Hello, after having created a new GPT partitioning on a HP rx6600 (that is going to retire), trying to install Linux failed, because the partitioning is not detected by parted 2.3 (the version used in the SLES11 SP3 installation): --- Rescue:~ # parted /dev/sda GNU Parted 2.3 Using /dev/sda Welcome to GNU Parted! Type 'help' to view a list of commands. (parted) print Error: Both the primary and backup GPT tables are corrupt. Try making a fresh table, and using Parted's rescue feature to recover partitions. Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B (parted) version
GNU Parted 2.3 (parted) quit --- Dumping the first 10 sectors of the disk seemed to indicate a GPT partiotion table, however: --- Rescue:~ # dd if=/dev/sda bs=512 count=10 of=mbr10 10+0 records in 10+0 records out 5120 bytes (5.1 kB) copied, 0.00399801 s, 1.3 MB/s Rescue:~ # hexdump -C mbr10 00000000 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |................| * 000001b0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 36 ad ab e6 00 01 |..........6.....| 000001c0 00 00 ee ff ff ff 01 00 00 00 ff ff ff ff 00 00 |................| 000001d0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |................| * 000001f0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 55 aa |..............U.| 00000200 45 46 49 20 50 41 52 54 00 00 01 00 5c 00 00 00 |EFI PART....\...| 00000210 41 f5 c1 6f 00 00 00 00 01 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |A..o............| 00000220 ff ff 7b 08 00 00 00 00 40 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |..{.....@.......| 00000230 bf ff 7b 08 00 00 00 00 90 ad ab e6 5c 6a e4 11 |..{.........\j..| 00000240 80 00 d6 21 7b 60 e5 88 02 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |...!{`..........| 00000250 0c 00 00 00 80 00 00 00 90 a3 f9 e5 00 00 00 00 |................| 00000260 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |................| * 00000400 28 73 2a c1 1f f8 d2 11 ba 4b 00 a0 c9 3e c9 3b |(s*......K...>.;| 00000410 9c b0 ab e6 5c 6a e4 11 80 00 d6 21 7b 60 e5 88 |....\j.....!{`..| 00000420 40 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ff 9f 0f 00 00 00 00 00 |@...............| 00000430 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 45 00 46 00 49 00 00 00 |........E.F.I...| 00000440 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |................| * 00000480 1e 4c 89 75 eb 3a d3 11 b7 c1 7b 03 a0 00 00 00 |.L.u.:....{.....| 00000490 d8 b0 ab e6 5c 6a e4 11 80 00 d6 21 7b 60 e5 88 |....\j.....!{`..| 000004a0 00 a0 0f 00 00 00 00 00 ff 77 6f 08 00 00 00 00 |.........wo.....| 000004b0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 48 00 50 00 2d 00 55 00 |........H.P.-.U.| 000004c0 58 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |X...............| 000004d0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |................| * 00000500 28 e7 a1 e2 e3 32 d6 11 a6 82 7b 03 a0 00 00 00 |(....2....{.....| 00000510 ec b0 ab e6 5c 6a e4 11 80 00 d6 21 7b 60 e5 88 |....\j.....!{`..| 00000520 00 78 6f 08 00 00 00 00 ff f7 7b 08 00 00 00 00 |.xo.......{.....| 00000530 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 48 00 50 00 20 00 44 00 |........H.P. .D.| 00000540 69 00 61 00 67 00 6e 00 6f 00 73 00 74 00 69 00 |i.a.g.n.o.s.t.i.| 00000550 63 00 73 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |c.s.............| 00000560 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |................| * 00001400 Rescue:~ # --- At the time (7 years ago) when we were using HP-UX (and GPT) I once had a problem with GPT, and GNU parted of that time also had failed to recognize the partitions. At that tiome I had begun to write my own partition GPT checker (which I never completed due to lack of test systems). I recompiled my old HP-UX Itanium code for SLES x86, and it seems the GPT partitioning is mostly valid, according to my program (I couldn't connect the 73GB disk, so I only used an image of the first 100 sectors; this is why checking the backup table at the end failed). I guess you can figure out what the output means: --- ~/src/C/GPT/x86_64-any-sles11> ./gptutil ../mbr100 Disk ../mbr100 Protective MBR: MBR failed test "is Protective MBR" at level 0/2 Found invalid Protective MBR MBR Signature =55 aa Unique Signature =36adabe60001 Partition 1: Boot Indicator: non-bootable Starting Head = 1 Starting Sector = 0 Starting Cylinder = 0 System ID = 0xee Ending Head = 255 Ending Sector = 63 Ending Cylinder = 1023 Relative Sectors = 1 Total Sectors =MAX (>= 2TB) GPT Header at LBA 1: EFI Signature =OK Revision =1.0 (0x00010000) Header Size =92 CRC Checksum =0x6fc1f541 Primary LBA = 1 Backup LBA = 142344191 First Usable LBA = 64 Last Usable LBA = 142344127 Disk GUID =e6abad90-6a5c-11e4-8000-d6217b60e588 Partition Entry LBA = 2 Number of Partition Entries =12 Size of Partition Entry =128 Partition Entry Array CRC32 =0xe5f9a390 Partition Entry = 1 Partition Type GUID =c12a7328-f81f-11d2-ba4b-00a0c93ec93b Partition Entry GUID =e6abb09c-6a5c-11e4-8000-d6217b60e588 Starting LBA = 64 Ending LBA = 1023999 Attribute Bits = 0x0000000000000000 Partition Name =EFI 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 Partition Entry = 2 Partition Type GUID =75894c1e-3aeb-11d3-b7c1-7b03a0000000 Partition Entry GUID =e6abb0d8-6a5c-11e4-8000-d6217b60e588 Starting LBA = 1024000 Ending LBA = 141522943 Attribute Bits = 0x0000000000000000 Partition Name =HP-UX 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 Partition Entry = 3 Partition Type GUID =e2a1e728-32e3-11d6-a682-7b03a0000000 Partition Entry GUID =e6abb0ec-6a5c-11e4-8000-d6217b60e588 Starting LBA = 141522944 Ending LBA = 142342143 Attribute Bits = 0x0000000000000000 Partition Name =HP Diagnostics 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 Partition Entry = 4 Partition Type GUID =Unused Partition Entry = 5 Partition Type GUID =Unused Partition Entry = 6 Partition Type GUID =Unused Partition Entry = 7 Partition Type GUID =Unused Partition Entry = 8 Partition Type GUID =Unused Partition Entry = 9 Partition Type GUID =Unused Partition Entry = 10 Partition Type GUID =Unused Partition Entry = 11 Partition Type GUID =Unused Partition Entry = 12 Partition Type GUID =Unused Trying to read() 512 bytes at 72880225792 returned 0: short read Scanning for Backup GPT Header... Trying to read() 512 bytes at 72880225280 returned 0: short read Trying to read() 512 bytes at 72880224768 returned 0: short read [...] --- Please have a look what is broken in parted, and why it cannot provide better diagnostics. I had my GPT documentation from UEFI specs, Wikipedia (maybe), and some Microsoft tech papers... Regards, Ulrich