- This topic has 6 replies, 5 voices, and was last updated Feb 2-3:44 pm by Brian Masinick.
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kaye
Hello Friends!
Can someone enlighten me once and for all please.
1. About creating live USB – most if not all of my live USB are of MBR partitioning scheme (Gparted calls it msdos I think). But apparently I can make them GPT as well, because antiX’s Live USB Maker provides the option to do so. Am I correct?
2. If answer to number 1 is Yes, why would one choose to create an MBR-partitioned live USB of any linux distro, instead of GPT? Is it specifically for when the motherboard is old and is not of the UEFI type (which means the motherboard still uses BIOS?), and therefore cannot boot a GPT-partitioned live USB?
3. If the live USB is MBR-partitioned, I can use it to install the operating system onto a hard drive that is GPT-partitioned, correct?
4. If the live USB is GPT-partitioned, I can use it to install the operating system onto a hard drive that is MBR-partitioned, as long as the motherboard uses UEFI and therefore can boot a GPT-partitioned live USB, correct?
That’s all I can think of for now.
Thank you for your time!
stevesr0
Re: Question #2. I have a BIOS/GPT setup on my “oldish” Fujitsu.
Roderick Smith has a bunch of web pages on BIOS, UEFI, MSDOS and GPT and related topics. Can’t retrieve them now, but if desired will find a link later.
Re: Questions 1, 3, 4. Don’t want to try to answer as this might be driven by antiX live USB “rules” and I am very, very ignorant about the details.
stevesr0
Brian Masinick
Two articles to read and learn.
https://fossbytes.com/uefi-bios-gpt-mbr-whats-difference/
https://www.diskpart.com/gpt-mbr/how-to-check-if-uefi-or-bios-0825.html
After reading both of them and you have questions, ask about things you have read and need help with understanding what they mean.
Searching for more articles, reading, experimenting and trying things are often the best ways to learn.
We will be glad to help, especially if you also want to learn.
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Brian Masinick
BitJam
1. About creating live USB – most if not all of my live USB are of MBR partitioning scheme (Gparted calls it msdos I think). But apparently I can make them GPT as well, because antiX’s Live USB Maker provides the option to do so. Am I correct?
Correct.
2. If answer to number 1 is Yes, why would one choose to create an MBR-partitioned live USB of any linux distro, instead of GPT? Is it specifically for when the motherboard is old and is not of the UEFI type (which means the motherboard still uses BIOS?), and therefore cannot boot a GPT-partitioned live USB?
Short answer: GPT partitioning for a live-usb fails to work on several models of Dell machines.
Long answer: Live-usb-maker was built in conjunction with Ramsey from OSDisc. It started as a simple script to let Ramsey create “ideal” antiX and MX live-usbs. He had massive amounts of experience with live booting Linux since the business of OSDisc was to sell live booting CDs, DVDs, and usbs. Ramsey discovered that for a small subset of Dell machines, if you used GPT partitioning for a live-usb then you could either boot legacy or boot UEFI but not both. Whether legacy worked or UEFI worked depended on some partition flag or something like that.
So we use crappy msdos partitioning as the default in order to boot on as many systems as possible.
3. If the live USB is MBR-partitioned, I can use it to install the operating system onto a hard drive that is GPT-partitioned, correct?
Correct. All four combinations of mosdos and GPT partitioning work. It’s analogous to filesystems. The filesystem on the installed system is independent of the filesystem on the live system.
4. If the live USB is GPT-partitioned, I can use it to install the operating system onto a hard drive that is MBR-partitioned, as long as the motherboard uses UEFI and therefore can boot a GPT-partitioned live USB, correct?
UEFI booting and GPT partitioning are two different independent things. All four combinations of (UEFI, legacy) booting and (GPT, msdos) partitioning work. Our live-usb is proof of this fact. Our msdos partitioned live-usb boots both legacy and UEFI. So does our GPT partitioned live-usb.
The one caveat is that in order to install a UEFI bootloader you need to boot the live system in UEFI mode.
Again, think of the partitioning (msdos or GPT) like a filesystem. It’s independent of everything else. You do not need a UEFI capable machine to use GPT partitioning.
Context is worth 80 IQ points -- Alan Kay
Brian Masinick
@kaye: EXCELLENT questions!
@Bitjam: equally excellent answers and thank you for both the short and long answers.
Reading all of them, they each make complete sense. Did I know these answers?
Nope. That’s why I posted articles to read but your explanation is the right one. Thank you. Great stuff!
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Brian Masinick
dolphin_oracle
the man the myth the legend everyone…BitJam!
- This reply was modified 3 months, 1 week ago by dolphin_oracle.
Brian Masinick
the man the myth the legend everyone…BitJam!
Right on.
You’re not very far behind, you both have been doing great things for many years.
Thank you for all you do in the freely available software universe. It makes a difference all over the world.--
Brian Masinick
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