GParted 0.16 fixes critical bug, exposes new bug

[djohnston]

Source

The developers of the popular partition editor GParted found that a bug in GParted 0.15 could cause crashes and, in turn, data loss when a partition was moved, copied, checked or resized. The warning went out on 13 April and a new version was recently made available that fixed this and other bugs and also included translation updates. A new feature was also added to GParted 0.16 allowing it to support the F2FS filesystem.

The developers of GParted were recommending that users update to version 0.16. But now, because of a bug found during the preparation of the LiveCD version, they only recommend that for users who build it themselves on a recent Linux system and they strongly suggest that backups are made before any partition resizing or modifications are made, to be safe. The new bug appears to have managed to escape their testing of the LiveCD as it appears only on older Linux systems

The release notes for 0.16 list all of the changes and updates. GParted 0.16 source code can be downloaded from Sourceforge. A new ISO image of the GParted live CD is being held back in testing; the developers say that users should continue to use the images for GParted Live CD 0.14.1.

[Slystone]

Thanx for the information. It could make us avoid some troubles.
So what alternative would you recommend?

[melodie]

Thanx for the information. It could make us avoid some troubles.
So what alternative would you recommend?

Hi,
I always use Gparted and was lucky not meeting with this issue. The Live CD I love best is Parted Magic which contains Gparted and many great diagnostic and repair tools. The latest available does not induce any issues. (I used it again just a pair of days ago to regain space for one of the installs on a machine having a multiboot).

http://partedmagic.com/doku.php?id=changelog

latest news:

Fri Apr 26 03:04:29 UTC 2013
chkrootkit/chkrootkit-0.49-i486-1_pmagic.txz: Added.
ddrescueview/ddrescueview-linux-i386-0.3: Added.
More pmagic_mount fixes…
Added warning for removal of USB drives.
Better detection for removable devices.
+--------------------------+
Wed Apr 24 16:51:19 UTC 2013
clamav/clamav-0.97.8-i486-1_pmagic.txz: Upgraded.
gparted/gparted-0.16.0-i486-1_pmagic.txz: Upgraded.
More pmagic_mount fixes…
It now works good enough for release!

[djohnston]

Thanx for the information. It could make us avoid some troubles.
So what alternative would you recommend?

Bear in mind that the version number will make all the difference. The article says there are problems with 0.15 and 0.16. I don't know if the live CD version numbering corresponds to the actual program version, or not. I just checked the latest Debian wheezy program version from the repos, and it's 0.12.1.

EDIT: The warnings are for the GParted live CD. You can see the the 0.15.0 warning at the top of their download page. If you want to use the recommended 0.14.1-6 version of the live CD, scroll to the bottom of the page, or use the embedded link in this post.

[djohnston]

GParted Live 0.16.1-1 declared "well-tested, stable"

The end of recent problems seems to have arrived for the makers of the free partition editor GParted, with the GParted developers announcing the release of "a well-tested, stable release of GParted Live". This release follows on from their announcement, earlier this week, of an "intensively reviewed" and tested GParted 0.16.1.

The developers recently had problems with the update of GParted 0.15 where bugs were found which could cause data loss. The developers worked on the code and released version 0.16 only to find another problem as they put together the Live CD version of GParted, which could also cause data loss. With the release of GParted 0.16.1, the developers fixed those problems and began assembling the new Live CD edition.

To ensure that this new LiveCD was a solid release, the developers say they ran it, successfully, through a battery of 200 tests including "moves, copies, creates, labels, new UUIDs, growing, shrinking, and deleting partitions containing each type of file system". The new release is strongly recommended for anyone running GParted Live 0.15.0-x or 0.16.0-x if they wish to avoid data loss. GParted images, application source and binaries are available from the GParted download page. The developers still advise users to backup data before using the tool.

[melodie]

Hello,

For information Parted Magic, which provides Gparted among many other tools for diagnostics, repairs and more, has updated his version on May1st.
Parted has been updated:

http://partedmagic.com/doku.php?id=changelog

Parted Magic 2013_05_01
Tue Apr 30 17:26:57 UTC 2013
gparted/gparted-0.16.1-i486-1_pmagic.txz: Upgraded.(...)

For who does not know it yet it is worth a try. Here are some screenshots:
http://partedmagic.com/doku.php?id=screenshots

and here the download page:
http://partedmagic.com/doku.php?id=downloads

[djohnston]

For who does not know it yet it is worth a try. Here are some screenshots:
http://partedmagic.com/doku.php?id=screenshots

I don't like the fonts. Why aren't they using wingdings?   

[melodie]

I don't like the fonts. Why aren't they using wingdings?   

Isn't that what you would call "picky"? You can just redo the ISO to your like.

http://partedmagic.com/doku.php?id=how_to_remaster_the_iso_file

[djohnston]

Isn't that what you would call "picky"? You can just redo the ISO to your like.

Yes, it is, but I was kidding.