KDE Partition Manager
Is KDE Partition Manager [1] still a maintained package ?
I ask because the version in stable (Wheezy) is still the same version as in
oldstable (Squeeze) - 1.0.2-1. This matters because 1.0.2 lacks features
which are needed with modern large hard drives. It also has some rough edges
which don't inspire confidence in such a critical utility.
Jesse has 1.0.3, but I don't run any testing systems and have no idea whether
the minor version bump adds anything.
Having just bought a large (2TB) 4KiB-sector ("advanced" format) hard drive I
am currently researching how to set it up to avoid the widely-documented
performance problems [2] [3] seen with poorly-aligned partitions on advanced-
format drives.
It appears to be crucial to use a partitioner that can create Mib-aligned
partitions, and recent versions [4] (an old PartedMagic CD) [5] (latest
LiveCD) of the Gnome GUI for libparted (GParted) have a drop-down on the 'new-
partition' dialog box allowing a choice from cyl/MiB/none (I assume 'none'
means 'sector'). GParted seems to have had this feature since at least 2012.
However, the KDE GUI to libparted (KDE Partition Manager) doesn't expose the
alignment setting at all when creating new partitions (there's no dropdown).
You can specify space left before and after the new partition but not the
alignment - see [6].
(I saw bug https://bugs.debian.org/754580 requesting the maintainer to package
"upstream version 1.1.0", but (a) I haven't found any reference to such a
version anywhere else, (b) the kde.org page for the package [7] has a
screenshot showing version 1.0.5, (c) it also states that the package homepage
is at Sourceforge [8], but the Sourceforge page offers only version 1.0.0beta
[!] and states that the main developer has died and the package moved to
kde.org as of January 2014 ..... "curious", said Alice)
I don't want to install any Gnome/GTK stuff on an otherwise pristine
Debian stable KDE setup so if KDE Partition Manager can't be used then I'll be
reverting to a bootable GParted LiveCD to set up this additional data
drive .... which is less than convenient.
[Yes, I could do it all from the command-line, but that's more painful, and
anyway shouldn't KDE Partition Manager be keeping up ?]
[1] https://packages.debian.org/partitionmanager
[2] http://hothardware.com/Reviews/WDs-1TB-Caviar-Green-w-
Advanced-Format-Windows-XP-Users-Pay-Attention/?page=2
[3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/4_KB_sector_alignment#512e
[4] http://glimmer.adsl24.co.uk/images/GParted-0.13-new-partition-dialog.png
[5] http://glimmer.adsl24.co.uk/images/GParted-0.19.1-new-partition-dialog.png
[6] http://glimmer.adsl24.co.uk/images/KDE-Partition-Manager-1.0.2-new-
partition-dialog.png
[7] http://www.kde.org/applications/system/kdepartitionmanager/
[8] http://sourceforge.net/projects/partitionman/
All clues welcome.
Cheers,
Nick
--
Mever FDISK after midnight
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