Hi Mike,

My name is Curtis Gedak and I am the new C++ developer for GParted.  So far I have been unsuccessful in recreating the problem you described.  Would you be able to provide the steps you took to arrive at this problem?


HYPOTHESIS
==========

My guess is that more than 4 primary partitions were NOT created.  The problem is simply that the "ls -l /dev/disk/by-uuid" does not list the UUID until after the system has been rebooted.


Following are the steps I attempted:

ATTEMPT A
=========
First attempt to recreate the problem.

1)  Started with an blank drive with an MSDOS partition table

2)  Created partitions to fill the drive:
       a)  Primary    - hda1
       b)  Extended   - hda2 with sub partitions hda5, hda6, hda7
       c)  Primary    - hda3
       d)  Primary    - hda4

    Drive Layout:
 
    |-- hda1 --|-- hda2 --|------- hda3 -------|-- hda4 --|
                   /||\
         [- hda5 -|- hda6 -|- hda7 -]

3)  Shrunk hda3 by 1 GB (dragged right edge of hda3 to the left)

4)  Applied partition operations

    Drive Layout:
 
    |-- hda1 --|-- hda2 --|-- hda3 --|=========|-- hda4 --|
                   /||\
         [- hda5 -|- hda6 -|- hda7 -]

5)  Tried to create a new partition in the free space (shown above
    by the equal '=' signs), but a dialog popped up with the text:

       "It is not possible to create more than 4 primary partitions"

    NOTE:  This is correct.  Only 4 primary partitions should
    be allowed for an MSDOS partition table.  An extended
    partition is a special type of primary partition
    that permits logical partitions to be created within.


ATTEMPT B
=========
I also tried to recreate the problem with by re-doing step 3, but
with shrinking from the start of the partition.

1)  Started with an blank drive with an MSDOS partition table

2)  Created partitions to fill the drive:
       a)  Primary    - hda1
       b)  Extended   - hda2 with sub partitions hda5, hda6, hda7
       c)  Primary    - hda3
       d)  Primary    - hda4

    Drive Layout:
 
    |-- hda1 --|-- hda2 --|------- hda3 -------|-- hda4 --|
                   /||\
         [- hda5 -|- hda6 -|- hda7 -]

*3)  Shrunk hda3 by 1 GB (dragged left edge of hda3 to the right)
     *** This takes a much longer time to resize

*4)  Applied partition operation

    Drive Layout:
 
    |-- hda1 --|-- hda2 --|=========|-- hda3 --|-- hda4 --|
                   /||\
         [- hda5 -|- hda6 -|- hda7 -]


*5)  Tried to create a new partition in the free space, but again
     a dialog popped up with the text:

       "It is not possible to create more than 4 primary partitions"

     NOTE:  This is as it should be for an MSDOS partition table


ATTEMPT C
=========
Next I tried growing the extended partition to use this adjacent space with the following steps:

1)  Started with an blank drive with an MSDOS partition table

2)  Created partitions to fill the drive:
       a)  Primary    - hda1
       b)  Extended   - hda2 with sub partitions hda5, hda6, hda7
       c)  Primary    - hda3
       d)  Primary    - hda4

    Drive Layout:
 
    |-- hda1 --|-- hda2 --|------- hda3 -------|-- hda4 --|
                   /||\
         [- hda5 -|- hda6 -|- hda7 -]

*3)  Shrunk hda3 by 1 GB (dragged left edge of hda3 to the right)
     *** This takes a much longer time to resize

**4)  Applied partition operation

    Drive Layout:
 
    |-- hda1 --|-- hda2 -----------|-- hda3 --|-- hda4 --|
                   /||\
         [- hda5 -|- hda6 -|- hda7 -|========]

**5)  Created new linux-swap partition in the empty space.

**6)  Applied partition operation

    Drive Layout:
 
    |-- hda1 --|-- hda2 -----------|-- hda3 --|-- hda4 --|
                   /||\
         [- hda5 -|- hda6 -|- hda7 -|- hda8 -]

**7)  Checked for UUID

    ls -l /dev/disk/by-uuid | grep hda8

    Results:
    <empty>

    NOTE:  This may have been what you saw.  However, a UUID
           has been set for the partition as can be seen by
           using the "vol_id" command.  The ls command will
           also show the UUID after a reboot.

    vol_id /dev/hda8

     Results:
     ID_FS_USAGE=other
     ID_FS_TYPE=swap
     ID_FS_VERSION=2
     ID_FS_UUID=d0362f8e-1ee9-400c-bf76-e46b0d1bfc5c
     ID_FS_UUID_ENC=d0362f8e-1ee9-400c-bf76-e46b0d1bfc5c
     ID_FS_LABEL=
     ID_FS_LABEL_ENC=
     ID_FS_LABEL_SAFE=

    NOTE:  From above a UUID can be seen in the ID_FS_UUID
           entry.

CONCLUSION
==========
GParted appears to be working as expected.  It correctly limits MSDOS partition tables to 4 primary partitions, and a UUID is set for new linux-swap partitions.

Regards,
Curtis Gedak

As I have been unable to create more than 4 primary partitions for an MS-DOS Master Boot Record partition table, I am closing this bug.

If anyone is able to get GParted to create more than 4 primary partitions, then please feel free to either re-open this bug, or create a new bug and include how you did it.