partitions/efi: do not require gpt partition to begin at sector 1

When detecting a valid protective MBR, the Linux kernel isn't picky about
the partition (1-4) the 0xEE is at, but, unlike other operating systems,
it does require it to begin at the second sector (sector 1).  This check,
apart from it not being enforced by UEFI, and causing Linux to potentially
fail to detect any *valid* partitions on the disk, can present problems
when dealing with hybrid MBRs[1].

For compatibility reasons, if the first partition is hybridized, the 0xEE
partition must be small enough to ensure that it only protects the GPT
data structures - as opposed to the the whole disk in a protective MBR.
This problem is very well described by Rod Smith[1]: where MBR-only
partitioning programs (such as older versions of fdisk) can see some of
the disk space as unallocated, thus loosing the purpose of the 0xEE
partition's protection of GPT data structures.

By dropping this check, this patch enables Linux to be more flexible when
probing for GPT disklabels.

[1] http://www.rodsbooks.com/gdisk/hybrid.html#reactions

Signed-off-by: Davidlohr Bueso <davidlohr@hp.com>
Reviewed-by: Karel Zak <kzak@redhat.com>
Acked-by: Matt Fleming <matt.fleming@intel.com>
Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton <akpm@linux-foundation.org>
Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org>

1 files changed, 0 insertions, 3 deletions

diff --git a/block/partitions/efi.c b/block/partitions/efi.c
index 7a2b74f0d06f..1b499dc8fc78 100644
--- a/block/partitions/efi.c
+++ b/block/partitions/efi.c
@@ -158,9 +158,6 @@ static inline int pmbr_part_valid(gpt_mbr_record *part)
         if (le32_to_cpu(part->starting_lba) != GPT_PRIMARY_PARTITION_TABLE_LBA)
                 goto invalid;
 
-        if (le32_to_cpu(part->start_sector) != 1UL)
-                goto invalid;
-
         return 1;
 invalid:
         return 0;