blob: 65128640ad51b24fe469bc1d16c3dfc83b2409a5 [file] [log] [blame]
srs5694a6297b82012-03-25 16:13:16 -040010.8.4 (3/25/2012):
2------------------
3
4- REALLY fixed Ctrl+D problems! Now gdisk terminates upon receiving a
5 Ctrl+D. In all previous versions, it could lock itself into a CPU-hogging
6 loop if launched via "sudo" from a terminal window that was then closed
7 or if Ctrl+D was pressed at certain input prompts (for a partition name
8 or sector number, for instance).
9
srs569434882942012-03-23 12:49:15 -0400100.8.3 (3/23/2012):
srs5694e842bc12012-02-03 11:27:05 -050011------------------
12
srs569434882942012-03-23 12:49:15 -040013- Fixed compilation problem on GCC 4.7.
14
15- Improved handling of Ctrl+D on some systems.
16
17- Added disk's name to message stating that a disk write was successful.
18
19- Fixed bug that caused creation of >2TiB partitions on 32-bit systems to
20 be truncated in sgdisk.
srs5694e842bc12012-02-03 11:27:05 -050021
220.8.2 (1/22/2012):
srs5694dcebe572012-01-22 15:03:42 -050023------------------
srs56940541b562011-12-18 16:35:25 -050024
srs5694706e5122012-01-21 13:47:24 -050025- Adjusted the code to support a number of partitions that's not a multiple
26 of the number of partition table entries that fits in a sector (normally
27 4 per sector). The program still rounds up, when necessary, when resizing
28 the partition table manually, but not when loading a partition table that
29 contains a peculiar number of partitions. This helps prevent spurious
30 error messages about CRC problems when loading some Solaris partition
31 tables.
32
srs5694e69e6802012-01-20 22:37:12 -050033- Fixed bugs relating to the handling of empty partitions; Solaris's ZFS
34 tools create weird empty partitions that are legal but that gdisk wasn't
35 handling properly. (Specifically, they sometimes have non-zero end
36 points; gdisk assumed empty partitions had end points of 0.)
37
srs56940541b562011-12-18 16:35:25 -050038- Fixed a bug that caused an infinite loop of input prompts if the user
39 pressed Ctrl+D.
40
41- Changed gdisk's first-sector input operation to specify a sector number
42 that's properly aligned as the default value. This eliminates the need
43 to alter that value and notify the user of the change when the user
44 hits "Enter" for the default value as the first partition on an empty
45 disk (as well as in some other situations).
46
srs569423d8d542011-10-01 18:40:10 -0400470.8.1 (10/1/2011):
srs5694d1b11e82011-09-18 21:12:28 -040048------------------
49
srs569423d8d542011-10-01 18:40:10 -040050- Fixed bug that could cause FixParts to keep a partition's assignment
51 as logical when FixPart could not actually do so. This could happen
52 when there are no gaps between two logical partitions. Some partitioning
53 tools can create such configurations, but FixParts can't. Such
54 configurations are extremely rare. I've only encountered them when
55 logical partitions are out of order.
56
57- Added code to detect infinite loops of logical partitions when reading
58 MBR data. When detected, the program now stops reading after the first
59 loop, so no duplicates appear in the partition list.
60
61- Fixed bug in partition overlap detection in MBR code.
62
srs5694d1b11e82011-09-18 21:12:28 -040063- Changed GPT reading code to use the size encoded in GPT headers to
64 determine how much of the header to use in computing a CRC, with the
65 restriction that the size be equal to or less than the disk's sector
66 size. This should work around problems with libefi in ZFS, which sets the
srs569423d8d542011-10-01 18:40:10 -040067 header size to 512 rather than the more common 92. A caveat: If the
68 disk's sector size is larger than the GPTHeader data structure size (512
69 bytes), then the rest of the sector's contents are ignored and replaced
70 with 0 values. This could produce false positives on CRC checks on disks
71 with over-512-byte sector sizes if the header sector is padded with
72 something other than 0 values.
srs5694d1b11e82011-09-18 21:12:28 -040073
74- Fixed bug in new (as of 0.8.0) check that main and backup partition
75 tables are identical on big-endian (PowerPC, etc.) hardware.
76
srs5694a17fe692011-09-10 20:30:20 -0400770.8.0 (9/10/2011):
78------------------
79
80- Added new return option for sgdisk: 8, which means that a replication
81 operation (-R or --replicate) failed. Note that other operations on
82 the same command line might still have succeeded.
83
84- Added gdisk_test.sh shell script, contributed by Guillaume Delacour.
85 This script tests some common gdisk and sgdisk operations to be sure
86 they're working correctly.
87
88- Enable sgdisk's -l (--load-backup) and -o (--clear) options to work
89 even on disks that are damaged. Most other options will still be ignored,
90 though, so if you suspect a disk may be bad and want to use one of these
91 options, you should do so on a line by itself, followed by a separate
92 command to perform other actions (such as adding new partitions).
93
94- Added check for mis-matched primary and backup partition tables.
95 A mismatch is reported as a CRC error.
96
97- Added Apple Core Storage partition type code (hex code AF05, GUID
98 53746F72-6167-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC).
99
100- Added cgdisk program to the family. This program is a rough workalike
101 to cfdisk, much as gdisk is a rough workalike to fdisk. See the cgdisk
102 man page or http://www.rodsbooks.com/gdisk/cgdisk-walkthrough.html for
103 details about its operation.
104
105- Fixed bug that caused CHS end point for protective MBR to be set to
106 0xfeffff rather than the spec-mandated 0xffffff on disks over ~8GB. This
107 is a very minor bug, since not much cares about this, and most other GPT
108 tools get it wrong in the same way, too.
109
srs569400b6d7a2011-06-26 22:40:06 -04001100.7.2 (6/26/2011):
srs56946aae2a92011-06-10 01:16:51 -0400111------------------
112
srs569400b6d7a2011-06-26 22:40:06 -0400113- The Windows version now (finally!) generates proper GUIDs rather than a
114 purely random number. This fixes a bug that caused Windows 7 to crash
115 when converting a disk from MBR format (but, oddly, not when creating a
116 fresh partition table or doing various other things).
117
118- Added a warning when an MBR partition is discarded because it's too
119 big for the disk.
120
121- Changed warning to Windows users about the dangers of converting to GPT
122 so that it appears only on disks that aren't already in GPT form.
123
124- Fixed bug that caused bogus "3" values to pad the ends of partition names
125 on some disks (particularly those created by Microsoft's disk
126 partitioning tools).
127
128- Made compilation without Unicode support possible (see README file)
129
130- Made default filesystem type code OS-dependent (based on the compilation
131 platform).
132
133- Added new Linux-only filesystem partition type GUID code,
134 0FC63DAF-8483-4772-8E79-3D69D8477DE4 (8300 entry code). Also changed name
135 of the EBD0A0A2-B9E5-4433-87C0-68B6B72699C7 (0700 entry code) to
136 "Microsoft basic data").
137
srs56946aae2a92011-06-10 01:16:51 -0400138- Fixed a bug that caused an incorrect code to be set for active/bootable
139 partitions when generating a hybrid MBR.
140
141- Enable entry of hex codes that begin with "0x" for both GPT and MBR
142 partitions.
143
144- Fixed bug that caused the boot loader code to be lost when creating a
145 hybrid MBR.
146
147- Fixed bug in sector input code that could produce improper values
148 if the user inputs ridiculously large "+" values.
149
srs5694699941e2011-03-21 21:33:57 -04001500.7.1 (3/21/2011):
151------------------
152
153- Added support for proper UTF-16LE partition names rather than the
154 "shortcut" that properly encoded only ASCII names. This support works
155 only in Linux, FreeBSD, and OS X, though, at least for the moment.
156 Although it's possible to compile this support into Windows when using
157 Visual C++, it doesn't seem to work properly. Since using this feature
158 would require distributing the ICU libraries with the Windows binary,
159 thus bloating the binary package's size to no effect, I've disabled it in
160 my standard Windows build, at least for now.
161
162- Added check to fixparts to keep it from operating on devices that
163 lack an existing MBR signature. (In 0.7.0, it could write an empty
164 MBR data structure to a device on which it was mistakenly launched.)
srs5694d3ba7a62011-03-13 11:51:34 -0400165
srs5694815fb652011-03-18 12:35:56 -0400166- Fixed bug that caused the protective MBR to not be written when
167 restoring a backup of the GPT data.
168
srs56945a608532011-03-17 13:53:01 -0400169- Fixed bug that caused second protective MBR partition, when created
170 as part of a hybrid MBR, to always be of type 0xEE, even when the
171 user specified something else.
172
srs5694c2f6e0c2011-03-16 02:42:33 -0400173- Integrated a number of code cleanups contributed by Florian Zumbiehl.
srs5694d3ba7a62011-03-13 11:51:34 -0400174
srs5694bf8950c2011-03-12 01:23:12 -05001750.7.0 (3/11/2011):
srs569464cbd172011-03-01 22:03:54 -0500176------------------
177
srs5694bf8950c2011-03-12 01:23:12 -0500178- Fixed bug that caused some types of logical partitions to be misread.
179
180- Created FixParts program, to fix problems on MBR-partitioned disks.
181 Although this program is part of the GPT fdisk family, it is NOT used on
182 GPT disks.
183
184- Completely redid the GPT-to-MBR code, used both for converting to MBR
185 form and for creating hybrid MBRs.
186
187- Fixed a bug that caused gdisk to "forget" some partitions if there were
188 numbering gaps when a conversion to MBR was aborted.
189
190- Improved CHS value creation on small (<~8GB) disks for protective MBR
191 and when creating hybrid MBRs or converting to MBR format. Linux-only,
192 for the moment; other platforms still produce bad CHS values on sub-~8GB
193 disks (but few OSes care these days).
194
srs569464cbd172011-03-01 22:03:54 -0500195- Enhanced disk replication features ('u' on the experts' menu in gdisk; -R
196 or --replicate in sgdisk). It's now possible to replicate the partition
197 table from a larger to a smaller disk, so long as all the partitions fit
198 on the smaller disk. In sgdisk, the secondary GPT data are moved
199 automatically if disk sizes don't match. In gdisk, the secondary GPT data
200 are moved automatically if the target disk is smaller than the source
201 disk; if the target disk is larger than the source disk, the user is
202 given the option of making this adjustment.
203
204- Fixed --load-backup (-l) option to sgdisk, which was broken.
205
206- Changed largest drive that's not given a minimum 4 KiB alignment even
207 when smaller alignment is detected on the disk to 300 GB.
208
srs5694bf8950c2011-03-12 01:23:12 -0500209- Fixed bug that prevented aborting a partition table backup ('u' on the
srs569464cbd172011-03-01 22:03:54 -0500210 experts' menu) by hitting the Enter key for the device filename.
211
srs5694bf8950c2011-03-12 01:23:12 -0500212- Implemented a number of code cleanups provided by Florian Zumbiehl.
srs569464cbd172011-03-01 22:03:54 -0500213
srs5694df9d3632011-01-08 18:33:24 -05002140.6.14 (1/8/2011):
215------------------
216
217- Made small change to the way the start sector is interpreted if you use a
218 "+" specification, as in "+2G" to locate a partition 2 GiB into the
219 default range. This change makes adjustments for sector alignment less
220 likely.
221
222- Modified sgdisk's -n (--new) option to work with relative start and end
223 values (which the man page incorrectly stated it already did). Values of
224 0 for the start and end sectors refer to the first and last available
225 sectors in the largest free block, and a partition number of 0 refers to
226 the first available partition.
227
228- Added ChromeOS GUID values to list of recognized partition type GUIDs.
229 7F00 = ChromeOS kernel, 7501 = ChromeOS root, 7502 = ChromeOS reserved.
230 Untested on actual ChromeOS system.
231
232- Tweaked APM detection to look for APM signature even if an MBR
233 signature has already been found. Helps in diagnosis of cases
234 in which an MBR has overwritten an APM disk.
235
srs5694058d4a52010-10-12 12:42:47 -04002360.6.13 (10/12/2010):
237--------------------
238
239- Added notification about nonexistent partitions to hybrid MBR creation
240 in gdisk.
241
242- Fixed bug in GPT-to-MBR conversion that could sometimes enable creation
243 of an extended partition that overlaps a preceding partition.
244
245- Fixed bug in GPT-to-MBR conversion that prevented creation of an MBR
246 table with logical partitions if there were four or fewer partitions.
247
srs56940873e9d2010-10-07 13:00:45 -04002480.6.12 (10/7/2010):
249-------------------
250
251- Adjusted alignment code to use 1 MiB alignment by default for drives with
252 other than 512-byte sector sizes. (Previous versions increased this --
253 for instance, to 4 MiB for drives with 2048-byte logical sector size.)
254
255- Entry of non-hexadecimal value for partition type code now causes
256 re-prompting for a new value, fixing a recently-introduced minor bug.
257
258- Fixed bug in sector entry using K/M/G/T/P suffixes on disks with
259 other-than-512-byte sector numbers.
260
261- Added "P" (PiB, pebibyte) suffix to suffixes accepted in entering
262 partition sizes.
263
264- Fixed bug that caused sgdisk to segfault if fed the (invalid)
265 "-A show" parameter. Now it terminates with a complaint about an invalid
266 partition number 0.
267
268- Removed warning when running on big-endian hardware, since this
269 support has been present for quite a while with no bug reports.
270
srs5694ab4b0432010-09-25 20:39:52 -04002710.6.11 (9/25/2010):
272-------------------
273
274- Added -F (--first-aligned-in-largest) option to sgdisk. This option is a
275 variant on -f (--first-in-largest); it returns the number of the first
276 sector that will be used in the largest free area, given the current
277 alignment value (set via -a/--set-alignment).
srs5694659eaf12010-08-23 11:26:12 -0400278
srs56945a081752010-09-24 20:39:41 -0400279- Streamlined GUID code entry in gdisk; it no longer offers the option
280 to enter GUIDs in separate segments.
srs569482f3f0b2010-09-22 10:50:24 -0400281
srs5694327129e2010-09-22 01:07:31 -0400282- The -t option to sgdisk now accepts GUID values as well as the
283 sgdisk/gdisk-specific two-byte hex codes.
284
285- Added check that the protective 0xEE MBR partition begins on sector 1
286 to the verify function. If it doesn't, a warning message is displayed,
287 but it doesn't count as an error.
288
289- Added check for overlapping MBR partitions to verify function (gdisk "v"
290 function on all menus; sgdisk -v/--verify function). Also warns about
291 multiple MBR 0xEE partitions (causes problems in some OSes).
292
293- Added check to GPT-to-MBR and hybrid MBR creation options to prevent
294 creation of disks with duplicate partitions. When told to create a disk
295 with duplicates, sgdisk now aborts with the error message "Problem
296 creating MBR!" When attempting to create a hybrid MBR with duplicates,
297 gdisk silently drops duplicate partitions, leaving fewer than requested.
298 Creating duplicates should not be possible in sgdisk when converting to
299 MBR form.
srs5694659eaf12010-08-23 11:26:12 -0400300
srs56949ddc14b2010-08-22 22:44:42 -04003010.6.10 (8/22/2010):
302-------------------
srs5694f9312b02010-07-06 15:39:51 -0400303
srs56949ddc14b2010-08-22 22:44:42 -0400304- Enable disk-wipe (-z and -Z) and verification (-v) operations in
305 sgdisk even if the disk is badly damaged.
306
307- Added support for setting attributes in sgdisk (-A/--attributes option)
308 in sgdisk.
309
310- Fixed bug that created backwards attribute field values (bit #2 was
311 entered as bit #61, etc.).
312
313- Fixed bug that caused creation of hybrid MBR to wipe out the MBR's boot
314 code.
315
316- Added ability to save partition table from one device to another (gdisk:
317 'u' on experts' menu; sgdisk: -R or --replicate option).
318
319- Fixed inaccessible -C/--recompute-chs option in sgdisk.
srs5694f9312b02010-07-06 15:39:51 -0400320
srs569461768bc2010-07-04 01:54:00 -04003210.6.9 (7/4/2010):
322------------------
323
324- Fixed minor error in sgdisk man page (--largest-new option requires
325 a partition number).
326
327- Fixed major bug in hybrid MBR creation, which caused incorrect
328 protective partition end point settings and occasionally other
329 problems.
330
srs56940e197dc2010-05-23 13:06:10 -04003310.6.8 (5/23/2010):
332------------------
333
srs569461768bc2010-07-04 01:54:00 -0400334- Added tests to see if the file to be opened is a directory, character
335 device, FIFO, or socket; program now terminates if any of these
336 conditions is met. (Linux/FreeBSD/OS X only.) Thanks to Justin Maggard
337 for this patch.
srs56940e197dc2010-05-23 13:06:10 -0400338
339- Added 'f' option on gdisk's experts' menu (-G/--randomize-guids in
340 sgdisk). This option randomizes the disk's GUID and all partitions'
341 GUIDs. Intended for use after cloning a disk with a utility that copies
342 the GUIDs intact (such as a raw dd copy) if you want each disk copy to
343 have its own set of GUIDs.
344
345- Added -u/--partition-guid and -U/--disk-guid options to sgdisk. These are
346 the equivalents of the 'g' and 'c' options, respectively, on the gdisk
347 experts' menu: They enable adjusting an individual partition's GUID or a
348 disk's GUID. The GUID may be either a fully specified GUID value or 'R'
349 or 'r' to set a random GUID value.
350
351- Fixed compile problem for FreeBSD (its math library lacks a log2()
352 function). Also created separate Makefile.freebsd with a couple of
353 FreeBSD-specific options.
354
355- Added -N (--largest-new) command to sgdisk. This command creates a single
356 partition that fills the largest single unpartitioned block of space on
357 the disk.
358
359- Fixed sgdisk man page error: the --change-name option was incorrectly
360 listed as --change.
361
362- Added 'h' option to gdisk experts' menu (-C or --recompute-chs in sgdisk)
363 to recompute all protective/hybrid MBR CHS values. This option is
364 intended to work around a bug in at least one BIOS that prevents the
365 computer from booting when the GPT-mandated (but technically illegal)
366 0xFFFFFF CHS value is used as the end point for a protective MBR. The
367 recomputed values will be legal (e.g., 0xFEFFFF instead of 0xFFFFFF),
368 but incorrect in GPT terms, and will therefore enable at least one
369 BIOS to boot with a GPT disk. See http://www.rodsbooks.com/gdisk/bios.html
370 for all I know about BIOS/GPT incompatibilities.
371
3720.6.7 (5/1/2010):
373-----------------
374
375- Undid earlier change, with version 0.6.4, that wiped the MBR boot loader
376 when doing MBR-to-GPT conversions. I've now become skeptical that MBR
377 boot loaders were causing any real problems on GPT disks, so I'm going
378 back to the philosophy of leaving as much alone as possible.
379
380- Fixed bug that caused incorrect reporting of free space on 0-size disks
381 (e.g., files of 0 length passed as disk images).
382
383- Fixed bug that caused segfault on some invalid disks
384
385- Fixed bug that caused incorrect partition numbers to be displayed for
386 some verify problems.
387
388
3890.6.6 (3/21/2010):
390-----------------
391
392- Added support for the "no block IO protocol" (referred to as "hide from
393 EFI" in GPT fdisk) and "legacy BIOS bootable" attribute bits. See Table
394 19 of the UEFI 2.3 specification (p. 153) for details.
395
396- Changed the sequence in which GPT data structures are written to disk;
397 backups are now written first, followed by the main structures. This is
398 as recommended in the UEFI 2.3 specification, since it's safer in the
399 extremely unlikely event that a RAID array's size is increased and
400 there's a power outage mid-write. (If the main structures are written
401 first in this case, they'll point to data that's not yet been written;
402 but by writing the backups first, the old main structures will still
403 point to the valid old backup structures.)
404
405- Protective MBRs now have disk signatures of 0x00000000, to better
406 conform with GPT as described in the UEFI 2.3 specification.
407
408- Added alignment information to the summary data produced by the
409 'p' main-menu option in gdisk or the -p option to sgdisk.
410
411- More alignment changes: GPT fdisk now attempts to determine the alignment
412 value based on alignment of current partitions, if any are defined. If no
413 partitions are defined, a default value of 2048 is set. If the computed
414 value is less than 8 on drives over about 596GiB, it's reset to 8, since
415 the drive might be a WD Advanced Format unit that requires an 8-sector
416 (or larger power-of-2) alignment value for best performance. The
417 2048-sector default provides better alignment in some RAID
418 configurations.
419
420- Changed behavior when a backup restore fails. Previously, GPT fdisk
421 would create a fresh blank set of partitions. Now it does so only
422 if the failure occurs when interpreting the backup's contents; if the
423 user typed the wrong filename, the in-memory data structures aren't
424 touched.
425
426
4270.6.5 (3/7/2010):
428-----------------
429
430- Added tests to verify ('v') function and to pre-save checks to look for
431 partitions that end before they begin or that are too big for their
432 disks.
433
434- Fixed a bug that could cause spurious data to appear in a grown partition
435 table.
436
437- Added ability to convert some or all partitions to logical partitions in
438 GPT-to-MBR conversion. This feature is limited by the fact that at least
439 one free sector must exist immediately prior to each logical partition,
440 so it won't do much good if partitions are crammed together. It should be
441 possible to convert back to MBR any disk that started that way, provided
442 no partitions were added or resized when the disk was in GPT form; and
443 disks that were partitioned with Apple's Disk Utility or other tools that
444 insert unpartitioned space should also be convertible. CAUTION: THE
445 LOGICAL PARTITION CREATION FEATURE DOESN'T TRY TO ALIGN PARTITIONS OR
446 PARTITION HEADER DATA TO CYLINDER BOUNDARIES! It's conceivable that some
447 older OSes or utilities will object to these disks, although Linux, OS X,
448 Windows Vista, and Windows 7 all seem happy with them.
449
450- Fixed bug that caused creation of 0-length file if an incorrect device
451 filename was typed.
452
453- The gdisk program now prompts for a device filename if it's called with
454 no options. This enables gdisk to do something useful if it's launched by
455 double-clicking its icon in a GUI environment.
456
457- Added workaround for bug in some versions of MinGW that caused the
458 program to garble input sector numbers.
459
460- The Windows version now works on disks with over-512-byte sectors.
461 Tested on a magneto-optical (MO) drive with 2048-byte sectors.
462
463- Added -D (--display-alignment) option to sgdisk, to display sector
464 alignment value (by default, 1 for sub-800GiB disks and 8 for disks
465 over that size).
466
467- Fixed bug in computation of CHS geometries for protective MBR. This is
468 non-critical, since most modern utilities ignore the CHS geometries.
469 Concerned users can use the 'n' option on the experts' menu to build new
470 protective MBRs with the new algorithm, if desired. (Note that GNU
471 Parted, at least, gets this wrong, too.)
472
473- Fixed memory-allocation bug when reading GPT disks with partition tables
474 with over 128 entries; could cause program to crash on startup.
475
4760.6.4-2 (2/20/2010):
477--------------------
478
479Note: Neither of the following changes affects actual program code, so I've
480left the version number in the program at 0.6.4.
481
482- Altered Makefile to pass user's compiler and linker environment
483 variables through.
484
485- Added #include to gpttext.cc to enable it to compile on the latest
486 GCC versions (it was failing on at least some 4.4.x compilers).
487
4880.6.4 (2/19/2010):
489-------------------
490
491- Added -m (--gpttombr) option to sgdisk, enabling conversion of GPT
492 disks to MBR format, with a limit of four partitions total, and of course
493 without overcoming the 2TiB limit.
494
495- Added -h (--hybrid) option to sgdisk, enabling creation of hybrid
496 MBRs. Fewer options are available in sgdisk than in gdisk, though,
497 in order to keep the user interface manageable.
498
499- Fixed off-by-one bug in specification of partition when using the
500 -T (--transform-bsd) option in sgdisk.
501
502- Changed the code to create a new MBR unique disk signature whenever a new
503 protective MBR is generated (when doing an MBR-to-GPT conversion, when
504 using the 'n' option on the experts' menu, or when using the 'o' option
505 on the main menu, for example). Previous versions attempted to preserve
506 the existing MBR disk signature in most cases, but this resulted in
507 values of 0x00000000 whenever an empty disk was partitioned, and often in
508 other cases, too. Better to risk changing this value too often than to
509 leave multiple disks with 0x00000000 values, I think.
510
511- Added transpose ('t' on experts' menu in gdisk; or -r or --transpose in
512 sgdisk) command to enable fine-tuning partition order without doing a
513 full sort.
514
515- Added code to clear the MBR boot loader when doing an MBR-to-GPT
516 conversion. (This was already done in full-disk BSD-to-GPT conversions.)
517 This is done because I've seen a few problem reports that make me think
518 some MBR boot loaders freak out and hang the system when they encounter
519 GPT disks, and/or they attempt to load a second-stage boot loader stored
520 in what is now GPT territory, causing a system hang. Since MBR boot
521 loaders don't work on GPT disks anyhow (even GRUB needs to be
522 reinstalled), this new wiping behavior shouldn't cause any problems, and
523 may prevent a few.
524
525- Fixed bug in Windows version that prevented saving backup files.
526
527- Fixed bug that caused second and subsequent partition numbers in
528 prompts in hybrid MBR conversion procedure to be displayed in
529 hexadecimal.
530
531- Fixed very obscure potential bug in hybrid MBR/GPT synchronization when
532 deleting partitions; code wasn't matching partition lengths correctly,
533 which would only affect partitions that start at the same point but have
534 different lengths in MBR vs. GPT.
535
536- Fixed bug in the -E option to sgdisk; it was actually returning the
537 last free sector, not the last free sector in the largest free block.
538
539- Fixed bug in -t option to sgdisk; it was corrupting partition type
540 codes.
541
542- Fixed minor alignment bug in partition summary list ('p' from any menu)
543 when partition sizes are between 1000 and 1024 units.
544
545- Backup restore function ('l' on recovery & transformation menu) now
546 accepts both backups generated by GPT fdisk and backups created by a
547 direct copy (via dd, etc.) of the MBR, main GPT header, and main GPT
548 partition table, in that order. ("dd if=/dev/sda of=backup.gpt bs=512
549 count=34" will do this on Linux for a disk with a typical-sized GPT table
550 of 128 entries.)
551
5520.6.3 (2/3/2010):
553------------------
554
555- Fixed serious data corruption bug on big-endian (PowerPC and similar)
556 systems.
557
558- Changed several GPT fdisk Solaris type codes to correct a duplicate
559
560- Corrected error in GPT fdisk type codes for NetBSD LFS and NetBSD RAID;
561 they were identical, but I've now changed NetBSD RAID to A906, which
562 is unique.
563
564- Added GUID for IBM General Parallel File System (GPFS) partition type
565 code. Somewhat arbitrarily set it to use the 7501 number (MBR code 0x75
566 is used by IBM PC/IX, so it's at least the right company, by my loose
567 numbering rules....).
568
569- Improved GUID generation. Prior versions generated completely random
570 numbers for GUIDs. This works, but is technically a violation of the
571 spec. Unix versions now employ libuuid to generate GUIDs in a more
572 correct way. The Windows version still generates random numbers, though.
573
574- Turned PartTypes class into a derived class of GUIDData, and renamed
575 it to PartType.
576
577- Created new GUIDData class, to replace the original GUIDData struct.
578
5790.6.2 (1/29/2010):
580------------------
581
582- The change-type ('t' on main menu) option now changes the partition's
583 name *IF* the current name is the generic one for the partition type.
584 If the current name is not the generic name, it is NOT changed.
585
586- Fixed bug that caused new protective MBR to not be created when the
587 MBR was invalid and the GPT was damaged and the user opts to try to
588 use the GPT data.
589
590- Enabled default partition type code of 0700 when creating partitions
591 or changing their type codes. (Type 0700, Linux/Windows data, is set if
592 the user hits the Enter key alone.)
593
594- Fixed bug in sort ('s' on main menu) option that caused partition
595 numbers to begin at more than 1 if the original partition list had
596 too many empty partitions before the last one defined.
597
598- Improved code to determine which partition table to load in case of
599 CRC mismatches between the partition tables and the stored CRC values
600 in the headers.
601
602- Compiles using MinGW (http://www.mingw.org) to create a Windows binary.
603
604- Moved all disk I/O functions to the new DiskIO class. This helps with the
605 Windows port; it uses diskio-windows.cc for Windows-specific code,
606 diskio-unix.cc for the Linux, FreeBSD, and OS X code, and diskio.cc for
607 cross-platform disk I/O code.
608
609- Changed BSD disklabel detection code to be more correct (I think).
610 This change has no effect on my test disks, but I hope it'll work
611 better on disks with sector sizes other than 512 or 2048.
612
6130.6.1 (1/20/2010):
614------------------
615
616- Fixed bug that returned incorrect disk size on 32-bit versions of
617 FreeBSD.
618
619- Fixed bug that prevented FreeBSD version from working on disk image
620 files.
621
622- Fixed bug that caused BSD disklabel conversion to fail.
623
6240.6.0 (1/15/2010):
625------------------
626
627- Fixed bug that caused the convert to MBR function to fail.
628
629- Added support for disks with other than 512-byte sectors.
630
631- Created embryonic sgdisk program.
632
633- Fixed bug that caused relative sector numbers entered by users (e.g,
634 "+128M") to be misinterpreted as from the start of the range rather than
635 from the default value.
636
6370.5.3 (1/4/2010):
638-----------------
639
640- Fixed bug in display of GUIDs when compiled with some versions of GCC.
641
642- Eliminated warnings caused by additional checks in latest versions of
643 GCC. These warnings were harmless, but to eliminate them I've added
644 more error checking on disk I/O.
645
646- Eliminated unnecessary warnings about potential data loss if the program
647 was launched with the -l option or if writes aren't possible.
648
649- Added code to set the partition boundary value based on the physical
650 sector size. (FindAlignment() function.) This function, however, works
651 only on Linux, and then only if the BLKPBSZGET ioctl is defined. This
652 ioctl is new in kernel 2.6.32 or thereabouts.
653
6540.5.2 (12/31/2009):
655-------------------
656
657- Modified partition creation function to begin partitions on 8-sector
658 boundaries by default. This improves performance on the new Western
659 Digital Advanced Format drives. The new 'd' and 'l' options on the
660 experts' menu display and change, respectively, the boundary size.
661
662- Tweaked code to produce fewer warnings on the latest versions of
663 GCC.
664
6650.5.1:
666------
667
668- Made some minor edits to the man page.
669
670- Incorporated RPM .spec file changes contributed by Scott Collier
671 (boodle11@gmail.com).
672
673- Changed method of locating and loading backup GPT data, to use the
674 main header's pointer, if it's valid, rather than seeking to the
675 end of the disk.
676
677- Added 'e' option (relocate backup GPT data structures) to the experts'
678 menu.
679
680- Fixed bug that prevented recovery of partitions in case of partially
681 damaged GPT data (bad main and good backup or bad backup and good
682 main header, for instance).
683
6840.5.0:
685------
686
687- Added GPT-to-MBR conversion function. It's very limited, but potentially
688 useful in some cases.
689
690- Fixed bug that caused incorrect file sizes to be reported on 32-bit
691 Linux, thus causing problems when editing partition tables in disk images
692 or when loading GPT backup files.
693
694- Fixed bug that caused bogus CRC error reports when loading backup GPT
695 data.
696
697- Reorganized menus. There are now three: the main menu, the experts' menu,
698 and the recovery & transformation menu. The last of these has most of the
699 items that had been on the earlier versions' experts' menu.
700
701- Added ability to re-load the MBR and generate a fresh GPT from it. This
702 is normally identical to quitting and re-running the program, but it
703 could be handy if, say, the GPT partitions on a hybrid configuration are
704 badly messed up; this will enable using the hybridized partitions as the
705 starting point for a new GPT setup.
706
707- The program now generates CHS values for hybrid and GPT-to-MBR conversion
708 MBRs. For the moment, the assumption is the maximum number of heads and
709 sectors per track (255 and 63, respectively), although the bulk of the
710 code supports other values -- it'd just be awkward to enter the data in
711 the user interface.
712
713- Fixed minor display bug that caused number of sectors on the disk to be
714 shown as 0 on large disks when running 32-bit binaries.
715
716- Reverted 0.4.2's zap (destroy GPT) changes, since I don't want to wipe
717 out a valid MBR if the user created that MBR over an older GPT without
718 first properly wiping out the GPT, and the user now wants to wipe out
719 the GPT.
720
721- Reformatted and edited the man page. Aside from edits related to the
722 preceding program changes, I've altered the markup slightly and trimmed
723 much of the more tutorial information from the man page to better
724 conform to typical terse man page style.
725
7260.4.2:
727------
728
729- Code cleanup.
730
731- Fixed very small formatting bug in display of hex code when a match isn't
732 found when converting from an MBR/gdisk hex code to a GUID type code.
733
734- Added the ability to work on disk image files (raw files for virtual
735 machines, backup images, etc.). The program assumes that all such disk
736 image files have 512-byte sectors.
737
738- Added verification prompt to 'o' main-menu option to avoid accidental
739 erasures of all partitions.
740
741- The "destroy GPT data structures" option ('z' on the experts' menu) now
742 also destroys all EFI GPT (0xEE) partitions in the MBR.
743
744- Added an extra warning to the "destroy GPT data structures" option if an APM
745 or BSD disklabel was detected on the disk.
746
747- Added a buffer flush after destroying GPT data structures, to get the OS
748 to read the new (empty or MBR-only) partition table.
749
750- Fixed bug that allowed entry of nonexistent partition numbers when creating
751 a hybrid MBR.
752
7530.4.1:
754------
755
756- Code cleanup/re-organization
757
758- Partition creation function ('n' on main menu) now uses the start of the
759 largest available chunk of free space rather than the first available
760 sector as the default starting sector number. This should enable easier
761 partition creation if there are small bits of free space on the disk.
762
763- You can now specify the end point of a partition by using a minus sign,
764 in which case the end point is the default value minus the specified
765 size. For instance, "-200M" creates a partition that ends 200MiB before
766 the default end point.
767
768- You can now specify the start point of a partition by using a plus or
769 minus sign, in which case the start point is the specified distance from
770 the start (+) or end (-) of free space. This is exactly the same as the
771 new rules for entry of the end point, except that the default value is
772 set differently.
773
774- Deleting a partition now checks for a matching hybrid MBR partition, and
775 if one is found, it's deleted. Any empty space that then surrounds the
776 0xEE (EFI GPT) MBR partitions is then added to the nearby 0xEE partition.
777 If no non-0xEE partitions are left, a fresh protective MBR is generated.
778
779- Added hybrid MBR consistency check to the verify ('v') option and to
780 pre-write checks. If non-0xEE/non-0x00 MBR partitions without
781 corresponding GPT partitions are found, the user is warned. This finding
782 does NOT prevent writing the partition table, though.
783
784- Added non-destructive write test when opening the device file, in order
785 to detect the problem with FreeBSD being unable to write to disks with
786 mounted partitions (or other potential problems).
787
7880.4.0:
789------
790
791- Added support for BSD disklabels. The program can now convert disks that
792 use "raw" disklabels, with the caveat that the first partition will
793 almost certainly need to be deleted because it'll overlap the main GPT
794 header; and convert disklabels contained within a GPT (or a former MBR,
795 converted to GPT) partition. In the latter case, the 'b' main menu option
796 is used.
797
798- Added support for compiling on FreeBSD.
799
800- Fixed bug that could cause crashes or incomplete sorts when sorting
801 the partition table.
802
803- New partitions, including converted ones, now take on the name of the
804 partition type as a default name.
805
806- Reorganized some code; created a separate C++ class for GPT partitions
807 (GPTPart), which replaced a struct and enabled moving code from the
808 bloated GPTData class into GPTPart.
809
810- Fixed a bug that produced spurious warnings about unknown sector sizes
811 when loading a backup file.
812
8130.3.5:
814------
815
816Note: This version was not officially publicly released; I wanted to test
817the big-endian support while developing 0.4.0.
818
819- Tweaked the disk type identification code to warn users to re-sync their
820 hybrid MBRs when one is detected.
821
822- Tweaked MBR-reading code to ignore 0xEE (EFI GPT) partitions. This will
823 only have an effect on a poorly partitioned MBR disk that contains an
824 inappropriate EFI GPT partition, or when attempting to recover a
825 corrupted disk by using the hybrid MBR for data recovery.
826
827- Added big-endian (PowerPC, etc.) support!
828
829- Added code to identify and warn of the presence of an Apple Partition
830 Map (APM) on the disk.
831
832- Enabled MBR conversion code to handle multiple logical partitions.
833
8340.3.4:
835------
836
837- Fixed bug that enabled (possibly accidental) entry of MBR type codes of
838 0x00 in GPTData::MakeHybrid(). The fix also enables entry of default
839 type code by pressing the Enter key when prompted. Applied a similar
840 fix to the entry of the type code for the second protective partition,
841 if one is used.
842
843- Fixed a typo: "sectors" was spelled "sectprs" in one spot!
844
845- Fixed bug that caused default entry for end sector to be refused if an
846 initial value using a plus sign (e.g., "+20G") was also refused.
847
8480.3.3:
849------
850
851- Gave users control over the way MBR partitions are assigned to slots in a
852 hybrid MBR setup; the original method (putting the 0xEE partition after
853 the real partitions) works well for non-boot disks, but both GRUB and
854 GRUB2 become confused by this type of setup, so it needs changing.
855
856- Changed "blocks" to "sectors" in GPT and MBR table displays.
857
858- Added "Boot" column to MBR table display; shows an asterisk (*) when the
859 partition's status is bootable.
860
8610.3.2:
862------
863
864- Changed __DARWIN_UNIX03 to __APPLE__ as code to enable MacOS X support.
865
866- Added the ability to create a hybrid MBR ('h' on experts' menu). This was
867 motivated by my discovery that Windows 7 remains brain-dead when it comes
868 to the ability to boot from a GPT disk, at least on BIOS-based machines.
869
870- Added 'z' option to experts' menu, to destroy GPT data structures and
871 exit. The intent is to use this feature to enable subsequent partitioning
872 of the disk using fdisk or other GPT-unaware tools. (GNU Parted will wipe
873 the GPT data structures itself when you create a new MBR ["msdos
874 disklabel," in Parted parlance], so using Parted is another option.)
875
876- Slightly altered the effect of the 'o' command on the main menu. It now
877 blanks out the protective MBR, as well as the GPT data.
878
8790.3.1:
880------
881
882- Added Mac OS X support, provided as a patch by David Hubbard
883 (david.c.hubbard@gmail.com).
884
885- Fixed bug in disksize() function on Mac OS. (Possibly dependent on the
886 kernel and/or GCC version.) The disk size, of type uint64_t, was not
887 being passed correctly, so I reorganized the function to return it as
888 the function's return value rather than as a parameter. This seems to
889 work OK on my Mac OS test system and on both 32- and 64-bit Linux
890 systems.
891
892- Fixed off-by-one bug in GPTData::FindLastAvailable().
893
894- Fixed bug that caused display of options after a disk-write error.
895
896- Fixed several incorrect MacOS X partition type GUIDs, thanks to Yves
897 Blusseau (1otnwmz02@sneakemail.com).
898
8990.3.0:
900------
901
902- Changed version number to 0.3.0, reflecting the fact that I've received
903 no significant bug reports and so am elevating the program to "beta"
904 status. This change also entailed altering the warning the program
905 displays when saving partition table changes.
906
907- Fixed minor bug in CHS geometry of the protective MBR's type EE partition
908 (was producing 0x000200 as the start value, but should be 0x000100).
909 Should be a non-critical bug since the protective MBR partition
910 definition is only there to keep MBR-only disk utilities from messing
911 with the disk.
912
913- Added ability to enter GUIDs as single massive strings rather than in
914 chunks.
915
9160.2.2:
917------
918
919- Added #include directives required to compile the program using GCC
920 4.4.0.
921
9220.2.1:
923------
924
925- Fixed partition numbering problem in reports of partition overlaps in
926 verification function.
927
928- Fixed 1-sector partition size problem when creating new partitions
929 (partitions were 1 sector too big when using the +size option).
930
931- Changed BytesToSI() to display values in bytes without decimal points
932 (e.g., "512 bytes" rather than "512.0 bytes").
933
934- Added GPTData class member functions to retrieve GPT data structure
935 locations on disk; used in my internal-use-only GPT-wiping program.
936
937- Eliminated the "a reboot is recommended" notice after writing the
938 partition table.
939
940- Added notice after sorting the partition table to the effect that
941 editing /etc/fstab and/or the boot loader files may be required.
942
943- Fixed bug in MBR-reading function that caused 0x0f (Win95 LBA) and 0x85
944 (Linux extended) extended partitions to not be read.
945
946- Fixed bug in GetLastSector() (in support.cc) that would have prevented
947 correct user entry of over-32-bit sector numbers on 32-bit systems.
948
949- Made some changes/corrections to the partition type list in
950 parttypes.cc. Most of these were based on newly-discovered MBR type
951 codes for Apple (Mac OS X) filesystems.
952
953- General code cleanup (setting explicit casts, etc.)
954
9550.2.0:
956------
957
958- Initial semi-public release