On Sat, Jan 20, 2007 at 05:26:51PM -0500, jared r r spiegel wrote:
> On Sat, Jan 20, 2007 at 09:58:00PM +0100, Patrick Useldinger wrote:
> >
> > If I have a harddisk with one OBSD slice and one other slice (say
> > Linux), can I convert that second slice to OBSD A6 and use it from the
> > same OBSD installation?
> > If so, what will be the disklabel numbering?
>
> i did this once a while ago (maybe 3.5 land?).
>
> iirc, i told disklabel to start at beginning of the first openbsd
> A6 partition and end at the end of the second openbsd A6 partition,
> and paid caution to not disklabel up any space in that deadzone
> in the middle, including not fricking with the beginning sectors
> of the second A6.
>
> i don't believe disklabel will have any numbering for the slices
> represented by the second A6 partition in your case, if that second
> A6 is a linux right now. after you A6 it and then tell disklabel about
> the end of the openbsd portion of the disk, you'll be making new
> disklabel slices at that region of the disk so disklabel will suggest
> you "number" (letter) them using the next letter available to it like
> normal.
>
> i also played with disklabel first in readonly mode and told it
> to use only the second A6 partition and then set about to add slices
> to it so i could get a handle on what sectors it wanted things to begin
> at.
>
> openbsd rocked this configuration just fine, however i recall i
> had tried a linux also on that machine at that time, don't remember
> what kernel version it was - maybe early-to-mid 2.4?
>
> anyway, linux saw the two openbsd A6 partitions and i believe it
> found the slices in the second A6 to be visible, but it puked
> and refused utterly to access or mount the slices in the second
> A6 partition - the dmesg said something about invalidity
>
> goes without saying that if you could probably slip up and
> screw the pooch more easily using this type of disk layout, but
> hell, openbsd's disklabel and fdisk are very powerful and easy
> to use - i considered it worth my time trying to make this
> juggling act work as learning experience.
On the other hand, you'll have to make a backup anyway, so...
Joachim
