Bug#644430: Document the creation of a partition table (gpt / msdos)

[Holger Wansing <hwansing@mailbox.org>]

Hi all,

I came across this open (and longstanding) bugs:
https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=644430
and
https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=691046
which ask to document the need of a BIOS boot partition when a gpt partition
table is used.

The basic issue has been solved within partman apparently (on gpt, a 1 MB free 
space gets automatically created at the beginning of the disk)
(see https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=491376).


Nevertheless, I think it makes sense to write some words about this in the 
installation-guide?

I have prepared a patch for this and would like to receive some comments, if
I got it all correctly.
The additional content will be added to "Appendix C. Partitioning for Debian" 
https://d-i.debian.org/doc/installation-guide/en.amd64/apcs05.html#idm4025

Thanks


Holger


-- 
Holger Wansing <hwansing@mailbox.org>
PGP-Fingerprint: 496A C6E8 1442 4B34 8508  3529 59F1 87CA 156E B076

diff --git a/debian/changelog b/debian/changelog
index dba3a1b89..08b8321ae 100644
--- a/debian/changelog
+++ b/debian/changelog
@@ -3,6 +3,8 @@ installation-guide (20200716) UNRELEASED; urgency=medium
   * Bump debhelper compat to 12, no change in the resulting binary packages
     (Closes: Bug#965596)
   * Some more UEFI updates. Closes: #905173
+  * Document the creation of a partition table and their types.
+    Closes: #691046, #644430
 
  -- Samuel Thibault <sthibault@debian.org>  Sun, 19 Jul 2020 23:27:19 +0200
 
diff --git a/en/partitioning/partition/x86.xml b/en/partitioning/partition/x86.xml
index 274e587d1..00d7625f7 100644
--- a/en/partitioning/partition/x86.xml
+++ b/en/partitioning/partition/x86.xml
@@ -5,6 +5,25 @@
   <sect2 arch="x86"><title>Partitioning for &arch-title;</title>
 <para>
 
+If you are using a new harddisk (or want to wipe out the whole partition table
+of your disk), a new partition table needs to be created. The <quote>Guided
+partitioning</quote> does this automatically, but when partitioning manually,
+move the selection on the top-level entry of the disk and hit &enterkey;.
+That will create a new partition table on that disk. In expert mode, you will
+then be asked for the type of the partition table. Default for UEFI-based systems
+will be <quote>gpt</quote>, while for the older BIOS world the default value
+is <quote>msdos</quote>. In a standard priority installation those defaults
+will be used automatically.
+
+</para><note><para>
+
+When a partition table with type <quote>gpt</quote> was selected (default for
+UEFI systems), a free space of 1 MB will automatically get created at the
+beginning of the disk. This is intended and required to embed the GRUB2
+bootloader.
+
+</para></note><para>
+
 If you have an existing other operating system such as DOS or Windows and
 you want to preserve that operating system while installing &debian;, you may
 need to resize its partition to free up space for the &debian; installation.