitions. Now it does so only + if the failure occurs when interpreting the backup's contents; if the + user typed the wrong filename, the in-memory data structures aren't + touched. + + +0.6.5 (3/7/2010): +----------------- + +- Added tests to verify ('v') function and to pre-save checks to look for + partitions that end before they begin or that are too big for their + disks. + +- Fixed a bug that could cause spurious data to appear in a grown partition + table. + +- Added ability to convert some or all partitions to logical partitions in + GPT-to-MBR conversion. This feature is limited by the fact that at least + one free sector must exist immediately prior to each logical partition, + so it won't do much good if partitions are crammed together. It should be + possible to convert back to MBR any disk that started that way, provided + no partitions were added or resized when the disk was in GPT form; and + disks that were partitioned with Apple's Disk Utility or other tools that + insert unpartitioned space should also be convertible. CAUTION: THE + LOGICAL PARTITION CREATION FEATURE DOESN'T TRY TO ALIGN PARTITIONS OR + PARTITION HEADER DATA TO CYLINDER BOUNDARIES! It's conceivable that some + older OSes or utilities will object to these disks, although Linux, OS X, + Windows Vista, and Windows 7 all seem happy with them. + +- Fixed bug that caused creation of 0-length file if an incorrect device + filename was typed. + +- The gdisk program now prompts for a device filename if it's called with + no options. This enables gdisk to do something useful if it's launched by + double-clicking its icon in a GUI environment. + +- Added workaround for bug in some versions of MinGW that caused the + program to garble input sector numbers. + +- The Windows version now works on disks with over-512-byte sectors. + Tested on a magneto-optical (MO) drive with 2048-byte sectors. + +- Added -D (--display-alignment) option to sgdisk, to display sector + alignment value (by default, 1 for sub-800GiB disks and 8 for disks + over that size). + +- Fixed bug in computation of CHS geometries for protective MBR. This is + non-critical, since most modern utilities ignore the CHS geometries. + Concerned users can use the 'n' option on the experts' menu to build new + protective MBRs with the new algorithm, if desired. (Note that GNU + Parted, at least, gets this wrong, too.) + +- Fixed memory-allocation bug when reading GPT disks with partition tables + with over 128 entries; could cause program to crash on startup. + +0.6.4-2 (2/20/2010): +-------------------- + +Note: Neither of the following changes affects actual program code, so I've +left the version number in the program at 0.6.4. + +- Altered Makefile to pass user's compiler and linker environment + variables through. + +- Added #include to gpttext.cc to enable it to compile on the latest + GCC versions (it was failing on at least some 4.4.x compilers). + +0.6.4 (2/19/2010): +------------------- + +- Added -m (--gpttombr) option to sgdisk, enabling conversion of GPT + disks to MBR format, with a limit of four partitions total, and of course + without overcoming the 2TiB limit. + +- Added -h (--hybrid) option to sgdisk, enabling creation of hybrid + MBRs. Fewer options are available in sgdisk than in gdisk, though, + in order to keep the user interface manageable. + +- Fixed off-by-one bug in specification of partition when using the + -T (--transform-bsd) option in sgdisk. + +- Changed the code to create a new MBR unique disk signature whenever a new + protective MBR is generated (when doing an MBR-to-GPT conversion, when + using the 'n' option on the experts' menu, or when using the 'o' option + on the main menu, for example). Previous versions attempted to preserve + the existing MBR disk signature in most cases, but this resulted in + values of 0x00000000 whenever an empty disk was partitioned, and often in + other cases, too. Better to risk changing this value too often than to + leave multiple disks with 0x00000000 values, I think. + +- Added transpose ('t' on experts' menu in gdisk; or -r or --transpose in + sgdisk) command to enable fine-tuning partition order without doing a + full sort. + +- Added code to clear the MBR boot loader when doing an MBR-to-GPT + conversion. (This was already done in full-disk BSD-to-GPT conversions.) + This is done because I've seen a few problem reports that make me think + some MBR boot loaders freak out and hang the system when they encounter + GPT disks, and/or they attempt to load a second-stage boot loader stored + in what is now GPT territory, causing a system hang. Since MBR boot + loaders don't work on GPT disks anyhow (even GRUB needs to be + reinstalled), this new wiping behavior shouldn't cause any problems, and + may prevent a few. + +- Fixed bug in Windows version that prevented saving backup files. + +- Fixed bug that caused second and subsequent partition numbers in + prompts in hybrid MBR conversion procedure to be displayed in + hexadecimal. + +- Fixed very obscure potential bug in hybrid MBR/GPT synchronization when + deleting partitions; code wasn't matching partition lengths correctly, + which would only affect partitions that start at the same point but have + different lengths in MBR vs. GPT. + +- Fixed bug in the -E option to sgdisk; it was actually returning the + last free sector, not the last free sector in the largest free block. + +- Fixed bug in -t option to sgdisk; it was corrupting partition type + codes. + +- Fixed minor alignment bug in partition summary list ('p' from any menu) + when partition sizes are between 1000 and 1024 units. + +- Backup restore function ('l' on recovery & transformation menu) now + accepts both backups generated by GPT fdisk and backups created by a + direct copy (via dd, etc.) of the MBR, main GPT header, and main GPT + partition table, in that order. ("dd if=/dev/sda of=backup.gpt bs=512 + count=34" will do this on Linux for a disk with a typical-sized GPT table + of 128 entries.) + +0.6.3 (2/3/2010): +------------------ + +- Fixed serious data corruption bug on big-endian (PowerPC and similar) + systems. + +- Changed several GPT fdisk Solaris type codes to correct a duplicate + +- Corrected error in GPT fdisk type codes for NetBSD LFS and NetBSD RAID; + they were identical, but I've now changed NetBSD RAID to A906, which + is unique. + +- Added GUID for IBM General Parallel File System (GPFS) partition type + code. Somewhat arbitrarily set it to use the 7501 number (MBR code 0x75 + is used by IBM PC/IX, so it's at least the right company, by my loose + numbering rules....). + +- Improved GUID generation. Prior versions generated completely random + numbers for GUIDs. This works, but is technically a violation of the + spec. Unix versions now employ libuuid to generate GUIDs in a more + correct way. The Windows version still generates random numbers, though. + +- Turned PartTypes class into a derived class of GUIDData, and renamed + it to PartType. + +- Created new GUIDData class, to replace the original GUIDData struct. + +0.6.2 (1/29/2010): +------------------ + +- The change-type ('t' on main menu) option now changes the partition's + name *IF* the current name is the generic one for the partition type. + If the current name is not the generic name, it is NOT changed. + +- Fixed bug that caused new protective MBR to not be created when the + MBR was invalid and the GPT was damaged and the user opts to try to + use the GPT data. + +- Enabled default partition type code of 0700 when creating partitions + or changing their type codes. (Type 0700, Linux/Windows data, is set if + the user hits the Enter key alone.) + +- Fixed bug in sort ('s' on main menu) option that caused partition + numbers to begin at more than 1 if the original partition list had + too many empty partitions before the last one defined. + +- Improved code to determine which partition table to load in case of + CRC mismatches between the partition tables and the stored CRC values + in the headers. + +- Compiles using MinGW (http://www.mingw.org) to create a Windows binary. + +- Moved all disk I/O functions to the new DiskIO class. This helps with the + Windows port; it uses diskio-windows.cc for Windows-specific code, + diskio-unix.cc for the Linux, FreeBSD, and OS X code, and diskio.cc for + cross-platform disk I/O code. + +- Changed BSD disklabel detection code to be more correct (I think). + This change has no effect on my test disks, but I hope it'll work + better on disks with sector sizes other than 512 or 2048. + +0.6.1 (1/20/2010): +------------------ + +- Fixed bug that returned incorrect disk size on 32-bit versions of + FreeBSD. + +- Fixed bug that prevented FreeBSD version from working on disk image + files. + +- Fixed bug that caused BSD disklabel conversion to fail. + +0.6.0 (1/15/2010): +------------------ + +- Fixed bug that caused the convert to MBR function to fail. + +- Added support for disks with other than 512-byte sectors. + +- Created embryonic sgdisk program. + +- Fixed bug that caused relative sector numbers entered by users (e.g, + "+128M") to be misinterpreted as from the start of the range rather than + from the default value. + +0.5.3 (1/4/2010): +----------------- + +- Fixed bug in display of GUIDs when compiled with some versions of GCC. + +- Eliminated warnings caused by additional checks in latest versions of + GCC. These warnings were harmless, but to eliminate them I've added + more error checking on disk I/O. + +- Eliminated unnecessary warnings about potential data loss if the program + was launched with the -l option or if writes aren't possible. + +- Added code to set the partition boundary value based on the physical + sector size. (FindAlignment() function.) This function, however, works + only on Linux, and then only if the BLKPBSZGET ioctl is defined. This + ioctl is new in kernel 2.6.32 or thereabouts. + +0.5.2 (12/31/2009): +------------------- + +- Modified partition creation function to begin partitions on 8-sector + boundaries by default. This improves performance on the new Western + Digital Advanced Format drives. The new 'd' and 'l' options on the + experts' menu display and change, respectively, the boundary size. + +- Tweaked code to produce fewer warnings on the latest versions of + GCC. + +0.5.1: +------ + +- Made some minor edits to the man page. + +- Incorporated RPM .spec file changes contributed by Scott Collier + (boodle11@gmail.com). + +- Changed method of locating and loading backup GPT data, to use the + main header's pointer, if it's valid, rather than seeking to the + end of the disk. + +- Added 'e' option (relocate backup GPT data structures) to the experts' + menu. + +- Fixed bug that prevented recovery of partitions in case of partially + damaged GPT data (bad main and good backup or bad backup and good + main header, for instance). + +0.5.0: +------ + +- Added GPT-to-MBR conversion function. It's very limited, but potentially + useful in some cases. + +- Fixed bug that caused incorrect file sizes to be reported on 32-bit + Linux, thus causing problems when editing partition tables in disk images + or when loading GPT backup files. + +- Fixed bug that caused bogus CRC error reports when loading backup GPT + data. + +- Reorganized menus. There are now three: the main menu, the experts' menu, + and the recovery & transformation menu. The last of these has most of the + items that had been on the earlier versions' experts' menu. + +- Added ability to re-load the MBR and generate a fresh GPT from it. This + is normally identical to quitting and re-running the program, but it + could be handy if, say, the GPT partitions on a hybrid configuration are + badly messed up; this will enable using the hybridized partitions as the + starting point for a new GPT setup. + +- The program now generates CHS values for hybrid and GPT-to-MBR conversion + MBRs. For the moment, the assumption is the maximum number of heads and + sectors per track (255 and 63, respectively), although the bulk of the + code supports other values -- it'd just be awkward to enter the data in + the user interface. + +- Fixed minor display bug that caused number of sectors on the disk to be + shown as 0 on large disks when running 32-bit binaries. + +- Reverted 0.4.2's zap (destroy GPT) changes, since I don't want to wipe + out a valid MBR if the user created that MBR over an older GPT without + first properly wiping out the GPT, and the user now wants to wipe out + the GPT. + +- Reformatted and edited the man page. Aside from edits related to the + preceding program changes, I've altered the markup slightly and trimmed + much of the more tutorial information from the man page to better + conform to typical terse man page style. + +0.4.2: +------ + +- Code cleanup. + +- Fixed very small formatting bug in display of hex code when a match isn't + found when converting from an MBR/gdisk hex code to a GUID type code. + +- Added the ability to work on disk image files (raw files for virtual + machines, backup images, etc.). The program assumes that all such disk + image files have 512-byte sectors. + +- Added verification prompt to 'o' main-menu option to avoid accidental + erasures of all partitions. + +- The "destroy GPT data structures" option ('z' on the experts' menu) now + also destroys all EFI GPT (0xEE) partitions in the MBR. + +- Added an extra warning to the "destroy GPT data structures" option if an APM + or BSD disklabel was detected on the disk. + +- Added a buffer flush after destroying GPT data structures, to get the OS + to read the new (empty or MBR-only) partition table. + +- Fixed bug that allowed entry of nonexistent partition numbers when creating + a hybrid MBR. + +0.4.1: +------ + +- Code cleanup/re-organization + +- Partition creation function ('n' on main menu) now uses the start of the + largest available chunk of free space rather than the first available + sector as the default starting sector number. This should enable easier + partition creation if there are small bits of free space on the disk. + +- You can now specify the end point of a partition by using a minus sign, + in which case the end point is the default value minus the specified + size. For instance, "-200M" creates a partition that ends 200MiB before + the default end point. + +- You can now specify the start point of a partition by using a plus or + minus sign, in which case the start point is the specified distance from + the start (+) or end (-) of free space. This is exactly the same as the + new rules for entry of the end point, except that the default value is + set differently. + +- Deleting a partition now checks for a matching hybrid MBR partition, and + if one is found, it's deleted. Any empty space that then surrounds the + 0xEE (EFI GPT) MBR partitions is then added to the nearby 0xEE partition. + If no non-0xEE partitions are left, a fresh protective MBR is generated. + +- Added hybrid MBR consistency check to the verify ('v') option and to + pre-write checks. If non-0xEE/non-0x00 MBR partitions without + corresponding GPT partitions are found, the user is warned. This finding + does NOT prevent writing the partition table, though. + +- Added non-destructive write test when opening the device file, in order + to detect the problem with FreeBSD being unable to write to disks with + mounted partitions (or other potential problems). + +0.4.0: +------ + +- Added support for BSD disklabels. The program can now convert disks that + use "raw" disklabels, with the caveat that the first partition will + almost certainly need to be deleted because it'll overlap the main GPT + header; and convert disklabels contained within a GPT (or a former MBR, + converted to GPT) partition. In the latter case, the 'b' main menu option + is used. + +- Added support for compiling on FreeBSD. + +- Fixed bug that could cause crashes or incomplete sorts when sorting + the partition table. + +- New partitions, including converted ones, now take on the name of the + partition type as a default name. + +- Reorganized some code; created a separate C++ class for GPT partitions + (GPTPart), which replaced a struct and enabled moving code from the + bloated GPTData class into GPTPart. + +- Fixed a bug that produced spurious warnings about unknown sector sizes + when loading a backup file. + +0.3.5: +------ + +Note: This version was not officially publicly released; I wanted to test +the big-endian support while developing 0.4.0. + +- Tweaked the disk type identification code to warn users to re-sync their + hybrid MBRs when one is detected. + +- Tweaked MBR-reading code to ignore 0xEE (EFI GPT) partitions. This will + only have an effect on a poorly partitioned MBR disk that contains an + inappropriate EFI GPT partition, or when attempting to recover a + corrupted disk by using the hybrid MBR for data recovery. + +- Added big-endian (PowerPC, etc.) support! + +- Added code to identify and warn of the presence of an Apple Partition + Map (APM) on the disk. + +- Enabled MBR conversion code to handle multiple logical partitions. + +0.3.4: +------ + +- Fixed bug that enabled (possibly accidental) entry of MBR type codes of + 0x00 in GPTData::MakeHybrid(). The fix also enables entry of default + type code by pressing the Enter key when prompted. Applied a similar + fix to the entry of the type code for the second protective partition, + if one is used. + +- Fixed a typo: "sectors" was spelled "sectprs" in one spot! + +- Fixed bug that caused default entry for end sector to be refused if an + initial value using a plus sign (e.g., "+20G") was also refused. + +0.3.3: +------ + +- Gave users control over the way MBR partitions are assigned to slots in a + hybrid MBR setup; the original method (putting the 0xEE partition after + the real partitions) works well for non-boot disks, but both GRUB and + GRUB2 become confused by this type of setup, so it needs changing. + +- Changed "blocks" to "sectors" in GPT and MBR table displays. + +- Added "Boot" column to MBR table display; shows an asterisk (*) when the + partition's status is bootable. + +0.3.2: +------ + +- Changed __DARWIN_UNIX03 to __APPLE__ as code to enable MacOS X support. + +- Added the ability to create a hybrid MBR ('h' on experts' menu). This was + motivated by my discovery that Windows 7 remains brain-dead when it comes + to the ability to boot from a GPT disk, at least on BIOS-based machines. + +- Added 'z' option to experts' menu, to destroy GPT data structures and + exit. The intent is to use this feature to enable subsequent partitioning + of the disk using fdisk or other GPT-unaware tools. (GNU Parted will wipe + the GPT data structures itself when you create a new MBR ["msdos + disklabel," in Parted parlance], so using Parted is another option.) + +- Slightly altered the effect of the 'o' command on the main menu. It now + blanks out the protective MBR, as well as the GPT data. + +0.3.1: +------ + +- Added Mac OS X support, provided as a patch by David Hubbard + (david.c.hubbard@gmail.com). + +- Fixed bug in disksize() function on Mac OS. (Possibly dependent on the + kernel and/or GCC version.) The disk size, of type uint64_t, was not + being passed correctly, so I reorganized the function to return it as + the function's return value rather than as a parameter. This seems to + work OK on my Mac OS test system and on both 32- and 64-bit Linux + systems. + +- Fixed off-by-one bug in GPTData::FindLastAvailable(). + +- Fixed bug that caused display of options after a disk-write error. + +- Fixed several incorrect MacOS X partition type GUIDs, thanks to Yves + Blusseau (1otnwmz02@sneakemail.com). + +0.3.0: +------ + +- Changed version number to 0.3.0, reflecting the fact that I've received + no significant bug reports and so am elevating the program to "beta" + status. This change also entailed altering the warning the program + displays when saving partition table changes. + +- Fixed minor bug in CHS geometry of the protective MBR's type EE partition + (was producing 0x000200 as the start value, but should be 0x000100). + Should be a non-critical bug since the protective MBR partition + definition is only there to keep MBR-only disk utilities from messing + with the disk. + +- Added ability to enter GUIDs as single massive strings rather than in + chunks. + +0.2.2: +------ + +- Added #include directives required to compile the program using GCC + 4.4.0. + +0.2.1: +------ + +- Fixed partition numbering problem in reports of partition overlaps in + verification function. + +- Fixed 1-sector partition size problem when creating new partitions + (partitions were 1 sector too big when using the +size option). + +- Changed BytesToSI() to display values in bytes without decimal points + (e.g., "512 bytes" rather than "512.0 bytes"). + +- Added GPTData class member functions to retrieve GPT data structure + locations on disk; used in my internal-use-only GPT-wiping program. + +- Eliminated the "a reboot is recommended" notice after writing the + partition table. + +- Added notice after sorting the partition table to the effect that + editing /etc/fstab and/or the boot loader files may be required. + +- Fixed bug in MBR-reading function that caused 0x0f (Win95 LBA) and 0x85 + (Linux extended) extended partitions to not be read. + +- Fixed bug in GetLastSector() (in support.cc) that would have prevented + correct user entry of over-32-bit sector numbers on 32-bit systems. + +- Made some changes/corrections to the partition type list in + parttypes.cc. Most of these were based on newly-discovered MBR type + codes for Apple (Mac OS X) filesystems. + +- General code cleanup (setting explicit casts, etc.) + +0.2.0: +------ + +- Initial semi-public release |