[Fwd: [coreboot] possible bug, reported on irc]

[Segher Boessenkool]

> < Guest836553> Hello I noticed that OpenBIOS' disk-label package
> doesn't allow raw disk access unless it has an apple partition map. In
> particular I noticed that only modules/mac-parts.c honours the specs
> (ftp://playground.sun.com/pub/1275/bindings/postscript/CHRP.ps,
> section 11.1.2), which state the partition number 0 indicates the
> whole disk. In pc-parts.c (MSDOS partition table format) partiton 0 is
> the first primary partiton (it should be partition 1, I suppose) and
> in sun-parts.c (I didn't try it) I don't see any special-handling code
> for partition 0, so I suppose it's affected by the bug too.

The CHRP spec only applies to CHRP's disk-label package, not to others.
In particular, some other systems treat the absence of any partition
number part (the part before the comma) as meaning the full disk, and
partition #0 is simply the first partition; CHRP uses this to indicate
the first "bootable" partition, which has no meaning for many partition
schemes, and is guesswork for most others.

If your client program does not require CHRP, but does require :0 to
mean the whole disk, it is buggy.

Segher