Re: Wheezy Installer Auto-Partition Oddity
----- Original Message -----
> From: Bonno Bloksma <b.bloksma@tio.nl>
> To: Patrick Bartek <bartek047@yahoo.com>; "debian-user@lists.debian.org" <debian-user@lists.debian.org>
> Cc:
> Sent: Wednesday, January 2, 2013 11:04 PM
> Subject: RE: Wheezy Installer Auto-Partition Oddity
>
> Hi Patrick,
>
>> In preparation of a clean install of Wheezy, I did a test install in
> VirtualBox 3.1.8 running under Fedora 12 64-bit.
>> To save time, I used the installer's default partitioning scheme.
> Normally I custom partition.
>> Anyway, I noticed an oddity: There are gaps between the partitions.
> Sizable ones.
>> Plus, sda1 starts at 2048, not 1. I don't know if this is due to the
> installer partitioner or a quirk in VirtualBox.
>> I noticed this on a VB install of Debian 6, too, on the same system.
> Anybody got any ideas on the why? Wasn't able to find anything applicable
> on net searches.
>
> The only reason I can think about is the new requirement for partitioning on 4k
> boundaries due to new harddrive specs. Harddrives used to be broken up in 512b
> blocks, they are now chopped up in 4k blocks. I read a good article the other
> day explaining the performance hits if the OS does not properly allign the
> partition boundaries to the new 'Advanced Format' 4k boundaries.
> Unfortunately that was in a paper magazine so I cannot refer to it here. But
> have a look at
> http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/advanced-format-4k-sector-size-hard-drive,2759.html
> and look in Wikipedia for more info.
I've come across this in my research on my gap "problem", too. The 4K sector alignment doesn't apply to me as the hard drive I'm installing Wheezy on has 512 byte sectors as far as I've been able to determine. It was manufactured in 2006 before the switch.
I think the main cause of the gaps is the Wheezy installer partitioner "assuming' LVM will be used at some time, and is setting up the drive for that future use.
Thanks for the link.
B
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