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href="#command-line-is-faster" class="md-nav__link"> Command Line Is Faster </a> </li> <li class="md-nav__item"> <a href="#gdisk-vs-sgdisk" class="md-nav__link"> gdisk vs sgdisk </a> </li> <li class="md-nav__item"> <a href="#what-the-manpage-says" class="md-nav__link"> what the manpage says </a> </li> <li class="md-nav__item"> <a href="#example-with-separate-efi-and-partitions" class="md-nav__link"> Example with Separate EFI and / Partitions </a> </li> <li class="md-nav__item"> <a href="#practice-with-a-sparse-image" class="md-nav__link"> Practice With A Sparse Image </a> </li> <li class="md-nav__item"> <a href="#example-with-separate-boot-efi-and-luks-encrypted-partitions" class="md-nav__link"> Example with Separate /boot, EFI, and luks-encrypted / Partitions </a> </li> <li class="md-nav__item"> <a href="#what-about-swap" class="md-nav__link"> What About Swap? </a> </li> <li class="md-nav__item"> <a href="#example-with-2gb-swap-partition" class="md-nav__link"> Example with 2GB swap partition </a> </li> <li class="md-nav__item"> <a href="#conclusion" class="md-nav__link"> Conclusion </a> </li> </ul> </nav> </div> </div> </div> <div class="md-content" data-md-component="content"> <article class="md-content__inner md-typeset"> <h1>Faster Partitioning with Sgdisk</h1> <p>date: 2019-02-11T04:23:52-08:00</p> <h2 id="disclaimer"><strong>Disclaimer</strong></h2> <p>If any of this is wrong, let me know so I can fix it. No actual hard drives were harmed in the production of this blog post.</p> <p>The examples are easier to read if you turn your smart phone sideways.</p> <h2 id="command-line-is-faster"><strong>Command Line Is Faster</strong></h2> <p>Sure you can partition your discs using a GUI disk management application or an interactive, menu-driven terminal interface. But the command line is faster.</p> <h2 id="gdisk-vs-sgdisk"><strong>gdisk vs sgdisk</strong></h2> <p><code>sgdisk</code> is the scriptable version of <code>gdisk</code> (gptfdisk).</p> <h2 id="what-the-manpage-says"><strong><a href="https://manpages.debian.org/stretch/gdisk/sgdisk.8.en.html" target="_blank">what the manpage says</a></strong></h2> <p>If you’re familiar with <code>gdisk</code>, you probably know how to interactively set the partition size and type. If you look at the man page for <code>sgdisk</code> you see that the relevant flags are <code>-n</code> and <code>-t</code>. The beginning and ending numbers are absolute, unless you prepend them with a <code>+</code> or <code>-</code> sign, in which case they become relative. <div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><code><span class="gp"># </span>For New Partition: <span class="go">-n, --new=partnum:start:end</span> </code></pre></div> <div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><code><span class="gp"># </span>Change partition type: <span class="go">-t, --typecode=partnum:{hexcode|GUID}</span> </code></pre></div></p> <h2 id="example-with-separate-efi-and-partitions"><strong>Example with Separate EFI and / Partitions</strong></h2> <p>BTW, <code>gdisk</code> is a partitioning tool intended to be used with a gpt partition table, so the assumption is that you would want an efi partition,</p> <p>(although the efi partition does not have to be on the disk you are partitioning or even on the same disk where your other system partitions are).</p> <ol> <li>Wipe any leftover filesystem metadata with wipefs. <div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><code><span class="go">wipefs --all /dev/sdx</span> </code></pre></div></li> <li>Create a new GPT partition table. <div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><code><span class="go">sgdisk /dev/sdx -o</span> </code></pre></div></li> <li>Create an efi partition of 512MB by specifying the end of the partition (relative) and the partition type, <code>ef00</code>. <div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><code><span class="go">sgdisk /dev/sdx -n 1::+512MiB -t 1:ef00</span> </code></pre></div></li> <li>Create an <code>/</code> partition using the remainder of the disk, by not specifying the end or the beginning or partition type, which defaults to 8300. <div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><code><span class="go">sgdisk /dev/sdx -n 2</span> </code></pre></div></li> <li>Format the efi partition fat 32. <div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><code><span class="go">mkfs.vfat -F32 /dev/sdx1</span> </code></pre></div></li> <li>Format the <code>/</code> partition ext4. <div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><code><span class="go">mkfs.ext4 /dev/sdx2</span> </code></pre></div></li> </ol> <h2 id="practice-with-a-sparse-image"><strong>Practice With A Sparse Image</strong></h2> <p>If you don’t want to partition a real hard drive, you can practice using an sparse image file, instead. <div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><code><span class="gp"># </span>create a sparse image file <span class="go">truncate -S 100G practiceImage.img</span> <span class="gp"># </span>partition the image file with sgdisk <span class="go">sgdisk practiceImage.img -o</span> <span class="gp"># </span>etc </code></pre></div></p> <h2 id="example-with-separate-boot-efi-and-luks-encrypted-partitions"><strong>Example with Separate /boot, EFI, and luks-encrypted / Partitions</strong></h2> <ol> <li>Wipe any leftover filesystem metadata with <code>wipefs</code>. <div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><code><span class="go">wipefs --all /dev/sdx</span> </code></pre></div></li> <li>Create a new GPT partition table. <div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><code><span class="go">sgdisk /dev/sdx -o</span> </code></pre></div></li> <li>Create an efi partition of 512MB by specifying the end of the partition (relative) and the partition type, <code>ef00</code>. <div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><code><span class="go">sgdisk /dev/sdx -n 1::+512MiB -t 1:ef00</span> </code></pre></div></li> <li>Create a <code>/boot</code> partition of 1GB, by specifying the end of the partition (relative), but not specifying the partition type which defaults to <code>8300</code>. <div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><code><span class="go">sgdisk /dev/sdx -n 2::+1GiB</span> </code></pre></div></li> <li>Create an <code>/</code> partition using the remainder of the disk, by not specifying the end or the beginning or partition type, which defaults to <code>8300</code>. <div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><code><span class="go">sgdisk /dev/sdx -n 3</span> </code></pre></div></li> <li>Format the efi partition fat 32. <div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><code><span class="go">mkfs.vfat -F32 /dev/sdx1</span> </code></pre></div></li> <li>Format the <code>/boot</code> partition ext4. <div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><code><span class="go">mkfs.ext4 /dev/sdx2</span> </code></pre></div></li> <li>Encrypt the <code>/</code> partition. <div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><code><span class="go">cryptsetup -y -v luksFormat --type luks2 /dev/sdx3</span> </code></pre></div></li> <li>Decrypt the <code>/</code> device. <div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><code><span class="go">cryptsetup open /dev/sdx3 cryptroot</span> </code></pre></div></li> <li>Format the <code>/</code> device. <div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><code><span class="go">mkfs.xfs /dev/mapper/cryptroot</span> </code></pre></div></li> </ol> <h2 id="what-about-swap"><strong>What About Swap?</strong></h2> <p>I prefer to use a swap file inside the luks-encrypted / partition. But you can make a separate swap partition if you like.</p> <h2 id="example-with-2gb-swap-partition"><strong>Example with 2GB swap partition</strong></h2> <ol> <li>Wipe the disc. <div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><code><span class="go">wipefs --all /dev/sdx</span> </code></pre></div></li> <li>Create a new GPT partition table. <div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><code><span class="go">sgdisk /dev/sdx -o</span> </code></pre></div></li> <li>Create an EFI partition. <div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><code><span class="go">sgdisk /dev/sdx -n 1::+512MiB -t 1:ef00</span> </code></pre></div></li> <li>Create a <code>/boot</code> partition. <div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><code><span class="go">sgdisk /dev/sdx -n 2::+1GiB</span> </code></pre></div></li> <li>Create a <code>/</code> partition with a relative negative end. <div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><code><span class="go">sgdisk /dev/sdx -n 3::-2GiB</span> </code></pre></div></li> <li>Create a swap partion type <code>8200</code>. <div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><code><span class="go">sgdisk /dev/sdx -n 4 -t 4:8200</span> </code></pre></div></li> <li>format the partitions. <div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><code><span class="go">mkfs.vfat -F32 /dev/sdx1</span> <span class="go">mkfs.ext4 /dev/sdx2</span> <span class="go">mkfs.xfs /dev/sdx3</span> <span class="go">mkswap /dev/sdx4</span> </code></pre></div></li> </ol> <h2 id="conclusion"><strong>Conclusion</strong></h2> <ul> <li>Good luck to you.</li> <li>Backup your data first.</li> <li>Kind Regards, Trent</li> </ul> <script src="https://giscus.app/client.js" data-repo="TrentSPalmer/trentsblog_comments" data-repo-id="R_kgDOGLitLQ" data-category="Announcements" data-category-id="DIC_kwDOGLitLc4B_VyZ" data-mapping="og:title" data-reactions-enabled="1" data-emit-metadata="0" data-theme="light" crossorigin="anonymous" async> </script> </article> </div> </div> </main> <footer class="md-footer"> <nav class="md-footer__inner 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