Ubuntu
partman-partitioning package

copying partition results in duplicate uuid

Bug #148743 reported by Karl Klinger
20
This bug affects 1 person
Affects Status Importance Assigned to Milestone
partman-partitioning (Ubuntu)
Triaged
Wishlist
Unassigned

Bug Description

Binary package hint: libparted1.7-1

Copying a partition using partman or gparted results in the new partition having the same UUID as the copied partition. I confirmed this for ext2, ext3, and reiserfs partitons.

I first ran into this when I installed the Gutsy beta. I copied my home partition to make sure I didn't mess it up when testing Gutsy. When I switched back and forth between Feisty and Gutsy I noticed that changes I had made in data files in Feisty sometimes vanished. It took me a while to figure out that at boot Feisty sometimes mounted the original home partition, and sometimes the new copy - and that the two partitions had the same uuid.

I then tested copying partitions with gparted and again the original and copied partitions had the same uuid.

I assume that partman and gparted both use libparted, and that that is where the problem is.

Siegfried Gevatter (rainct)
Changed in parted:
importance: Undecided → Medium
Revision history for this message
Psy[H[] (vovik-wfa) wrote :

Maybe it would be better to consider this bug as a feature? (rather useful by my experience in backing up root and home partitions ;) ) and provide a switch to turn it on and off. Or a way to change uuid manually if needed...

Revision history for this message
Charles Marslett (charles-marslett) wrote :

Probably not a "good" feature. Useful or not, it would be an unexpected behavior and defeats the purpose of UUIDs. It reduces them to a less friendly version of LABEL. That is, insignificantly safer and much less user friendly.

A copied partition would be expected to have the same label, but not the same UUID, at least that would be my expectation.

Revision history for this message
clubsoda (clubsoda) wrote :

I suggest expanding the "copy partition" behaviour to include backup and restore functions in addition to the existing clone capability. If one may be permitted to add an empty tag file to one of the partitions then the UUIDs can be handled without user intervention. More detail here:-

http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/idea/21020/

Perhaps it is preferable not to alter the master partition in any way. The tag file could be added just to the backup partition after the copy instead.

Revision history for this message
Phillip Susi (psusi) wrote :

This is intentional behavior for parted. gparted has a feature request to offer to change the UUID, see bug #737387. I suppose partman could offer the same.

affects: parted (Ubuntu) → partman-partitioning (Ubuntu)
Changed in partman-partitioning (Ubuntu):
importance: Medium → Wishlist
status: New → Triaged
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