Package: partitionmanager Version: 1.0.2-1 Severity: important Tags: upstream
KDE Partition Manager 1.0.2 lacks a feature which it seems is needed with modern large hard drives - specifically the ability to specify partition alignment when creating new partitions. More accurately, the feature is needed when creating partitions on drives with 4KB physical sectors but which still report a logical sector size of 512 bytes (so-called first-generation "advanced format" drives) which is a feature of most modern drives over about 1TB in size. On such drives, if a partition is created starting at a logical sector which is itself not at the beginning of a 4KB physical sector then disk transfers to/from such a partition may require 2 physical sectors to be transferred when 1 would have otherwise been sufficient, depending on filesystem cluster size, access pattern (sequential/random) and transfer direction (read/write), potentially resulting in serious performance problems. See [1] [2] [3] [4] [5]. The situation is complex, and I may not have understood it completely :-) It is compounded by an apparent difference of opinion among drive manufacturers as to whether sector numbering should begin at 0 (traditional) or 1 (easier for 4K-drive firmware ?) - see the LKML thread at [6]. At any rate the general advice seems to be that if partitions are aligned to MiB boundaries on advanced format drives then the performance problems will be avoided. This means the first partition on the drive will start at sector 2048, rather than the traditional sector 63 - which will be fine unless the drive needs to be shared (dual-booted) with a Windows<=XP installation (in which case I haven't been able to figure out what is recommended). Since at least 2012, GParted has had a partition alignment widget (a dropdown) on the 'new partition' dialog, offering a choice of cylinder, MiB, or 'none' for the alignment attribute (I assume 'none' means "logical sector alignment"). Unless partitionmanager is somehow automagically detecting the need for 4KiB-style alignment and silently doing the Right Thing, then I suggest it needs enhancing to offer a similar alignment choice. I note there is a new upstream partitionmanager version 1.1.0, at a new homepage [7], where it is stated the changes include "support for GPT partition tables, and some nice GUI improvements in the area of partition widget design" (paraphrasing), but there are no screen shots, and I'm still attempting to understand the source code to see whether or not partition alignment issues are addressed. If the new version *does* address the problem then bug 754580 filed against package pkg-kde-extras by Colin Watson [8] (a request for version 1.1.0 to be packaged) will probably be sufficient for Jessie+ releases. [1] http://hothardware.com/Reviews/WDs-1TB-Caviar-Green-w-Advanced-Format-Windows-XP-Users-Pay-Attention/?page=2 [2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/4_KB_sector_alignment#512e [3] http://johannes-bauer.com/linux/wdc/?menuid=3 [4] http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/library/l-4kb-sector-disks/ [5] https://ata.wiki.kernel.org/index.php/ATA_4_KiB_sector_issues [6] https://lkml.org/lkml/2009/2/25/444 [7] https://stikonas.eu/wordpress/?p=8 [8] https://bugs.debian.org/754580 Sorry for the length of this bug report - it seemed helpful to try to give a full statement of the problem. -- System Information: Debian Release: 7.6 APT prefers stable-updates APT policy: (500, 'stable-updates'), (500, 'stable') Architecture: i386 (i686) Kernel: Linux 3.2.0-4-686-pae (SMP w/2 CPU cores) Locale: LANG=en_GB.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=en_GB.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8) Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/dash Versions of packages partitionmanager depends on: ii kdebase-runtime 4:4.8.4-2 ii libblkid1 2.20.1-5.3 ii libc6 2.13-38+deb7u3 ii libgcc1 1:4.7.2-5 ii libkdecore5 4:4.8.4-4+deb7u1 ii libkdeui5 4:4.8.4-4+deb7u1 ii libkio5 4:4.8.4-4+deb7u1 ii libparted0debian1 2.3-12 ii libqtcore4 4:4.8.2+dfsg-11 ii libqtgui4 4:4.8.2+dfsg-11 ii libstdc++6 4.7.2-5 ii libuuid1 2.20.1-5.3 partitionmanager recommends no packages. Versions of packages partitionmanager suggests: ii dosfstools 3.0.13-1 pn hfsplus <none> pn hfsutils <none> pn jfsutils <none> pn ntfsprogs <none> pn reiser4progs <none> pn reiserfsprogs <none> pn xfsprogs <none> -- no debconf information -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-bugs-dist-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org