Anaconda Installer Using GPT on all architectures by Default
This document represents a proposed Change. As part of the Changes process, proposals are publicly announced in order to receive community feedback. This proposal will only be implemented if approved by the Fedora Engineering Steering Committee.
Summary
This is a follow-up for the Fedora 37 change which made the Anaconda installer use GPT as the default partition table for x86_64. This change proposes switching to GPT for the other supported architectures (namely ppc64le and s390x) as well.
Owner
- Name: Vojtech Trefny
- Email: vtrefny AT redhat.com
Current status
- Targeted release: Fedora Linux 42
- Last updated: 2025-01-07
- Announced
- Discussion thread
- FESCo issue: #3314
- Tracker bug: <will be assigned by the Wrangler>
- Release notes tracker: <will be assigned by the Wrangler>
Detailed Description
In Fedora 37 Anaconda switched to GPT as the default partition table (disklabel) for x86_64, for Fedora 42 we propose to make the switch for other architectures as well. Because GPT was already the default for ARM64 this means switching to GPT for ppc64le and s390x architectures when installing on an empty disk or when the disk is being completely reset during the installation.
Note: for s390x this applies only to disks where MSDOS disklabel is currently being used as the default disklabel, for DASD we'll continue to use the DASD disklabel.
Note: for ARM64 GPT is used only by the Anaconda installer (so for systems that are actually installed using Anaconda), images are created differently with different defaults.
Feedback
Benefit to Fedora
Similarly to the previous change: simplifying the code path and making the same default across all architectures with as few exceptions as possible. Fedora CoreOS now also uses GPT as default on all architectures so this change will also unify our defaults.
Scope
- Proposal owners: Change Blivet to prefer GPT as the default partition table on all architectures. Proposed upstream pull request: https://github.com/storaged-project/blivet/pull/1322
- Other developers: No work from other developers will be needed.
- Release engineering: #12491
- Policies and guidelines: N/A (not needed for this Change)
- Trademark approval: N/A (not needed for this Change)
- Alignment with the Fedora Strategy:
Upgrade/compatibility impact
This change will affect only new installations, no change to the partition table will be done during the upgrade.
Early Testing (Optional)
Do you require 'QA Blueprint' support? N
Early testing can be done by using the boot option inst.disklabel=gpt. This option tells the installer to use GPT disklabel so it can be used to make sure the system is compatible and will install and boot correctly with GPT.
How To Test
Any of the installer test cases (for example QA:Testcase_Anaconda_autopart_(use_all_space)_install) can be used to test this. Note that the installer will create a new partition table only when an empty disk is used or when all preexisting devices are selected to be removed, the partition table cannot be changed when existing partitions are being reused.
The expected result is that GPT will be used as the partition table type on s390x and ppc64le. sudo fdisk -l /dev/sdx can be used to verify that GPT was used by the installer.
User Experience
Users shouldn't notice any significant change other than the switch from MSDOS to GPT disklabel. Other than that the user experience during installation, booting or using the system shouldn't change at all.
Dependencies
There are no dependencies for this change, all work will be done in Blivet, the library that Anaconda uses for storage configuration.
Contingency Plan
- Contingency mechanism: Revert the change in upstream
- Contingency deadline: Final Freeze
- Blocks release? Yes
Documentation
The change will be documented in Anaconda release notes for Fedora 42 similarly to the documentation for the original Fedora 37 change.