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List:       grub-devel
Subject:    Re: workaround for MS Windows' insanity (ignores partition types / hidden flag since 2018)
From:       Marcel Partap <mpartap () gmx ! net>
Date:       2019-11-18 7:44:06
Message-ID: 45a8636c-1265-f2dd-f6b1-c3a5a444b2d6 () gmx ! net
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> > On Wed, 13 Nov 2019, 17:12 Marcel Partap, <address@hidden> wrote:
> > […] I propose to add a flag that overrides this code:
> > > static inline int
> > > grub_msdos_partition_is_empty (int type)
> > > {
> > > return (type == GRUB_PC_PARTITION_TYPE_NONE);
> > > }
> > to allow booting from partitions of type 0 empty/none.
> > 
> From my limited impact analysis (rg -pzLuuC50 partition_is_empty), the only change \
> in behaviour would be grub not failing to boot from such a partition.
Other opinions on this?

> Type 0 means that entry is empty and changing this is to expose bunch of garbage \
> partition
Where would these come from? I never encountered a partition of type 0 in the wild.. \
No software seems to put partitions into the part table, then flag them as empty.. \
which is why this should be a no-impact fix, especially when it is a grub config \
flag.

> and this is behavior followed by other consumers like Linux and BSD.
Yes of course the current behaviour is default because it is sane. But in a world \
where insane software still plays a dominating rule, sometimes conscious non-sane \
workarounds can be an apt kludge.

> However we can assist you in finding a better solution. Did you already consider \
> alternative partition maps? I'd try msdos+gpt or msdos+BSD or msdos+sunpc.

Yes I tried with hybrid DOS/GPT partition scheme, no dice.

> Another workaround is to put some fake FAT structures that will end up as showing \
> as a FS. You can even put some explanation files there

That might be a way, but I would have no idea how to do that and it is somewhat more \
complex to apply..

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