Bug#751704: partman-base 173: partman overwrites parts of u-boot
On Sun, Jun 15, 2014 at 08:02:03PM +0200, Karsten Merker wrote:
> Source: partman-base
> Version: 173
> Severity: important
>
> Upon testing a locally built debian-installer based on linux
> 3.15-1 (from experimental) on an Allwinner sunXi-based armhf
> system, I have found that the system does not boot anymore after
> partman has written a new partition table to the SD card from
> which the system loads u-boot.
>
> Kernel 3.15-1 is the first kernel in Debian that contains an
> MMC/SD driver for this platform, i.e. with older versions
> partitions could only be created on an attached SATA disk but not
> on the SD card, so this problem has not shown up earlier.
>
> In my first attempt, the partition table has been created by the
> "guided partitioning" option in d-i, which has created the
> following layout:
>
> Disk /dev/sdd: 15 GB, 15718510080 bytes
> 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 1911 cylinders, total 30700215 sectors
> Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
>
> Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
> /dev/sdd1 * 2048 499711 257008 83 Linux
> Warning: Partition 1 does not end on cylinder boundary.
> /dev/sdd2 499712 29306879 14402272 83 Linux
> Warning: Partition 2 does not end on cylinder boundary.
> /dev/sdd3 29308926 30701567 698827 5 Extended
> Warning: Partition 3 does not end on cylinder boundary.
> /dev/sdd5 29308928 30701567 698827 82 Linux swap
> Warning: Partition 5 does not end on cylinder boundary.
>
> The layout itself appears ok as the first partition starts at
> sector 2048, i.e. at 1MB offset, but comparing the state of the
> first MB of data on the device before and after partman has
> written the partition table shows that not only the partition
> table has been written, but also the area from offset 0x2000 up
> to 0x25ff has been zeroed out. On all Allwinner sunXi-based
> systems this area contains the u-boot SPL, without which the
> system cannot boot anymore.
>
> A second attempt with manual partitioning showed the same
> behaviour, i.e. it appears to be a general partman problem and
> not specific to partman-auto.
>
> Partman should only write the partition table but should not
> touch the area between the partition table and the beginning
> of the first partition as this area is used by bootloaders.
It sure would be nice if CPU makers would stop putting their boot code
where the GPT goes. Do none of them EVER think their device will want
to use a disk bigger than 2TB?
--
Len Sorensen
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