Re: workaround for MS Windows' insanity (ignores partition types / hidden flag since 2018)

[Marcel Partap]

>> On Wed, 13 Nov 2019, 17:12 Marcel Partap, <address@hidden> wrote:
>> […] I propose to add a flag that overrides this code:
>>     >   static inline int
>>     >   grub_msdos_partition_is_empty (int type)
>>     >   {
>>     >     return (type == GRUB_PC_PARTITION_TYPE_NONE);
>>     >   }
>>     to allow booting from partitions of type 0 empty/none.
>>
>From my limited impact analysis (rg -pzLuuC50 partition_is_empty), the only 
>change in behaviour would be grub not failing to boot from such a partition.
Other opinions on this?

> Type 0 means that entry is empty and changing this is to expose bunch of 
> garbage partition
Where would these come from? I never encountered a partition of type 0 in the 
wild.. No software seems to put partitions into the part table, then flag them 
as empty.. which is why this should be a no-impact fix, especially when it is a 
grub config flag.

> and this is behavior followed by other consumers like Linux and BSD.
Yes of course the current behaviour is default because it is sane. But in a 
world where insane software still plays a dominating rule, sometimes conscious 
non-sane workarounds can be an apt kludge.

> However we can assist you in finding a better solution. Did you already 
> consider alternative partition maps? I'd try msdos+gpt or msdos+BSD or 
> msdos+sunpc.

Yes I tried with hybrid DOS/GPT partition scheme, no dice.

> Another workaround is to put some fake FAT structures that will end up as 
> showing as a FS. You can even put some explanation files there

That might be a way, but I would have no idea how to do that and it is somewhat 
more complex to apply..