Re: Wheezy Installer Auto-Partition Oddity

[Patrick Bartek <bartek047@yahoo.com>]

----- Original Message -----
> From: Mark Allums <mark@allums.com>
> To: 'Bonno Bloksma' <b.bloksma@tio.nl>; 'Patrick Bartek' <bartek047@yahoo.com>; debian-user@lists.debian.org
> Cc: 
> Sent: Thursday, January 3, 2013 4:39 AM
> Subject: RE: Wheezy Installer Auto-Partition Oddity
> 
>>  From: Bonno Bloksma [mailto:b.bloksma@tio.nl]
>>  To: Patrick Bartek; debian-user@lists.debian.org
>>  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.
>> 
>>  Bonno Bloksma
> 
> 
> If you are using LVM, you need to leave 1MB before and after the partition
> for metadata.  Some of the tools do this automatically for you.  If you
> don't like it, you can manually adjust the start and end yourself.


I'm not, but I think the Wheezy partitioner thinks I may in the future, so, is setting things up for that possible future need.

B