Tag: GPT

CheckBIOSDisk: Check uefi/legacy bios and gpt/mbr disk type for WinPE

~ hucktech ~ Leave a comment

This is a Win32 console application for Windows Preinstall Environment system. The gaol is checking PC uses UEFI BIOS (or with CSM) must ensures the disk type is GPT format, otherwise the legacy BIOS must using MBR format for disk layout. C++ code only does windows executing diskpart and reg commands and checks results to improve function, because requester is lazy and having lack knowledge on his job to design commands flow.

https://github.com/sharowyeh/checkbiosdisk

PS: Another tool by author:

https://github.com/sharowyeh/NvGpuUtility

 

Microsoft MDT: moving from BIOS to UEFI

~ hucktech ~ Leave a comment

If you have a Windows box and are trying to convert MBR/BIOS installs to GPT/UEFI installs on ‘class 2’ systems, you might want to read this:

https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/mniehaus/2017/04/14/moving-from-bios-to-uefi-with-mdt-8443/

 

MBR2GPT

~ hucktech ~ Leave a comment

“MBR2GPT.EXE converts a disk from Master Boot Record (MBR) to GUID Partition Table (GPT) partition style without modifying or deleting data on the disk. The tool is designed to be run from a Windows Preinstallation Environment (Windows PE) command prompt, but can also be run from the full Windows 10 operating system (OS).[…]”

https://technet.microsoft.com/itpro/windows/deploy/mbr-to-gpt

https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/windowsitpro/2017/04/05/whats-new-for-it-pros-in-the-windows-10-creators-update/

https://redmondmag.com/articles/2017/04/07/windows-10-creators-update-tools-and-documentation-released.aspx

 

Determining Windows partition information

~ hucktech ~ Leave a comment

Patrik Suzzi has an article on GPT partitions, and how to determine if you have MBR or GPT:

The article is written for Windows users, and has lots of screenshots, looks to be informative!

http://www.multibooters.com/guides/determine-if-hard-drive-is-mbr-or-gpt.html

 

Intel EFI Disk Utilities

~ hucktech ~ Leave a comment

Intel has a set of disk utilities, for creating/checking GPT partitions and FAT file systems. They aren’t included in TianoCore’s EDK2 with the other BSD-licensed UEFI Shell commands. These tools ship separately, with a separate license, presumably due to the tool’s knowledge of FAT file system format. Here’s a brief description of the tools, as excerpted from the download license:

Microsoft EFI Utilities: The term “Microsoft EFI Utilities” shall mean the Guided Partition Table utilities Diskpart (Disk partitioning utility), Efifmt (EFI Format utility) and Efichk (EFI Check Disk utility) stored in a file named GPT_UTIL.zip.

To get the tools, you have to agree to the license on this page, if so you get to download a zip. Then you have to read the readme in that zip, to get the password for the other included zip, which contain the actual tools. Lawyer-designed.

http://www.intel.com/technology/efi/agree_diskutil.htm

The tools come with source, not just binary. They didn’t compile for me, this morning: I think they require a much older EDK2 environment to build. But at least they ship with source, though it is not BSD-licensed Open Source. The tools are old enough that they still use “EFI”, not the newer “UEFI” term.

I wish Intel could donate these tools to the UEFI Forum, so that Intel- *AND* ARM-based users could benefit. TianoCore already has a FAT license, for it’s file system driver. Adding these tools to that package would eliminate one FAT-centric license, and bundle FAT-centric tools along with the FAT-centric file system driver. It would be nice for TianoCore to be able to fix/create ESPs, not just run from ESPs created elsewhere. Perhaps use the Disk Util common code for some other UEFI-based file system diagnostic tools for file systems that UEFI ships, eg UFS, maybe UDF.

Using FreeBSD, ZFS, and UEFI

~ hucktech ~ Leave a comment

Jashank Jeremy wrote an article on using FreeBSD, ZFS, GPT, and UEFI, on a 64-bit system.

Apparently, the trick to is to use GRUB’s kFreeBSD mode. Full information here:

Hmm, WordPress imbeds the entire source file listing of a Git.Github URL. So I’m splitting this URL, you’ll have to combine it yourself:

https://
gist.github.com/jashank
/9ec2f72126552068434c

Also check out the reply from Felix Khrohn on Jashank’s Twitter post, with an URL to alternative method by Ganael Laplanche.

UEFI for OpenBSD??

~ hucktech ~ Leave a comment

Hmm, I was under the impression that of the BSDs, only FreeBSD supported UEFI. (As well as MacOSX, of course.) But it appears that despite Theo’s previous comments on UEFI 🙂 that there might be some UEFI support in OpenBSD eventually:

From last year, GSOC’14 for OpenBSD (UEFI and GPT), I’ve not studied to see if these have been upstreamed yet:
http://www.google-melange.com/gsoc/project/details/google/gsoc2014/mmu/5639274879778816

From 2 days ago, a new OpenBSD-centric boot loader:
https://github.com/yasuoka/openbsd-uefi
It looks like the latter project needs some hardware help, besides the author’s VIAO, if you can help them out…

Genode OS v15.05

~ hucktech ~ Leave a comment

Found on Joanna’s Twitter feed:

Genode is new to me. Genode Labs makes the “Genode OS Framework”. Genode is a new OS, not a new Linux distribution. It is “a GPLv2-licensed construction kit for building specialized operating systems out of small building blocks including different kernels, device drivers, protocol stacks, and applications”. This current release is a major release for Genode. The new documentation is a large 472 page PDF. The current release adds “rudimentary GPT” support. GPT aside, I don’t see any other UEFI-related technology support, only “BIOS” references to firmware.

“Version 15.05 represents the most substantial release in the history of Genode. It is packed with profound architectural improvements, new device drivers, the extension of the supported base platforms, and a brand new documentation. ”

“We understand the complexity of code and policy as the most fundamental security problem shared by modern general-purpose operating systems. Because of high functional demands and dynamic workloads, however, this complexity cannot be avoided. But it can be organized. Genode is a novel OS architecture that is able to master complexity by applying a strict organizational structure to all software components including device drivers, system services, and applications.”

“The current implementation can be compiled for 8 different kernels: Linux, L4ka::Pistachio, L4/Fiasco, OKL4, NOVA, Fiasco.OC, Codezero, and a custom kernel for running Genode directly on ARM-based hardware. Whereas the Linux version serves us as development vehicle and enables us to rapidly develop the generic parts of the system, the actual target platforms of the framework are microkernels. There is no ‘perfect’ microkernel – and neither should there be one. If a microkernel pretended to be fit for all use cases, it wouldn’t be ‘micro’. Hence, all microkernels differ in terms of their respective features, complexity, and supported hardware architectures.

Genode allows the use of each of the kernels listed above with a rich set of device drivers, protocol stacks, libraries, and applications in a uniform way. For developers, the framework provides an easy way to target multiple different kernels instead of tying the development to a particular kernel technology. For kernel developers, Genode contributes advanced workloads, stress-testing their kernel, and enabling a variety of application use cases that would not be possible otherwise. For users and system integrators, it enables the choice of the kernel that fits best with the requirements at hand for the particular usage scenario.”

Inverse Path’s USB Armoury supports Genode as of 15.02:  “The Genode OS Framework supports the USB armory since version 15.02 implementing a TrustZone Secure virtual-machine monitor (VMM) supervising Linux running in the Normal world. Support is in the very early stages. The Linux kernel requires minimal patching to be executed in the Normal world, at the moment Martin Stein from Genode Labs provides a repository with a patched kernel.”

http://genode.org/documentation/release-notes/15.05
https://github.com/genodelabs/genode
http://sourceforge.net/projects/genode/files/