[mdlug] UEFI Booting

[A. Zimmer]

Most of my machines support UEFI booting but I have disabled this option
in the BIOS in preference to the "old school" MBR boot method.  However,
now I would like to begin to move toward using UEFI booting with Linux. 

Since UEFI requires the newer GPT disk format, as a first step toward
this goal I compiled a Linux kernel with the capability to utilize the
GPT disk format.  (This is accomplished simply by setting
CONFIG_EFI_PARTITION=y during kernel configuration.)  My assumption was
that by adding this capability the kernel would be able to read/write
both GPT and MBR disks and thus I could experiment with GPT disks while
still keeping my system on MBR hard drives.  This did not work.  After
compiling the new kernel it failed to boot because the MBR system disks
were inaccessible. 

Is this the correct behavior when setting CONFIG_EFI_PARTITION=y?

Is there any way to compile a Linux kernel to have access to both GPT
and MBR disks simultaneously?  Or is such a setup impossible? 

If it can't be done then the only solution would be to copy my current
system over to a GPT formatted disk and find a way to boot from the GPT
disk. 

Can GNU parted or other tools create GPT partitions using a kernel that
is not configure to access the GPT format?