Re: can't make an 'a' slice except with auto-defaults
At 7:59 PM -0700 2/2/10, Steve Franks wrote: On a running system. I mean, I know I should quit being a %^# and read the manpage for bsdlabel, but sysintall really does have a nice tui.'C'reate slice goes straight to 'd', even on a 'fresh' disk. I see in the handbook, this is alluded to, but some intermediate level between begginer and expert (bsdlabel just strikes me as way too easy to trash the disk I'm running off of while trying to make a backup), would be nice...512M just won't fit the kernel+symbols. If you're running into the issue that I think you're running into, then there is a way to trick sysinstall to do what you want. When you ask sysinstall to create that first partition, claim that you are creating the partition named '/'. If you do that, it will put the partition in as a. You couldn't actually partition it as '/', of course, because that would conflict with '/' on your running system. But sysinstall will let you say you want to create '/', and then use a for that partition. Then select that a partition, and tell sysinstall you want to change the name for that partition. Change it to whatever you want. At that point sysinstall can't change the partition from a to d, so you'll have the mount-point that you really want as the a partition. -- Garance Alistair Drosehn= g...@gilead.netel.rpi.edu Senior Systems Programmer or g...@freebsd.org Rensselaer Polytechnic Instituteor dro...@rpi.edu ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to freebsd-questions-unsubscr...@freebsd.org
Re: can't make an 'a' slice except with auto-defaults
If you're running into the issue that I think you're running into, then there is a way to trick sysinstall to do what you want. When you ask sysinstall to create that first partition, claim that you are creating the partition named '/'. If you do that, it will put the partition in as a. You couldn't actually partition it as '/', of course, because that would conflict with '/' on your running system. But sysinstall will let you say you want to create '/', and then use a for that partition. Then select that a partition, and tell sysinstall you want to change the name for that partition. Change it to whatever you want. At that point sysinstall can't change the partition from a to d, so you'll have the mount-point that you really want as the a partition. I really should have thought of that! So you create it as /, and then hit 'M' and change the mount point to, say, /mnt/root... Thanks, Steve ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to freebsd-questions-unsubscr...@freebsd.org
Re: can't make an 'a' slice except with auto-defaults
On Wednesday 03 February 2010 03:59:15 Steve Franks wrote: On a running system. I mean, I know I should quit being a %^# and read the manpage for bsdlabel, but sysintall really does have a nice tui. sade(8) is the standalone version of sysinstall's partitioning subroutine. Also, if you're running a reasonably recent version of FreeBSD, you might want to take a look at gpart(8) which can do slicing and labeling (and a whole bunch of other disk partitioning related stuff). Regards, Pieter 'C'reate slice goes straight to 'd', even on a 'fresh' disk. I see in the handbook, this is alluded to, but some intermediate level between begginer and expert (bsdlabel just strikes me as way too easy to trash the disk I'm running off of while trying to make a backup), would be nice...512M just won't fit the kernel+symbols. fuming, reading man bsdlabel ;) Steve ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to freebsd-questions-unsubscr...@freebsd.org
Re: can't make an 'a' slice except with auto-defaults
Just a sidenote to avoid misunderstandings: On Tue, 2 Feb 2010 19:59:15 -0700, Steve Franks bahamasfra...@gmail.com wrote: 'C'reate slice goes straight to 'd', even on a 'fresh' disk. I think you create a partition, not a slice. The slice editor would 'C'reate 's1'. :-) I see in the handbook, this is alluded to, but some intermediate level between begginer and expert (bsdlabel just strikes me as way too easy to trash the disk I'm running off of while trying to make a backup), would be nice...512M just won't fit the kernel+symbols. According to the handbook, http://www.freebsd.org/doc/handbook/install-steps.html you should make sure that you've selected a CUSTOM install, visit the slice editor (if needed) and the partition editor afterwards. Creating partitions should start with 'a', and if you want to use the whole disk, 'a' is the default (because 'a' usually refers to the booting partition). A case when no 'a' partition can be created does exist when there is already an 'a' partition on the slice. If that's the case, make sure it's not the case. :-) fuming, reading man bsdlabel ;) FUMEN PROHIB, LEGERE LEVITICUS! :-) -- Polytropon Magdeburg, Germany Happy FreeBSD user since 4.0 Andra moi ennepe, Mousa, ... ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to freebsd-questions-unsubscr...@freebsd.org
Re: can't make an 'a' slice except with auto-defaults
On Tue, Feb 02, 2010 at 07:59:15PM -0700, Steve Franks wrote: On a running system. I mean, I know I should quit being a %^# and read the manpage for bsdlabel, but sysintall really does have a nice tui.'C'reate slice goes straight to 'd', even on a 'fresh' disk. I see in the handbook, this is alluded to, but some intermediate level between begginer and expert (bsdlabel just strikes me as way too easy to trash the disk I'm running off of while trying to make a backup), would be nice...512M just won't fit the kernel+symbols. fuming, reading man bsdlabel ;) Well, Create slice would be an fdisk(8) thing, not bsdlabel. bsdlabel creates partitions within a slice. But, generally you cannot run fdisk on a disk that is in use on a running system - which generally means that it is the boot device, has filesystems mounted or has part of the currently designated swap space. You will need to plug in a boot cd or bring up the fixit system for that. The fixit system runs from memory - creates filesystems and mount points in memory rather than on disk, so it can talk to any disk. New, if you are working on a non-used (extra) disk, eg one that is not the boot device nor has any mounted filesystems or swap space on it, then you should be able to fdisk and bsdlabel that from a running system. I have no idea what you mean by 'C'reate slice goes straight to 'd' It does not match anything I remember being possible. I don't happen to have any system handy at the moment that I can muck with disks on. jerry Steve ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to freebsd-questions-unsubscr...@freebsd.org ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to freebsd-questions-unsubscr...@freebsd.org
Re: can't make an 'a' slice except with auto-defaults
On Wed, Feb 3, 2010 at 8:18 AM, Jerry McAllister jerr...@msu.edu wrote: On Tue, Feb 02, 2010 at 07:59:15PM -0700, Steve Franks wrote: On a running system. I mean, I know I should quit being a %^# and read the manpage for bsdlabel, but sysintall really does have a nice tui. 'C'reate slice goes straight to 'd', even on a 'fresh' disk. I see in the handbook, this is alluded to, but some intermediate level between begginer and expert (bsdlabel just strikes me as way too easy to trash the disk I'm running off of while trying to make a backup), would be nice...512M just won't fit the kernel+symbols. fuming, reading man bsdlabel ;) Well, Create slice would be an fdisk(8) thing, not bsdlabel. bsdlabel creates partitions within a slice. But, generally you cannot run fdisk on a disk that is in use on a running system - which generally means that it is the boot device, has filesystems mounted or has part of the currently designated swap space. You will need to plug in a boot cd or bring up the fixit system for that. The fixit system runs from memory - creates filesystems and mount points in memory rather than on disk, so it can talk to any disk. New, if you are working on a non-used (extra) disk, eg one that is not the boot device nor has any mounted filesystems or swap space on it, then you should be able to fdisk and bsdlabel that from a running system. I have no idea what you mean by 'C'reate slice goes straight to 'd' It does not match anything I remember being possible. I don't happen to have any system handy at the moment that I can muck with disks on. jerry Ok, terminology crash. As someone pointed out, I'm talking about label, here, not fdisk, and partitions, not slices (had those two backwards in my head). Basically, as far as I can tell, on a running system, there is no combination of keystrokes in sysinstall's label editor that will create an ad[1-9]s1a, except the 'a' key which produces a 512M s1a. All other keystrokes (namely 'c') go straight to ad[1-9]s1d when a second disk is placed in a system booted from ad0s1a. I'm just trying to make a fresh disk ready for dump/restore with a 1G /, so I guess sysinstall is out as an option at this time. Steve ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to freebsd-questions-unsubscr...@freebsd.org
Re: can't make an 'a' slice except with auto-defaults
On Wed, 3 Feb 2010 10:26:06 -0700, Steve Franks bahamasfra...@gmail.com wrote: I'm just trying to make a fresh disk ready for dump/restore with a 1G /, so I guess sysinstall is out as an option at this time. Why so complicated? The command # newfs /dev/ad1 will prepare the disk, assuming ad1 is the new disk. It will create one single partition covering the whole disk, with no slice. You can then run # mount /dev/ad1 /mnt to access it; /dev/ad1 is the same as /dev/ad1c, the whole disk. By the way, have you tried the program # sade instead of sysinstall? -- Polytropon Magdeburg, Germany Happy FreeBSD user since 4.0 Andra moi ennepe, Mousa, ... ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to freebsd-questions-unsubscr...@freebsd.org
Re: can't make an 'a' slice except with auto-defaults
Why so complicated? The command # newfs /dev/ad1 I'm looking to mirror/dup/image the entire system to something I can stick in another system.I hear there's good reasons for not running my whole system off of a single partition. The 'other' system has 7.2 and has devolved to a 25% chance of a hard freeze every time I unplug a ucom device (seems to have cropped up between 7.2-release and 7.2-stable#3). 8 likes usb, so I like 8. Steve ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to freebsd-questions-unsubscr...@freebsd.org
Re: can't make an 'a' slice except with auto-defaults
On Wed, 3 Feb 2010 10:42:42 -0700, Steve Franks bahamasfra...@gmail.com wrote: Why so complicated? The command # newfs /dev/ad1 I'm looking to mirror/dup/image the entire system to something I can stick in another system. Sorry, my misunderstanding. I thought you're intending to use the second disk as a pure data disk. I hear there's good reasons for not running my whole system off of a single partition. The example above would not only create one single partition, it would furthermore omit the slice containing it. :-) -- Polytropon Magdeburg, Germany Happy FreeBSD user since 4.0 Andra moi ennepe, Mousa, ... ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to freebsd-questions-unsubscr...@freebsd.org
Re: can't make an 'a' slice except with auto-defaults
On Wed, Feb 03, 2010 at 06:37:22PM +0100, Polytropon wrote: On Wed, 3 Feb 2010 10:26:06 -0700, Steve Franks bahamasfra...@gmail.com wrote: I'm just trying to make a fresh disk ready for dump/restore with a 1G /, so I guess sysinstall is out as an option at this time. Why so complicated? The command # newfs /dev/ad1 will prepare the disk, assuming ad1 is the new disk. It will create one single partition covering the whole disk, with no slice. You can then run # mount /dev/ad1 /mnt to access it; /dev/ad1 is the same as /dev/ad1c, the whole disk. This gets you what is referred to as a dangerously dedicated disk in the documentation.If you are doing nothing unusual with other OSen, then it works fine.But, it is also not at all hard to use fdisk and bsdlabel to create the full slice+partition. Here is the basic routine. dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/ad1 bs=512 count=1024 fdisk -BI ad1 dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/ad1s1 bs=512 count=1024 bsdlabel -w -B ad1s1 bsdlabel -e ad1s1 The second bsdlabel command puts you in to an edit session. Edit the partition table to something like this, then save[write] and exit. (Just those two lines for a single partition disk) # /dev/ad1s1: 8 partitions: #size offset fstype [fsize bsize bps/cpg] c: 89867610 0 unused0 0 # raw part, don't edit h:* 0 4.2BSD 2048 16384 8 You can use any partition identifier except 'c', but I like to reserve 'a' for bootable root (/) and 'b' for swap to reduce the confusion in my head. If the disk will not be bootable take out the 'B' from each of the fdisk and bsdlabel commands. You probably do not need the two dd-s, but sometimes they are needed if the system cannot read the sector 0 on the disk for some reason. Finally, when that is done, do: newfs /dev/ad1s1d Make yourself a mount point and mount the new disk. mkdir /bigwork mount /dev/ad1s1d /bigwork Edit /etc/fstab so it will mount automatically. It is not weird or mysterious, though I admit the man pages for both fdisk and bsdlabel could stand a going through. They do not follow the conventions of most man pages in the way they describe the switches and parameters. Fortunately they have lots of examples (but could use even more). jerry By the way, have you tried the program # sade instead of sysinstall? -- Polytropon Magdeburg, Germany Happy FreeBSD user since 4.0 Andra moi ennepe, Mousa, ... ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to freebsd-questions-unsubscr...@freebsd.org ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to freebsd-questions-unsubscr...@freebsd.org
Re: can't make an 'a' slice except with auto-defaults
On Wed, Feb 03, 2010 at 10:42:42AM -0700, Steve Franks wrote: Why so complicated? The command # newfs /dev/ad1 I'm looking to mirror/dup/image the entire system to something I can stick in another system.I hear there's good reasons for not running my whole system off of a single partition. The three main reasons are: Backups.It is often easier to manage backups when the disk storage is thoughtfully divided into reasonable and functional pieces. Emergencies. If your system crashes, especially if it is due to some disk problem, you may need to boot your system to single user. In that case you will start with only / (root) mounted as read-only. Having a fairly small root partition means the chance of having the bad disk area be in what you are trying to mount is reduced (not eliminated, of course). Anyway, you may be more able to get up to a minimal system and then work on recovering the other partitions. Boot time. A possible benefit is that only root needs to be fsck-ed before other things can start. Remaining fsck-s can run in parallel. This will take you less time to get back up after an abnormal shutdown - such as from a sudden power loss. The 'other' system has 7.2 and has devolved to a 25% chance of a hard freeze every time I unplug a ucom device (seems to have cropped up between 7.2-release and 7.2-stable#3). 8 likes usb, so I like 8. FreeBSd 8 is a good choice. jerry Steve ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to freebsd-questions-unsubscr...@freebsd.org ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to freebsd-questions-unsubscr...@freebsd.org
Re: can't make an 'a' slice except with auto-defaults
In freebsd-questions Digest, Vol 296, Issue 6, Message: 20 On Wed, 3 Feb 2010 10:26:06 -0700 Steve Franks bahamasfra...@gmail.com wrote: On Wed, Feb 3, 2010 at 8:18 AM, Jerry McAllister jerr...@msu.edu wrote: On Tue, Feb 02, 2010 at 07:59:15PM -0700, Steve Franks wrote: On a running system. I mean, I know I should quit being a %^# and read the manpage for bsdlabel, but sysintall really does have a nice tui. 'C'reate slice goes straight to 'd', even on a 'fresh' disk. sysinstall (or sade) will assign 'd' to the first partition if its mount point for the partition is not specified as '/'. This is usually right, when partitioning either another slice on the same disk, or a slice on another disk, where '/' is already assigned to the booted disk. In the case of what you're doing, ie preparing another disk to copy your system to, it's not hard to fix that later with bsdlabel -e, as Jerry has pointed out, and which I'll detail further below. I see in the handbook, this is alluded to, but some intermediate level between begginer and expert (bsdlabel just strikes me as way too easy to trash the disk I'm running off of while trying to make a backup), would be nice...512M just won't fit the kernel+symbols. A default 1GB '/' is on the cards, perhaps by 8.1, but in any case I've never used anything like the autodefaults for other partitions either. bsdlabel(8) is not so scary. For one thing, anything you do is shown but not committed to disk if you use the -n switch. Try it. Also, the man has examples of saving and restoring an existing label, so if you: # bsdlabel ad1s1 saved.ad1s1.label then if you stuff it up you can later on just restore it with: # bsdlabel -R ad1s1 saved.ad1s1.label fuming, reading man bsdlabel ;) Well, Create slice would be an fdisk(8) thing, not bsdlabel. bsdlabel creates partitions within a slice. But, generally you cannot run fdisk on a disk that is in use on a running system - which generally means that it is the boot device, has filesystems mounted or has part of the currently designated swap space. You will need to plug in a boot cd or bring up the fixit system for that. The fixit system runs from memory - creates filesystems and mount points in memory rather than on disk, so it can talk to any disk. If you set kern.geom.debugflags=16 and 'w'rite from either sysinstall's fdisk or bsdlabel screens you can update the partition table or your new slice's bsdlabel, but you have to be very careful, and in the case of fdisk, you need to reboot before labeling the new slice. Certainly using a fixit boot is the safe and sure way to avoid complications. New, if you are working on a non-used (extra) disk, eg one that is not the boot device nor has any mounted filesystems or swap space on it, then you should be able to fdisk and bsdlabel that from a running system. This seems to be Steve's case, but he's right; it will start creating new partitions as 'd' rather than 'a' (since there's already a '/') unless he boots into either sysinstall or fixit from another source. I have no idea what you mean by 'C'reate slice goes straight to 'd' It does not match anything I remember being possible. I don't happen to have any system handy at the moment that I can muck with disks on. jerry I've several times added partitions to extra slice/s on either the boot disk or added disks (including sliced USB flash disks) using sysinstall invoked from the running system, and these do start with 'd' partition. Ok, terminology crash. As someone pointed out, I'm talking about label, here, not fdisk, and partitions, not slices (had those two backwards in my head). Basically, as far as I can tell, on a running system, there is no combination of keystrokes in sysinstall's label editor that will create an ad[1-9]s1a, except the 'a' key which produces a 512M s1a. The 'a' key auto-assigns '/' as the mount point for partition 'a', which is why you see that. You wouldn't be able to commit that anyway, as /, /var, /usr would conflict with your already mounted slice, and newfs'ing your existing system is most likely not what you want :) All other keystrokes (namely 'c') go straight to ad[1-9]s1d when a second disk is placed in a system booted from ad0s1a. I'm just trying to make a fresh disk ready for dump/restore with a 1G /, so I guess sysinstall is out as an option at this time. You may be better off just installing the new system onto ad1 straight up, ignoring your ad0, when you can just use sysinstall. However .. sysinstall (or sade) run from an existing system is a pretty convenient way to partition a disk, or slice. You don't really need to worry about it starting at 'd', as you can easily correct that later. Eg this one: smithi on sola% fdisk -s ad0 /dev/ad0: 77520 cyl 16 hd 63 sec PartStartSize Type Flags 1: 30240
can't make an 'a' slice except with auto-defaults
On a running system. I mean, I know I should quit being a %^# and read the manpage for bsdlabel, but sysintall really does have a nice tui.'C'reate slice goes straight to 'd', even on a 'fresh' disk. I see in the handbook, this is alluded to, but some intermediate level between begginer and expert (bsdlabel just strikes me as way too easy to trash the disk I'm running off of while trying to make a backup), would be nice...512M just won't fit the kernel+symbols. fuming, reading man bsdlabel ;) Steve ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to freebsd-questions-unsubscr...@freebsd.org
