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I have two systems with same versions (Debian 11.7, util-linux 2.36.1-8+deb11u1). Why one system shows partition types as UUIDS and the second doesn't and also doesn't recognize that types showing "Empty" as the type?

Background: The second one booted through PXE and I'm setting the partitions table as a copy of the first one. To export from PC1:

$ sfdisk -d /dev/sda > "table-file.tbl"

$ cat "table-file.tbl"

Notice types are UUIDS

device: /dev/sda unit: sectors first-lba: 34 last-lba: 250069646 sector-size: 512 # /boot/efi /dev/sda1 : start= 2048, size= 1048576, type=C12A7328-F81F-11D2-BA4B-00A0C93EC93B, uuid=A454F449-08EA-48E0-BFAD-7D1190CB1DF3 #Main: / /dev/sda2 : start= 1050624, size= 58593280, type=0FC63DAF-8483-4772-8E79-3D69D8477DE4, uuid=46A2A596-C2E9-4D3B-9518-7D1496202576 # Extra partition: /extra /dev/sda3 : start= 59643904, size= 185546752, type=0FC63DAF-8483-4772-8E79-3D69D8477DE4, uuid=FDF1C229-8C35-4324-989F-4EE98B30503B # Swap partition /dev/sda4 : start= 245190656, size= 4878336, type=0657FD6D-A4AB-43C4-84E5-0933C84B4F4F, uuid=67FE00D9-2F09-4C4C-BD07-7129872D48C0

Moved the file to a shared network dir and used it on PC2:

$ sfdisk /dev/sda < "table-file.tbl" --no-reread; partprove

Now on the new system, fdisk -l reports empty as type:

fdisk -l /dev/sda

Disk /dev/sda: 119.24 GiB, 128035676160 bytes, 250069680 sectors Disk model: TS128GSSD452K-I Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes Disklabel type: dos Disk identifier: 0xf0c0c704 Device Boot Start End Sectors Size Id Type /dev/sda1 2048 1050623 1048576 512M 0 Empty /dev/sda2 1050624 59643903 58593280 27.9G 0 Empty /dev/sda3 59643904 245190655 185546752 88.5G 0 Empty /dev/sda4 245190656 250068991 4878336 2.3G 0 Empty

On the first system where I retrieve the data, the types are listed as a list with decimal value, name, UUID. On the new system, the list of known partition types hex values. (Linux 83, swap 82, uefi EF...). Types can be seen running:

$ fdisk /dev/sda

PC1:

Command (m for help): l 00 Empty 24 NEC DOS 81 Minix / old Lin bf Solaris 01 FAT12 27 Hidden NTFS Win 82 Linux swap / So c1 DRDOS/sec (FAT- 02 XENIX root 39 Plan 9 83 Linux c4 DRDOS/sec (FAT- 03 XENIX usr 3c PartitionMagic 84 OS/2 hidden or c6 DRDOS/sec (FAT- ...

PC2:

Command (m for help): l 1 EFI System C12A7328-F81F-11D2-BA4B-00A0C93EC93B 2 MBR partition scheme 024DEE41-33E7-11D3-9D69-0008C781F39F 3 Intel Fast Flash D3BFE2DE-3DAF-11DF-BA40-E3A556D89593 4 BIOS boot 21686148-6449-6E6F-744E-656564454649 5 Sony boot partition F4019732-066E-4E12-8273-346C5641494F 6 Lenovo boot partition BFBFAFE7-A34F-448A-9A5B-6213EB736C22 7 PowerPC PReP boot 9E1A2D38-C612-4316-AA26-8B49521E5A8B ...
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    Observation: On the new system fdisk -l shows you a dos partition table. GUIDs belong to GUID partition table (GPT). Commented Nov 9, 2023 at 11:00
  • Probably the GPT header is missing. Commented Nov 9, 2023 at 11:04
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    I don't know sfdisk at all, but after a quick scan of man 8 sfdisk i suspect you need --label gpt when importing your .tbl. What if you use sfdisk --label gpt /dev/sda < "table-file.tbl" --no-reread? Commented Nov 9, 2023 at 11:09

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
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Different label types use different partition types values. "dos" != "gpt"

Setting the --label as suggested in comments solved the issue:

sfdisk --label gpt /dev/sda < "table-file.tbl" --no-reread

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