GNU bug report logs - #18920
Parted always chooses the logical sector size.

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Message #5 received at submit <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: dE <de.techno <at> gmail.com>
To: bug-parted <at> gnu.org
Subject: Parted always chooses the logical sector size.
Date: Sat, 01 Nov 2014 16:40:33 +0530

Can someone please add an option to set the sector size to custom or/and 
the physical sector size?

Message #8 received at 18920 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Phillip Susi <psusi <at> ubuntu.com>
To: dE <de.techno <at> gmail.com>, 18920 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#18920: Parted always chooses the logical sector size.
Date: Sat, 01 Nov 2014 17:16:42 -0400

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On 11/01/2014 07:10 AM, dE wrote:
> Can someone please add an option to set the sector size to custom
> or/and the physical sector size?

Why?  Not using the correct sector size doesn't make sense and will
result in incorrect operation.


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Message #11 received at 18920 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: dE <de.techno <at> gmail.com>
To: 18920 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#18920: Parted always chooses the logical sector size.
Date: Sun, 02 Nov 2014 14:37:09 +0530

On 11/02/14 02:46, Phillip Susi wrote:
> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
> Hash: SHA512
>
> On 11/01/2014 07:10 AM, dE wrote:
>> Can someone please add an option to set the sector size to custom
>> or/and the physical sector size?
> Why?  Not using the correct sector size doesn't make sense and will
> result in incorrect operation.
>
>
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Yes, on a 4K disk, choosing 512 bytes sector size is bad. This's what 
parted does as of the current time cause it chooses the logical sector 
size instead of physical.

Message #14 received at submit <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: "Brian C. Lane" <bcl <at> redhat.com>
To: bug-parted <at> gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#18920: Parted always chooses the logical sector size.
Date: Mon, 3 Nov 2014 13:54:18 -0800

On Sun, Nov 02, 2014 at 02:37:09PM +0530, dE wrote:
> On 11/02/14 02:46, Phillip Susi wrote:
> >-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
> >Hash: SHA512
> >
> >On 11/01/2014 07:10 AM, dE wrote:
> >>Can someone please add an option to set the sector size to custom
> >>or/and the physical sector size?
> >Why?  Not using the correct sector size doesn't make sense and will
> >result in incorrect operation.
> >
> >
> >-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
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> 
> Yes, on a 4K disk, choosing 512 bytes sector size is bad. This's what parted
> does as of the current time cause it chooses the logical sector size instead
> of physical.

Assuming you are talking about linux -- parted uses the logical sector
size returned by the kernel, which gets it from the drive.  We don't set
to 512 arbitrarily. So if there is an actual problem it should be
reported against the kernel.

-- 
Brian C. Lane | Anaconda Team | IRC: bcl #anaconda | Port Orchard, WA (PST8PDT)

Message #17 received at 18920 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: dE <de.techno <at> gmail.com>
To: 18920 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#18920: Parted always chooses the logical sector size.
Date: Tue, 04 Nov 2014 20:26:24 +0530

On 11/04/14 03:24, Brian C. Lane wrote:
> On Sun, Nov 02, 2014 at 02:37:09PM +0530, dE wrote:
>> On 11/02/14 02:46, Phillip Susi wrote:
>>> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
>>> Hash: SHA512
>>>
>>> On 11/01/2014 07:10 AM, dE wrote:
>>>> Can someone please add an option to set the sector size to custom
>>>> or/and the physical sector size?
>>> Why?  Not using the correct sector size doesn't make sense and will
>>> result in incorrect operation.
>>>
>>>
>>> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
>>> Version: GnuPG v1
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>>> -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
>> Yes, on a 4K disk, choosing 512 bytes sector size is bad. This's what parted
>> does as of the current time cause it chooses the logical sector size instead
>> of physical.
> Assuming you are talking about linux -- parted uses the logical sector
> size returned by the kernel, which gets it from the drive.  We don't set
> to 512 arbitrarily. So if there is an actual problem it should be
> reported against the kernel.
>

Yes, the kernel reports both -- the logical and the physical. Parted 
knows about it, it shows both the logical and physical sector size, but 
then also it uses the logical sector size. It should not. There must be 
an option at least, and I suggest it should be made the default 
otherwise the partitions may start unaligned.

Message #20 received at 18920 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: "Brian C. Lane" <bcl <at> redhat.com>
To: dE <de.techno <at> gmail.com>
Cc: 18920 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#18920: Parted always chooses the logical sector size.
Date: Tue, 4 Nov 2014 08:40:53 -0800

On Tue, Nov 04, 2014 at 08:26:24PM +0530, dE wrote:
> On 11/04/14 03:24, Brian C. Lane wrote:

> >Assuming you are talking about linux -- parted uses the logical sector
> >size returned by the kernel, which gets it from the drive.  We don't set
> >to 512 arbitrarily. So if there is an actual problem it should be
> >reported against the kernel.
> >
> 
> Yes, the kernel reports both -- the logical and the physical. Parted knows
> about it, it shows both the logical and physical sector size, but then also
> it uses the logical sector size. It should not. There must be an option at
> least, and I suggest it should be made the default otherwise the partitions
> may start unaligned.

Can you cite specific instances of problems using the logical size?
Every tool that I am aware of uses it. As for not aligning parted
defaults to 1MiB so unless you are forcing it to a specific sector you
aren't going to see an issue.

-- 
Brian C. Lane | Anaconda Team | IRC: bcl #anaconda | Port Orchard, WA (PST8PDT)

Message #23 received at 18920 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: dE <de.techno <at> gmail.com>
To: 18920 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#18920: Parted always chooses the logical sector size.
Date: Wed, 05 Nov 2014 08:58:17 +0530

On 11/04/14 22:10, Brian C. Lane wrote:
> On Tue, Nov 04, 2014 at 08:26:24PM +0530, dE wrote:
>> On 11/04/14 03:24, Brian C. Lane wrote:
>>> Assuming you are talking about linux -- parted uses the logical sector
>>> size returned by the kernel, which gets it from the drive.  We don't set
>>> to 512 arbitrarily. So if there is an actual problem it should be
>>> reported against the kernel.
>>>
>> Yes, the kernel reports both -- the logical and the physical. Parted knows
>> about it, it shows both the logical and physical sector size, but then also
>> it uses the logical sector size. It should not. There must be an option at
>> least, and I suggest it should be made the default otherwise the partitions
>> may start unaligned.
> Can you cite specific instances of problems using the logical size?
> Every tool that I am aware of uses it. As for not aligning parted
> defaults to 1MiB so unless you are forcing it to a specific sector you
> aren't going to see an issue.
>

Yeah, I'm forcing to a specific sector.

And in case you're doing that, this can cause some serious issues.

Besides the 512 sector size was included for compatibility purposes. So 
parted using that is pointless.

Message #28 received at 18920-done <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Phillip Susi <psusi <at> ubuntu.com>
To: dE <de.techno <at> gmail.com>, 18920-done <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#18920: Parted always chooses the logical sector size.
Date: Wed, 05 Nov 2014 14:30:33 -0500

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Hash: SHA1

On 11/4/2014 9:56 AM, dE wrote:
> Yes, the kernel reports both -- the logical and the physical.
> Parted knows about it, it shows both the logical and physical
> sector size, but then also it uses the logical sector size. It
> should not. There must be an option at least, and I suggest it
> should be made the default otherwise the partitions may start
> unaligned.

Incorrect:  the logical sector size is what the drive uses to address
sectors, and therefore, how all software, including partitioning tools
addresses the drive.  The physical sector size is only provided as a
hint about the internal structure of the disk because it can have
performance implications.  Partitioning tools use this information to
pick the optimal alignment.  If you run parted -a min, it will take
care to align partitions to a 4k boundary, aka a multiple of 8 logical
sectors.


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