ZFS partitioning
Hello, I'm following the raidz[1] and mirror[2] guides for a ZFS root. For a test installation on a 5 disk Virtualbox environment. I see that all the disks get the same partitions, including swap and boot? Why is that? And do I need those 5 boot and swap partitions? Thank you for your time, Rolad [1]https://wiki.freebsd.org/RootOnZFS/GPTZFSBoot/RAIDZ1 [2]https://wiki.freebsd.org/RootOnZFS/GPTZFSBoot/9.0-RELEASE ___ 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: ZFS partitioning
On 12. mai 2013, at 15:21, Roland van Laar rol...@micite.net wrote: I see that all the disks get the same partitions, including swap and boot? Why is that? And do I need those 5 boot and swap partitions? You don't need them, but there's a good chance you'll want them. Long story, short version: with raidz and mirror, you survive the loss of a disk. If you put boot on one, and that's the disk you loose, you're up shit creek, having chosen not to bring a paddle. ;) It's also not a lot to loose by putting it on all of them. For swap, there's also performance-reasons. Terje ___ 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: ZFS partitioning
notice my boot pool is a mirror, so disk 2 is identical to disk1, so if disk1 ever dies, logically i could boot from disk two pool: tank state: ONLINE scan: scrub repaired 0 in 0h0m with 0 errors on Sat May 11 13:20:41 2013 config: NAMESTATE READ WRITE CKSUM tankONLINE 0 0 0 mirror-0 ONLINE 0 0 0 da34p3 ONLINE 0 0 0 da35p3 ONLINE 0 0 0 errors: No known data errors On Sun, May 12, 2013 at 9:44 AM, Terje Elde te...@elde.net wrote: On 12. mai 2013, at 15:21, Roland van Laar rol...@micite.net wrote: I see that all the disks get the same partitions, including swap and boot? Why is that? And do I need those 5 boot and swap partitions? You don't need them, but there's a good chance you'll want them. Long story, short version: with raidz and mirror, you survive the loss of a disk. If you put boot on one, and that's the disk you loose, you're up shit creek, having chosen not to bring a paddle. ;) It's also not a lot to loose by putting it on all of them. For swap, there's also performance-reasons. Terje ___ 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: ZFS partitioning
On May 12, 2013, at 9:48 AM, Outback Dingo outbackdi...@gmail.com wrote: notice my boot pool is a mirror, so disk 2 is identical to disk1, so if disk1 ever dies, logically i could boot from disk two The zpool mirror does not mirror the bootblock. You need to manually add that to all the drives you may want to boot from. pool: tank state: ONLINE scan: scrub repaired 0 in 0h0m with 0 errors on Sat May 11 13:20:41 2013 config: NAMESTATE READ WRITE CKSUM tankONLINE 0 0 0 mirror-0 ONLINE 0 0 0 da34p3 ONLINE 0 0 0 da35p3 ONLINE 0 0 0 errors: No known data errors -- Paul Kraus Deputy Technical Director, LoneStarCon 3 Sound Coordinator, Schenectady Light Opera Company ___ 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: ZFS partitioning
On Sun, May 12, 2013 at 1:26 PM, Paul Kraus p...@kraus-haus.org wrote: On May 12, 2013, at 9:48 AM, Outback Dingo outbackdi...@gmail.com wrote: notice my boot pool is a mirror, so disk 2 is identical to disk1, so if disk1 ever dies, logically i could boot from disk two The zpool mirror does not mirror the bootblock. You need to manually add that to all the drives you may want to boot from. yeah i know ive done both bootblocks, Thanks though pool: tank state: ONLINE scan: scrub repaired 0 in 0h0m with 0 errors on Sat May 11 13:20:41 2013 config: NAMESTATE READ WRITE CKSUM tankONLINE 0 0 0 mirror-0 ONLINE 0 0 0 da34p3 ONLINE 0 0 0 da35p3 ONLINE 0 0 0 errors: No known data errors -- Paul Kraus Deputy Technical Director, LoneStarCon 3 Sound Coordinator, Schenectady Light Opera Company ___ 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: ZFS partitioning
You may not want to mirror the boot block. That way you can update one boot block, test it before copying the other. If the new boot block fails to boot, the BIOS should go to the next hard drive and boot the mirror. I don't know if it's possible to detect which drive you're actually booting from to know for sure it worked though. A back up is better than a mirror. With a mirror, you're more likely to fail to boot. On 5/12/2013 12:26 PM, Paul Kraus wrote: On May 12, 2013, at 9:48 AM, Outback Dingo outbackdi...@gmail.com wrote: notice my boot pool is a mirror, so disk 2 is identical to disk1, so if disk1 ever dies, logically i could boot from disk two The zpool mirror does not mirror the bootblock. You need to manually add that to all the drives you may want to boot from. pool: tank state: ONLINE scan: scrub repaired 0 in 0h0m with 0 errors on Sat May 11 13:20:41 2013 config: NAMESTATE READ WRITE CKSUM tankONLINE 0 0 0 mirror-0 ONLINE 0 0 0 da34p3 ONLINE 0 0 0 da35p3 ONLINE 0 0 0 errors: No known data errors -- Paul Kraus Deputy Technical Director, LoneStarCon 3 Sound Coordinator, Schenectady Light Opera Company ___ 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: OT: Installing 9.1 without re-partitioning hard drive
On Mon, 18 Mar 2013, Ralf Mardorf wrote: On Mon, 2013-03-18 at 09:00 -0600, Warren Block wrote: On Mon, 18 Mar 2013, Ralf Mardorf wrote: Standard practice for this list is to Cc the responder and the list, because people are not required to subscribe to post. That makes sense and does explain why my last mail came through the list, while my broken MUA didn't use the address, I used to subscribe to this list. So a smarter MUA should provide different reply settings for replying to different lists. I should take a look at the mailman settings, since at the moment I receive 2 mails in case of Cc'ing, IIRC this can be disabled. Mailing list settings may not help, since it's really up to the sender. But it's easy to filter out duplicates with maildrop or procmail. ___ 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
OT: Installing 9.1 without re-partitioning hard drive
On Sun, 2013-03-17 at 15:37 -0700, leeoliveshackelf...@surewest.net wrote: Please Cc responses to the mailing list I know that it's tolerated by the FreeBSD lists, but for most mailing lists nowadays it's common to reply to the list only. Most MUA nowadays provide an option to automatically reply to the list only. So IMO even for this list the advice should at least be, _if possible_ reply to the list only, if you want receive a copy directly, than ask the OP reply to the list and (carbon copy) me, but don't address it to somebody else. 2 Cents, Ralf ___ 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: OT: Installing 9.1 without re-partitioning hard drive
On Mon, 18 Mar 2013, Ralf Mardorf wrote: On Sun, 2013-03-17 at 15:37 -0700, leeoliveshackelf...@surewest.net wrote: Please Cc responses to the mailing list Actually, I had written that in a reply. I know that it's tolerated by the FreeBSD lists, but for most mailing lists nowadays it's common to reply to the list only. Most MUA nowadays provide an option to automatically reply to the list only. So IMO even for this list the advice should at least be, _if possible_ reply to the list only, if you want receive a copy directly, than ask the OP reply to the list and (carbon copy) me, but don't address it to somebody else. Standard practice for this list is to Cc the responder and the list, because people are not required to subscribe to post. ___ 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: OT: Installing 9.1 without re-partitioning hard drive
On Mon, 2013-03-18 at 09:00 -0600, Warren Block wrote: On Mon, 18 Mar 2013, Ralf Mardorf wrote: Standard practice for this list is to Cc the responder and the list, because people are not required to subscribe to post. That makes sense and does explain why my last mail came through the list, while my broken MUA didn't use the address, I used to subscribe to this list. So a smarter MUA should provide different reply settings for replying to different lists. I should take a look at the mailman settings, since at the moment I receive 2 mails in case of Cc'ing, IIRC this can be disabled. ___ 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: OT: Installing 9.1 without re-partitioning hard drive
On Mon, Mar 18, 2013 at 09:15:43AM +0100, Ralf Mardorf wrote: On Sun, 2013-03-17 at 15:37 -0700, leeoliveshackelf...@surewest.net wrote: Please Cc responses to the mailing list I know that it's tolerated by the FreeBSD lists, but for most mailing lists nowadays it's common to reply to the list only. Most MUA nowadays provide an option to automatically reply to the list only. As a matter of fact, on the FreeBSD Questions list it is recommended to send to both the poster and the list. On this list it is not required to be subscribed to post. It is an open list. jerry So IMO even for this list the advice should at least be, _if possible_ reply to the list only, if you want receive a copy directly, than ask the OP reply to the list and (carbon copy) me, but don't address it to somebody else. 2 Cents, Ralf ___ 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
Fwd: Re: Installing 9.1 without re-partitioning hard drive
---BeginMessage--- On Sat, 16 Mar 2013, leeoliveshackelf...@surewest.net wrote: Dear Mr. Block, Greetings. Thank you for your response to my message. Your instruction to change the name of the disk drive from ah0 to aha0 worked. I can now boot FreeBSD. The next trick will be to attempt to load X-windows, then gnome. Even in man gpart, some paragraphs refer to the first disk drive as ah0, while other paragraphs refer to the first disk drive as aha0. Currently, I am trying to determine how to change my login shell to BASH. I get the error message that BASH is not an approved shell. (Apparently, I must somehow download it from some unspecified place.) Please Cc responses to the mailing list, so others can help and learn. See http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/ports.html about installing applications. All of these applications are available in ports. ---End Message--- ___ 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: Installing 9.1 without re-partitioning hard drive
On Fri, 15 Mar 2013, leeoliveshackelf...@surewest.net wrote: Good evening, Free BSD enthusiasts. Thank you to each of the several people who have responded to my previous messages. I have made significant progress, but am now flummoxed at the installation of the boot loader. The handbook says to run this command, boot0cfg -B ad0. When I run this command, I get the following error message: Unable to get providername for ad0. This message means there is no disk called ad0. On FreeBSD 9.x, it is likely to be called ada0 instead. I can't find that command in the Handbook. Could you please point out where it is? ___ 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
Installing 9.1 without re-partitioning hard drive
Good evening, Free BSD enthusiasts. Thank you to each of the several people who have responded to my previous messages. I have made significant progress, but am now flummoxed at the installation of the boot loader. The handbook says to run this command, boot0cfg -B ad0. When I run this command, I get the following error message: Unable to get providername for ad0. What is a provider name? How do I determine the provider name for ad0? How do I communicate that information to boot0cfg? I know that this problem has something to do with the geom command, but the man geom goes on for many pages. While I think the answer may be in there somewhere, I could not find it. Any and all comments will be appreciated. Sincerely, Newby Lee ___ 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: Installing 9.1 without re-partitioning hard drive
Hi, On Fri, 15 Mar 2013 20:11:24 -0700 (PDT) leeoliveshackelf...@surewest.net wrote: Good evening, Free BSD enthusiasts. Thank you to each of the several good morning, people who have responded to my previous messages. I have made significant progress, but am now flummoxed at the installation of the this is good to hear. boot loader. The handbook says to run this command, boot0cfg -B ad0. When I run this command, I get the following error message: Unable to get providername for ad0. What is a provider name? How do I determine the provider name for ad0? How do I communicate that information to boot0cfg? I know that this problem has something to do with the geom command, but the man geom goes on for many pages. While I think the answer may be in there somewhere, I could not find it. Any and all comments will be appreciated. Sincerely, Newby Lee ad0? This sounds like that it would overwrite the loader from your Windows installation. Did you read man gpart? gpart should be able to show you the current layout of the disk. It is also able to install the boot code you need. If I remember, you want to have Windows and FreeBSD on the same disk. So, you should have some kind of boot manager which will give you the choice between them. Of course, you can use whatever boot manager you want. The one which comes with FreeBSD is a bit simple but does its job. Erich ___ 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
Installing 9.1 without re-partitioning hard drive
Good afternoon, FreeBSD enthusiasts. I am attempting to install FreeBSD 9.1 on a dual-boot configuration with Windows XP. I am using bsdinstall. I do not wish for the partition table to be changed. How do I instruct bsdinstall to skip the re-partitioning step? It gives an error message that it cannot write a certain file because the medium is write-only. Any suggestions would be appreciated. Yours truly, Newby Lee ___ 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: Installing 9.1 without re-partitioning hard drive
On Mar 15, 2013 12:48 AM, leeoliveshackelf...@surewest.net wrote: Good afternoon, FreeBSD enthusiasts. I am attempting to install FreeBSD 9.1 on a dual-boot configuration with Windows XP. I am using bsdinstall. I do not wish for the partition table to be changed. How do I instruct bsdinstall to skip the re-partitioning step? It gives an error message that it cannot write a certain file because the medium is write-only. Any suggestions would be appreciated. Yours truly, Newby Lee You're trying to install to your windows partition, that won't work. You need free space on the drive which implies shrinking your existing partition. ___ 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: Installing 9.1 without re-partitioning hard drive
Hi Lee, One option to have a FreeBSD system on winxp, without any partitioning to the existing hard disk, is to have freebsd as a vm on virtualbox. For having a dual boot system you would need to partition the existing disk . If you have a second had disk you could select it and let FreeBSD partition it with the default configuration using Entire Disk . The FreeBSD handbook should help you http://www.freebsd.org/doc/handbook/bsdinstall-partitioning.html http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/faq/install.html#windows-coexist Bejoy Thomas On 15-Mar-2013, at 5:14 AM, leeoliveshackelf...@surewest.net leeoliveshackelf...@surewest.net wrote: Good afternoon, FreeBSD enthusiasts. I am attempting to install FreeBSD 9.1 on a dual-boot configuration with Windows XP. I am using bsdinstall. I do not wish for the partition table to be changed. How do I instruct bsdinstall to skip the re-partitioning step? It gives an error message that it cannot write a certain file because the medium is write-only. Any suggestions would be appreciated. Yours truly, Newby Lee ___ 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
Installing 9.1 without re-partitioning hard drive
Good afternoon, FreeBSD enthusiasts. I am attempting to install FreeBSD 9.1 on a dual-boot configuration with Windows XP. I am using bsdinstall. I do not wish for the partition table to be changed. How do I instruct bsdinstall to skip the re-partitioning step? It gives an error message that it cannot write a certain file because the medium is write-only. Any suggestions would be appreciated. Yours truly, Newby Lee I forgot to mention some additional facts: The FreeBSD operating system is being installed from a d.v.d. I partitioned the hard drive into two equal partitions before re-installing Windows XP. Also, the following cryptic instruction was given to me by the bsdinstall program: When finished, mount the system at /mnt and place an fstab file for the new system at tmp/bsdinstall_etc/fstab. Then type exit. Please, can anyone explain to me what this instruction is telling me to do, and give me some details as to how to perform these tasks? Perhaps, also explain to me why I am supposed to do these things? How do I mount the system at /mnt? How do I compose an fstab file? How do I place the fstab file at tmp/bsdinstall_etc/fstab, a directory that does not exist until the filesystem is built? If the answers to any of these questions are explained in writing anywhere, please tell me where to look. Thank you. Again, yours truly, Newby Lee ___ 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: Installing 9.1 without re-partitioning hard drive
Lee, Are you using DOS-style or GPT partitions? I'm assuming DOS-style, and the rest of this email is only correct if that's the case, so correct me if I'm wrong. There's actually two partition tables at work here -- the big one, that lives at the start of the physical disk and divides up the FreeBSD from the Windows. Inside the FreeBSD slice (slice, partition, same thing, but just to be clear, call it a slice) there's going to be *another* partition table, to divide up the FreeBSD partitions amongst themselves. At a bare minimum you're going to have two partitions (which are really sub-partitions at this point), root and swap. Maybe even more. So it seems to me like, if you can get to the point where the FreeBSD installer recognizes the slice you've set aside for it, as its own, then you can let it rewrite the partition table *inside that slice* as much as it wants to. OK? Make sense? You just don't want it to touch the *outer* one. I honestly don't know enough about how the boot blocks work to know if that's going to work, in the end. You might still end up having to say yes to let it install FreeBSD boot blocks -- I don't know. But it seems to me like a prerequisite, in any case, is going to be to set the FreeBSD partition to partition type 165, so that the installer will recognize it as a FreeBSD slice. Is it already partition type 165? If not, can you make it type 165 and see if that changes anything? ~Ben ___ 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: Partitioning - please not that again
Several trials failed, but perhaps the kind of issues do lead to the cause. I'll describe one trial. Power on - Enter to boot - Shell - # sysinstall - Standard - set up MBR partition - ada0 - keep geometry: yes - OffsetSize(ST) EndName PType DescSubtype Flags 063 62 - 12unused0 63 121274433 1212574495 ada0s1 8freebsd 165 121274496 250 121274745 - 12unused0 121274746 503862599 625137344 ada0s2 4ext.DOS 5 625137345 5103 625142447 - 12unused0 Q = Finish - Boot manager: None - For other trials I also used W instead of Q and/or I deleted and created ada0s1. I always get: Disc slicing warning: chunk ´ada0s2´ [121274746..625137344] does not start on track boundary ok -- ok - create BSD partition: ok - Disk: ada0 Partition name: adaos1 Free: 121274433 blocks (59216MB) (No Entries before) A = Auto Defaults - PartMount Size Newfs ada0s1a / 1024MB UFS2 Y ada0s1b swap 4096MB SWAP ada0s1d /var 7916MB UFS2+S Y ada0s1e /tmp 1024MB UFS2+S Y ada0s1f /usr 45156MB UFS2+S Y If I chose Create instead of Auto, there aren't enough MB available, I can chose Auto and than R (delete + merge), than there's enough space to continue with Create. For this trial I only used Auto. - Q = Finish - 6 Averaged User - en Doc - Port collection: Yes - ok - 1 CD/DVD - Message: Couldn't create directory /dist: Read-only file system - ok - Message: Error mounting /dev/cd0 on /dist: No such file or directory (2) ok - Adjust media configuration: yes - Options - Nothing edited - Q(uit) - Cancel - Installation...with some errors (IOW no installation ;) - ok - Exit install - # exit (Exit shell, back to installer) - I continued this trial with the regular installer. Install - Keymap..., Hostname..., [*] doc games lib32 ports [ ] src - Partitioning: Manual - ada0s1 57GB BSD - Auto - ada0 ok - Partition (not entire Disk) - Add Partition Type: freebsd Size: 2551kB Mountpoint *?* continuing didn't work Regards, Ralf ___ 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
Partitioning - please not that again
Since partitioning didn't work with FreeBSD 9.0 64bit, I tried PC-BSD 8.2 64bit and partitioning worked. I had PC-BSD installed on ada0s1, this was the fstab: /dev/label/rootfs0 / ufs rw,noatime 1 1 /dev/label/swap0noneswapsw 0 0 /dev/label/var0 /varufs rw,noatime 1 1 /dev/label/usr0 /usrufs rw,noatime 1 1 procfs /proc procfs rw 0 0 linprocfs /compat/linux/proc linprocfs rw 0 0 Plan 9 was to delete the PC-BSD files and than to avoid partitioning, but simply to install FreeBSD on the existing slice and what ever the mounted things inside the slice are named. I startet the FreeBSD installer, chose the shell and then run: # mount -t ufs /dev/ad0s1 /mnt # cd /mnt # rm -r * # rm -r .* This does cause the issue I already had before. When I go back to the installer, for the partition editor I get: ada0 298 GB MBR ada0s1 57 GB freebsd ada0s2 240 GB EBR [snip] gpart show also doesn't display the 3 ufs and the swap any more. So I neither can install FreeBSD, nor can I restore the dumped PC-BSD. Is there no easy to use partitioning tool, comparable to e.g. Linux's gparted? How do I have to use the partition editor of the installer? :( Ralf ___ 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
PS: Partitioning - please not that again
Screenshots from Linux's GParted: http://www.zimagez.com/zimage/screenshot-12172012-012707am.php http://www.zimagez.com/zimage/screenshot-12172012-014310am.php Perhaps somebody can exactly write the steps I have to do, to install FreeBSD on /dev/sda1. I guess a swap and / is enough, but swap, /, /usr, /var, as it was for PC-BSD is ok too. I've got 4 GB RAM, the swap I had before, was 8 GB large. Regards, Ralf ___ 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: Partitioning - please not that again
On Mon, 17 Dec 2012 01:05:00 +0100, Ralf Mardorf wrote: I startet the FreeBSD installer, chose the shell and then run: # mount -t ufs /dev/ad0s1 /mnt # cd /mnt # rm -r * # rm -r .* That worked? I can hardly understand why /dev/ad0s1 is mountable (except it's /dev/ad0s1c, i. e. you've initialized the whole slice, but no swap then). A typical construction for FreeBSD would be at least to have /dev/ad0s1a, mounted to /, being the bootable root partition, and /dev/ad0s1b, the swap partition. Further partitions could have been created, e. g. /dev/ad0s1d for /var, and /dev/ad0s1e for /usr. This does cause the issue I already had before. When I go back to the installer, for the partition editor I get: ada0 298 GB MBR ada0s1 57 GB freebsd ada0s2 240 GB EBR [snip] gpart show also doesn't display the 3 ufs and the swap any more. Did it previously show them? I don't know if gpart supports BSD-typical partitioning (i. e. partitions inside a slice)... Option: The partition data has been lost. Only the slice enclosing them has been kept. So I neither can install FreeBSD, nor can I restore the dumped PC-BSD. Is there no easy to use partitioning tool, comparable to e.g. Linux's gparted? Basically, that's what ye olde installer sysinstall would have done. I don't use the new installer bsdinstall because I prefer using the CLI tools which offer more flexibility and seem to be able to deal with nonstandard constructions such as extended DOS partitions et al. How do I have to use the partition editor of the installer? Usually as described in The FreeBSD Handbook: http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/bsdinstall-partitioning.html As it seems, the installer guide defaults to GPT; what you have (judging from the Linux construction) is MBR, but there is a slice available, and that should be sufficient. You can compare: http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/install-steps.html -- 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: PS: Partitioning - please not that again
On Mon, 17 Dec 2012 01:54:59 +0100, Ralf Mardorf wrote: Screenshots from Linux's GParted: http://www.zimagez.com/zimage/screenshot-12172012-012707am.php http://www.zimagez.com/zimage/screenshot-12172012-014310am.php Judging from the screenshots, /dev/sda1 = /dev/ad0s1, a DOS primary partition, should be fine for installing FreeBSD into. Perhaps somebody can exactly write the steps I have to do, to install FreeBSD on /dev/sda1. In case the 1st slice is already of sysid 165 (FreeBSD/NetBSD/386BSD), the installer (NB: I'm talking about ye olde sysinstall -- no idea what new bsdinstall will do!) should be able to identify previous partitions that have been created in this slice. You can re-use them, you just have to define the mount points. Maybe it's also a good idea (but not strictly needed) to have the installer format them (newfs = yes). You can check with fdisk ad0 from a FreeBSD live system (or the shell from the installation media). I guess a swap and / is enough, but swap, /, /usr, /var, as it was for PC-BSD is ok too. I've got 4 GB RAM, the swap I had before, was 8 GB large. No problem with this functional separation. This would also default to have /home symlinked to /usr/home, making it part of the /usr partition, if that's okay for you. Also /tmp will be on the / partition (except you use tmpfs or a similar means to put /tmp into RAM). If the installer cannot create the partitions (for whatever reason that may be), you can relapse to using the CLI tool disklabel (bsdlabel) to create the partitions. If you don't want to work in this old-fashioned manner, using gpart is also possible. It supports both old MBR style (what seems to be in use on your current installation) and new GPT style (to get rid of the DOS primary partitions, DOS extended partitions, and logical volumes inside a DOS extended partition). -- 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: Partitioning - please not that again
On Mon, 2012-12-17 at 02:17 +0100, Polytropon wrote: On Mon, 17 Dec 2012 01:05:00 +0100, Ralf Mardorf wrote: ada0 298 GB MBR ada0s1 57 GB freebsd ada0s2 240 GB EBR [snip] gpart show also doesn't display the 3 ufs and the swap any more. Did it previously show them? Yes, they where shown. Option: The partition data has been lost. Only the slice enclosing them has been kept. Ok :S. How do I have to use the partition editor of the installer? Usually as described in The FreeBSD Handbook: http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/bsdinstall-partitioning.html As it seems, the installer guide defaults to GPT; what you have (judging from the Linux construction) is MBR, but there is a slice available, and that should be sufficient. Figure 3-16. Manually Create Partitions doesn't work. You can compare: http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/install-steps.html So I can start sysinstall from the installer's shell? Oops, in the following mail there is the answer :). Thank you, I'll try this. ... ___ 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: PS: Partitioning - please not that again
... On Mon, 2012-12-17 at 02:17 +0100, Polytropon wrote: On Mon, 17 Dec 2012 01:54:59 +0100, Ralf Mardorf wrote: Screenshots from Linux's GParted: http://www.zimagez.com/zimage/screenshot-12172012-012707am.php http://www.zimagez.com/zimage/screenshot-12172012-014310am.php Judging from the screenshots, /dev/sda1 = /dev/ad0s1, a DOS primary partition, should be fine for installing FreeBSD into. PC-BSD could use it. Perhaps somebody can exactly write the steps I have to do, to install FreeBSD on /dev/sda1. In case the 1st slice is already of sysid 165 (FreeBSD/NetBSD/386BSD), the installer (NB: I'm talking about ye olde sysinstall -- no idea what new bsdinstall will do!) should be able to identify previous partitions that have been created in this slice. You can re-use them, you just have to define the mount points. Maybe it's also a good idea (but not strictly needed) to have the installer format them (newfs = yes). You can check with fdisk ad0 from a FreeBSD live system (or the shell from the installation media). Ok. I guess a swap and / is enough, but swap, /, /usr, /var, as it was for PC-BSD is ok too. I've got 4 GB RAM, the swap I had before, was 8 GB large. No problem with this functional separation. This would also default to have /home symlinked to /usr/home, making it part of the /usr partition, if that's okay for you. Also /tmp will be on the / partition (except you use tmpfs or a similar means to put /tmp into RAM). If the installer cannot create the partitions (for whatever reason that may be), you can relapse to using the CLI tool disklabel (bsdlabel) to create the partitions. If you don't want to work in this old-fashioned manner, using gpart is also possible. It supports both old MBR style (what seems to be in use on your current installation) and new GPT style (to get rid of the DOS primary partitions, DOS extended partitions, and logical volumes inside a DOS extended partition). gpart didn't work. However, I'll try sysinstall or http://www.manpages.info/freebsd/disklabel.8.html ... hm? ... I'm not sure, if I already tried bsdlabel. Regards, Ralf ___ 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: PS: Partitioning - please not that again
On Mon, 17 Dec 2012, Ralf Mardorf wrote: Screenshots from Linux's GParted: http://www.zimagez.com/zimage/screenshot-12172012-012707am.php http://www.zimagez.com/zimage/screenshot-12172012-014310am.php Perhaps somebody can exactly write the steps I have to do, to install FreeBSD on /dev/sda1. I guess a swap and / is enough, but swap, /, /usr, /var, as it was for PC-BSD is ok too. I've got 4 GB RAM, the swap I had before, was 8 GB large. Like this? http://forums.freebsd.org/showpost.php?p=149210postcount=13 ___ 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: Partitioning - please not that again
On Mon, 17 Dec 2012, Polytropon wrote: On Mon, 17 Dec 2012 01:05:00 +0100, Ralf Mardorf wrote: I startet the FreeBSD installer, chose the shell and then run: # mount -t ufs /dev/ad0s1 /mnt # cd /mnt # rm -r * # rm -r .* That worked? I can hardly understand why /dev/ad0s1 is mountable (except it's /dev/ad0s1c, i. e. you've initialized the whole slice, but no swap then). A typical construction for FreeBSD would be at least to have /dev/ad0s1a, mounted to /, being the bootable root partition, and /dev/ad0s1b, the swap partition. Further partitions could have been created, e. g. /dev/ad0s1d for /var, and /dev/ad0s1e for /usr. This does cause the issue I already had before. When I go back to the installer, for the partition editor I get: ada0 298 GB MBR ada0s1 57 GB freebsd ada0s2 240 GB EBR [snip] gpart show also doesn't display the 3 ufs and the swap any more. Did it previously show them? I don't know if gpart supports BSD-typical partitioning (i. e. partitions inside a slice)... Yes, it does. But it won't show them unless you look in ada0s1. bsdlabel partitions are inside slices. ___ 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
Manually partitioning using gpart
This is what I've got: # gpart show ada0 = 63 625142385 ada0 MBR (298G) 63 121274683 - free - (57G) [snip] IIUC I now have to do: # gpart add -s 64k -t freebsd-boot -l boot0 ada0 # gpart add -s 8G -t freebsd-swap -l swap0 ada0 # gpart add -t freebsd-ufs -a 256k -l root0 ada0 Here I already don't understand how large the swap should be. Really 2 * size of the RAM? I also don't know if 256k is a sane alignment value, I just copied this from a howto. How to continue after this is done? I want to use GRUB from my Linux installs, this is the Linux menu.lst: timeout 8 default 0 color light-blue/black light-cyan/blue title FreeBSD 9.0 root (hd0,a) kernel /boot/loader [snip] Regards, Ralf ___ 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: Manually partitioning using gpart
On Sun, 25 Nov 2012 12:26:14 +0100, Ralf Mardorf wrote: This is what I've got: # gpart show ada0 = 63 625142385 ada0 MBR (298G) 63 121274683 - free - (57G) [snip] IIUC I now have to do: # gpart add -s 64k -t freebsd-boot -l boot0 ada0 # gpart add -s 8G -t freebsd-swap -l swap0 ada0 # gpart add -t freebsd-ufs -a 256k -l root0 ada0 Here I already don't understand how large the swap should be. Really 2 * size of the RAM? Won't be wrong; my understanding of the rule was 2 * size of _possible_ RAM in the machine. But disk space is cheap, so 8 G should be fine. But again, the requirement for the swap partition depends on what you're doing with the machine and what you're expecting (e. g. will you want to save kernel dumps to the swap partition?). You can find an example here: http://www.wonkity.com/~wblock/docs/html/disksetup.html Also see man newfs for options. I also don't know if 256k is a sane alignment value, I just copied this from a howto. Modern disks work faster when everything is aligned to 4k. But they _work_ with any other alignment. How to continue after this is done? You will have new partitions /dev/ada0pN. You need to format them with newfs. If I see this correctly, you have created one big / partition (for everything); this is _valid_ and possible, but may be less optimum for a couple of reasons. Doing functional partitioning requires at least an idea of how much disk space will be needed per functional part, and this can differ from use as server or desktop, or what kind of software you run. The advantage is that you can backup data partition-wise (using dump + restore) and have a functional base system on / in case there's a severe disk corruption. The disadvantage is that if finally one partition is too full, you cannot easily resize them (even though this is possible). When done, add them to your /etc/fstab. You can use the labels for that instead of the device names. I want to use GRUB from my Linux installs, this is the Linux menu.lst: timeout 8 default 0 color light-blue/black light-cyan/blue title FreeBSD 9.0 root (hd0,a) kernel /boot/loader My Linux multiboot experience is limited, but this looks okay. You will delegate boot control to the loader, hd0a = sda1 = adap1, the partition of freebsd-boot type. -- 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: Manually partitioning using gpart
On 2012.11.25 12:26, Ralf Mardorf wrote: Here I already don't understand how large the swap should be. Really 2 * size of the RAM? It depends on use patterns and the amount of RAM in your computer. 1.5* to 2* installed memory is a traditional works for most value, but I feel it's outdated for 64-bit machines with 8 GB or more. I also don't know if 256k is a sane alignment value, I just copied this from a howto. If you're using a single, not too recent-and-huge hard drive, 512 bits (that is, no alignment) is fine. If you have an Advanced Format Drive or you don't know if you do, use 4k. If you have an underlying RAID array, 256k is a better choice. If it's an SSD, go with 4 MB to avoid taking any chances with performance over time. How to continue after this is done? Once you're satisfied with your partition organization, the easiest is to restart bsdinstall, dd your new partition table somewhere safe (flash drive, or network drive), use the (n?)curses UI to designate the target partitions to install to, and go on with the installation to install the sets. ___ 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: [Bulk] Re: Manually partitioning using gpart
On Sun, 2012-11-25 at 13:29 +0100, Polytropon wrote: On Sun, 25 Nov 2012 12:26:14 +0100, Ralf Mardorf wrote: This is what I've got: # gpart show ada0 = 63 625142385 ada0 MBR (298G) 63 121274683 - free - (57G) [snip] IIUC I now have to do: # gpart add -s 64k -t freebsd-boot -l boot0 ada0 # gpart add -s 8G -t freebsd-swap -l swap0 ada0 # gpart add -t freebsd-ufs -a 256k -l root0 ada0 Here I already don't understand how large the swap should be. Really 2 * size of the RAM? Won't be wrong; my understanding of the rule was 2 * size of _possible_ RAM in the machine. But disk space is cheap, so 8 G should be fine. But again, the requirement for the swap partition depends on what you're doing with the machine and what you're expecting (e. g. will you want to save kernel dumps to the swap partition?). You can find an example here: http://www.wonkity.com/~wblock/docs/html/disksetup.html Also see man newfs for options. I'll read this. I want to test what's possible and/or impossible regarding to MIDI and audio productions using FreeBSD. I also don't know if 256k is a sane alignment value, I just copied this from a howto. Modern disks work faster when everything is aligned to 4k. But they _work_ with any other alignment. I'll use 4k. How to continue after this is done? You will have new partitions /dev/ada0pN. You need to format them with newfs. If I see this correctly, you have created one big / partition (for everything); this is _valid_ and possible, but may be less optimum for a couple of reasons. Until now I haven't done anything. It's still free. Doing functional partitioning requires at least an idea of how much disk space will be needed per functional part, and this can differ from use as server or desktop, or what kind of software you run. On Linux I only use /. So I don't have to think about how much space what directory might need and I never run into issues, when the file system hierarchy does change. Off cause I've got special partitions for audio productions mounted with noatime and a own partition for emails, but anything else, including /home is inside /. The advantage is that you can backup data partition-wise (using dump + restore) and have a functional base system on / in case there's a severe disk corruption. The disadvantage is that if finally one partition is too full, you cannot easily resize them (even though this is possible). On Linux I can backup partition-wise too, but it's also possible to backup directory-wise ;). Btw. I never sync backups, I always keep several backups of the system, since setting up a hard real-time jitter free DAW is a special task for modern computers. In the 80s hard real-time really was hard real-time (C64, Atari ST), nowadays it is hard work to get something similar. When done, add them to your /etc/fstab. You can use the labels for that instead of the device names. I want to use GRUB from my Linux installs, this is the Linux menu.lst: timeout 8 default 0 color light-blue/black light-cyan/blue title FreeBSD 9.0 root (hd0,a) kernel /boot/loader My Linux multiboot experience is limited, but this looks okay. You will delegate boot control to the loader, hd0a = sda1 = adap1, the partition of freebsd-boot type. Thank you. Regards, Ralf ___ 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: Manually partitioning using gpart
I'm reading http://www.wonkity.com/~wblock/docs/html/disksetup.html at the moment. Seemingly there are many outdated howtos first hits for searching with Google. I frst read 64k for boot and now 512k. IIUC Install the GPT bootcode into the boot partition has to be done and is independent of the GRUB in the MBR. On Sun, 2012-11-25 at 13:32 +0100, Lucas B. Cohen wrote: On 2012.11.25 12:26, Ralf Mardorf wrote: Here I already don't understand how large the swap should be. Really 2 * size of the RAM? It depends on use patterns and the amount of RAM in your computer. 1.5* to 2* installed memory is a traditional works for most value, but I feel it's outdated for 64-bit machines with 8 GB or more. It's a 64-bit machine with 4GB RAM. I also don't know if 256k is a sane alignment value, I just copied this from a howto. If you're using a single, not too recent-and-huge hard drive, 512 bits (that is, no alignment) is fine. If you have an Advanced Format Drive or you don't know if you do, use 4k. If you have an underlying RAID array, 256k is a better choice. If it's an SSD, go with 4 MB to avoid taking any chances with performance over time. No RAID, a modern SATA drives, so 4k seems to be the way to go. Thank you. Regards, Ralf ___ 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: Manually partitioning using gpart
On 2012.11.25 13:57, Ralf Mardorf wrote: IIUC Install the GPT bootcode into the boot partition has to be done and is independent of the GRUB in the MBR. Not in your case. You won't need bootcode other than GRUB's (in the MBR, and the Linux partition where the bulk of it is installed). ___ 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: Manually partitioning using gpart
At the moment I still have: This is what I've got: # gpart show ada0 = 63 625142385 ada0 MBR (298G) 63 121274683 - free - (57G) [snip] Regarding to http://www.wonkity.com/~wblock/docs/html/disksetup.html for my set up it should be ok to run: # gpart add -t freebsd-boot -l boot -b 40 -s 512K ada0 # gpart add -t freebsd-swap -l swap -s 8G ada0 # gpart add -t freebsd-ufs -l root -b 1M ada0 Should use all the free space, so no option -s?! # newfs -U /dev/gpt/root # gpart bootcode -b /boot/pmbr -p /boot/gptboot -i 1 ada0 Will install the FreeBSD bootloader independent of the GRUB in the MBR? My GRUB menu.lst still is: timeout 8 default 0 color light-blue/black light-cyan/blue title FreeBSD 9.0 root (hd0,a) kernel /boot/loader [snip] So kernel /boot/loader has to be replaced by /boot/foo? /etc/fstab: # DeviceMountpoint FS Options DumpPass# -- is this # needed at the end? Or is it ok like this: # DeviceMountpoint FS Options DumpPass And this are the entries I need: /dev/gpt/swap noneswapsw 0 0 /dev/gpt/root / ufs rw 1 1 *???* Ralf ___ 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: Manually partitioning using gpart
On Sun, 2012-11-25 at 14:13 +0100, Lucas B. Cohen wrote: On 2012.11.25 13:57, Ralf Mardorf wrote: IIUC Install the GPT bootcode into the boot partition has to be done and is independent of the GRUB in the MBR. Not in your case. You won't need bootcode other than GRUB's (in the MBR, and the Linux partition where the bulk of it is installed). Thank you. I don't need it, but I could add it for what ever worst case emergency scenario and GRUB in the MBR anyway will work? ___ 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: [Bulk] Re: Manually partitioning using gpart
On Sun, 25 Nov 2012 13:43:46 +0100, Ralf Mardorf wrote: On Sun, 2012-11-25 at 13:29 +0100, Polytropon wrote: I'll read this. I want to test what's possible and/or impossible regarding to MIDI and audio productions using FreeBSD. Will be interesting. I know there is some good support for this case in specialized Linux distributions. Doing functional partitioning requires at least an idea of how much disk space will be needed per functional part, and this can differ from use as server or desktop, or what kind of software you run. On Linux I only use /. Yes, this is common, even though Linux can support functional partitioning as well, still ext2/3/4/... partitions != UFS partitions. And with GPT partitioning, it's even easier to separate parts of the system across partitions and devices (which _can_ provide you performance boosts). So I don't have to think about how much space what directory might need and I never run into issues, when the file system hierarchy does change. Off cause I've got special partitions for audio productions mounted with noatime and a own partition for emails, but anything else, including /home is inside /. This _could_ develop into disadvantages, like some half-dead process filling the whole partition until problems arise. But for common desktop use, it should not be problematic. The advantage is that you can backup data partition-wise (using dump + restore) and have a functional base system on / in case there's a severe disk corruption. The disadvantage is that if finally one partition is too full, you cannot easily resize them (even though this is possible). On Linux I can backup partition-wise too, but it's also possible to backup directory-wise ;). Tools like rsync or cpdup make selective backing up and restoring easy, that's true. :-) The idea is that if there is some damage, all you need to boot your machine in a minimum and _defined_ state is on /. No need for /usr or /var at this point, so you could - if required - do analytics and recovery from this point on. As all 3rd party software is in /usr/local, there won't be a problem as nothing of that stuff is needed to perform the boot into this early stage (the single user mode). If you don't have to experience such a situation, the better. Btw. I never sync backups, I always keep several backups of the system, since setting up a hard real-time jitter free DAW is a special task for modern computers. In the 80s hard real-time really was hard real-time (C64, Atari ST), nowadays it is hard work to get something similar. There are specialized operating systems emphasizing real-time use. Still those more simple computers required a close to the hardware programming that modern OSes will hardly allow, so if you don't have this kind of access from the OS level, how would you get it from the application level, with tons of dependencies unter your hands? :-) BTW, I still have some Atari ST hardware here. Impressive what has been possible with this (quite limited) machines, but with _efficient_ programs... -- 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: Manually partitioning using gpart
On Sun, 25 Nov 2012 14:30:17 +0100, Ralf Mardorf wrote: At the moment I still have: This is what I've got: # gpart show ada0 = 63 625142385 ada0 MBR (298G) 63 121274683 - free - (57G) [snip] Regarding to http://www.wonkity.com/~wblock/docs/html/disksetup.html for my set up it should be ok to run: # gpart add -t freebsd-boot -l boot -b 40 -s 512K ada0 # gpart add -t freebsd-swap -l swap -s 8G ada0 # gpart add -t freebsd-ufs -l root -b 1M ada0 Should use all the free space, so no option -s?! See man gpart for details (yes, there are _excellent_ man pages installed locally, or accessible via web): If -s option is omitted then new size is automatically calculated to maximum available from given geom geom. Here: http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=gpartapropos=0sektion=0manpath=FreeBSD+9.0-RELEASEarch=defaultformat=html # newfs -U /dev/gpt/root Maybe you would also consider using -J (journaling). Still the traditional approach when using functional partitioning is to format the / partition without soft updates (-U), but in your case, using them on a everything in one / partition is okay. # gpart bootcode -b /boot/pmbr -p /boot/gptboot -i 1 ada0 Will install the FreeBSD bootloader independent of the GRUB in the MBR? Hmmm... I'd assume that ada0 (the beginning of the disk) contains GRUB already (or a redirect to where it's actually located), so I think ada0p1 would be the location to write to... still I'm not sure if you need to have any boot code at all because GRUB will perform the redirection to the FreeBSD loader which will then load the FreeBSD kernel. See man 8 boot for details. I'm not a multi-booter so I can't be more specific, sorry. My GRUB menu.lst still is: timeout 8 default 0 color light-blue/black light-cyan/blue title FreeBSD 9.0 root (hd0,a) kernel /boot/loader [snip] So kernel /boot/loader has to be replaced by /boot/foo? No, I think /boot/loader is correct here; it's a program that sets up the kernel environment, loads it, maybe loads modules, and passes control to the kernel. It's located on the ada0p1 partition. /etc/fstab: # DeviceMountpoint FS Options DumpPass# -- is this # needed at the end? Or is it ok like this: # DeviceMountpoint FS Options DumpPass No, it means pass number; according to man 5 fstab: The sixth field, (fs_passno), is used by the fsck(8) and quotacheck(8) programs to determine the order in which file system and quota checks are done at reboot time. The fs_passno field can be any value between 0 and `INT_MAX-1'. But it's a comment line anyway. :-) And this are the entries I need: /dev/gpt/swap noneswapsw 0 0 /dev/gpt/root / ufs rw 1 1 Looks correct. (You can later on add lines to access data partitions or even your Linux partitions if you want, optical drives or NFS shares if you need.) -- 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
Wheres the FreeBSD PBR ? (was Re: Manually partitioning using gpart / wh)
On 2012.11.25 14:35, Ralf Mardorf wrote: I don't need it, but I could add it for what ever worst case emergency scenario and GRUB in the MBR anyway will work? I don't see how it could ever come in handy, and I'm not sure it wouldn't do any hamr either. The /boot/gptboot code to be written weighs 15kB, that could be big enough to mess up the filesystem on the partition. That /boot/gptboot code is designed to work on a special-purpose small GPT partition that doesn't hold a filesystem. So I would refrain from doing it. It would be useful for emergency purposes to write MBR-partition scheme-compatible bootcode to that partition instead, but I've yet to find out how to do it. gpart(8) seems to have the ability to do it, but it's manual page doesn't mention what file to pass to its -p option to do that. Maybe it's one of those /boot/boot1 or /boot/boot2 files I'm seeing on my system. Maybe someone can enlighten me on that. ___ 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: Manually partitioning using gpart
On 25/11/2012 12:29, Polytropon wrote: Won't be wrong; my understanding of the rule was 2 * size of _possible_ RAM in the machine. But disk space is cheap, so 8 G should be fine. But again, the requirement for the swap partition depends on what you're doing with the machine and what you're expecting (e. g. will you want to save kernel dumps to the swap partition?). You probably want to stop following that rule some time before you get to 8 TB RAM (http://semiaccurate.com/2010/09/29/inphi-imbs-can-stuff-8tb-ram-system/) :) -- Bruce Cran ___ 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: Wheres the FreeBSD PBR ? (was Re: Manually partitioning using gpart / wh)
On Sun, 2012-11-25 at 15:10 +0100, Lucas B. Cohen wrote: On 2012.11.25 14:35, Ralf Mardorf wrote: I don't need it, but I could add it for what ever worst case emergency scenario and GRUB in the MBR anyway will work? I don't see how it could ever come in handy, and I'm not sure it wouldn't do any hamr either. The /boot/gptboot code to be written weighs 15kB, that could be big enough to mess up the filesystem on the partition. That /boot/gptboot code is designed to work on a special-purpose small GPT partition that doesn't hold a filesystem. So I would refrain from doing it. It would be useful for emergency purposes to write MBR-partition scheme-compatible bootcode to that partition instead, but I've yet to find out how to do it. gpart(8) seems to have the ability to do it, but it's manual page doesn't mention what file to pass to its -p option to do that. Maybe it's one of those /boot/boot1 or /boot/boot2 files I'm seeing on my system. Maybe someone can enlighten me on that. Ok. I don't install it. Regards, Ralf -- At the moment I'm watching The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, so I'll continue the install later today. ___ 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
OT: Manually partitioning using gpart
On Sun, 2012-11-25 at 14:37 +0100, Polytropon wrote: BTW, I still have some Atari ST hardware here. Impressive what has been possible with this (quite limited) machines, but with _efficient_ programs... I still have the C64 in some cartons and the Atari ST is still beside my PC, but I don't remember when I turned it on the last time. Btw. no QL emulator here, but a 80286 emulator and to my Atari 520 ST there are old PC RAM soldered, so it has got the full 4096KB. An issue is to replace the old monitor, since it's hard to get a monitor that can go low enough with the frequencies. ___ 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: Manually partitioning using gpart
Polytropon, I'll use journaling. I've to apologize for my broken English. Regarding to the comment line my question is, if it's enough to us a # at the beginning, or if it's needed to begin and to end with a #. I suspect just a # at the beginning is needed. ___ 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: Manually partitioning using gpart
On Sun, 25 Nov 2012 15:42:38 +0100, Ralf Mardorf wrote: Polytropon, I'll use journaling. That should give you additional security in integrity, especially on a everything in one / partition. I've to apologize for my broken English. No understanding problem here. Regarding to the comment line my question is, if it's enough to us a # at the beginning, or if it's needed to begin and to end with a #. I suspect just a # at the beginning is needed. Yes, every line starting with a # is considered a comment (like in shell scripts). In case of the default comment line, the second # is just pass number written as Pass#. Comment line and empty lines can appear in /etc/fstab as desired. You can use them to structure your fstab file as soon as it gets too many entries (which may be possible when you're utilizing NFS a lot). -- 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: Manually partitioning using gpart
On Sun, 25 Nov 2012, Ralf Mardorf wrote: This is what I've got: # gpart show ada0 = 63 625142385 ada0 MBR (298G) 63 121274683 - free - (57G) [snip] IIUC I now have to do: # gpart add -s 64k -t freebsd-boot -l boot0 ada0 # gpart add -s 8G -t freebsd-swap -l swap0 ada0 # gpart add -t freebsd-ufs -a 256k -l root0 ada0 No. MBR does not need or use a freebsd-boot partition. Also, GPT labels don't work for MBR because, well, it's not GPT. Here I already don't understand how large the swap should be. Really 2 * size of the RAM? No, that's less true than it used to be. Depends on how much RAM you have, but the more RAM, the less you really need swap. If disk space is not at a premium, I usually use 4G. I also don't know if 256k is a sane alignment value, I just copied this from a howto. For a hard drive, 4K alignment and starting the main partition at 1M is good. How to continue after this is done? Realize this multi-boot stuff is painful and inconvenient and install everything in a VM? ___ 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: Manually partitioning using gpart
On Sun, 2012-11-25 at 13:49 -0700, Warren Block wrote: Realize this multi-boot stuff is painful and inconvenient and install everything in a VM? Unfortunately this is impossible. I'll install FreeBSD, because there's a driver for my sound card, a RME HDSPe AIO, that perhaps enables to use all ADAT IOs. On Linux I only can use 2 ADAT IOs. Another step could be to replace Linux by FreeBSD on my machine, but I suspect FreeBSD isn't ready for audio production yet. Assumed it should be ready, a virtual machine can't be used. Any layer does cause issues for audio production machines. I was thinking of doing a test install in VBox, but I guess it's a minor risk that I'll lose everything by making an mistake. Regards, Ralf ___ 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: Manually partitioning using gpart
Hi Warren, On 2012.11.25 21:49, Warren Block wrote: For a hard drive, 4K alignment and starting the main partition at 1M is good. Why would one leave 1024 full kbits before the first partition on a HDD ? ___ 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: Manually partitioning using gpart
On Mon, 2012-11-26 at 02:22 +0100, Lucas B. Cohen wrote: Hi Warren, On 2012.11.25 21:49, Warren Block wrote: For a hard drive, 4K alignment and starting the main partition at 1M is good. Why would one leave 1024 full kbits before the first partition on a HDD ? Create a partition for /. It should start at the 1M boundary for proper sector alignment on 4K sector drives or SSDs. This is compatible with GPT drive layout for many other systems. Give it a GPT label of gprootfs. - http://www.wonkity.com/~wblock/docs/html/disksetup.html It doesn't explain it for me, but at least it might be an explanation for somebody with more knowledge? ___ 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: Manually partitioning using gpart
On Mon, 26 Nov 2012, Lucas B. Cohen wrote: On 2012.11.25 21:49, Warren Block wrote: For a hard drive, 4K alignment and starting the main partition at 1M is good. Why would one leave 1024 full kbits before the first partition on a HDD ? The second only is only relevant to GPT. We went over this last week, but briefly there are two reasons: compatibility with what few GPT standards are out there (Windows and others), and proper alignment on hard drives and SSDs. It's not the first partition, but the first filesystem partition. The boot partition can go in the space before it. ___ 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: Partitioning with gpart
from Lynn Steven Killingsworth blue.seahorse.syndic...@gmail.com: I have installed PC-BSD 9.1 RC1 last week. Very nice I must say. The default file system is zfs. I have one storage disk which is ufs and another which is on an mbr partition. I thought I would format the mbr disk with zfs and move everything from the ufs disk and then format the ufs disk with zfs. I have not tried the command line before so I just tried to create over the disk with: gpart create -s gpt ada2 The message is that ada2 already exists as a file system. Show indicates that it is not gpt but mbr. Then in order to start over I tried to delete and destroy by starting with: gpart delete -i 1 ada2s1 The message is that ada2s1 is an invalid argument. I cannot experiment on my backup as it has only one disk. Comment please? Either gpt (included in FreeBSD prior to the switch to gpart) or gdisk (now at v0.8.5 and in FreeBSD ports) can migrate an MBR-partitioned disk to GPT without loss of data in many cases, though backing up is still advised. You can find information about gdisk at http://www.rodsbooks.com/gdisk/ gdisk is much more versatile than gpart, can be used to make partitions for Windows, Linux, NetBSD, etc. I don't think you can get gpt for FreeBSD, but if you're curious, you can go to http://www.netbsd.org/ and look for the documentation/man pages. It was gpt in NetBSD that I used to migrate an NTFS partition (MBR) spanning an entire 3 TB Western Digital My Book USB 3.0 hard drive to GPT, no data was lost. I subsequently booted Linux from the System Rescue CD (http://sysresccd.org/) and copied the software/data to a USB stick so I could free the USB 3.0 hard drive for better things. Maybe I could have done the repartitioning with gdisk, which is included on the System Rescue CD, this would be Linux. Tom ___ 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: Partitioning with gpart
On Tue, 28 Aug 2012 21:33:16 -0400, Warren Block wbl...@wonkity.com wrote: On Tue, 28 Aug 2012, Lynn Steven Killingsworth wrote: I have installed PC-BSD 9.1 RC1 last week. Very nice I must say. The default file system is zfs. I have one storage disk which is ufs and another which is on an mbr partition. I thought I would format the mbr disk with zfs and move everything from the ufs disk and then format the ufs disk with zfs. I have not tried the command line before so I just tried to create over the disk with: gpart create -s gpt ada2 The message is that ada2 already exists as a file system. The exact message would help; gpart is not a filesystem tool. Show indicates that it is not gpt but mbr. Then in order to start over I tried to delete and destroy by starting with: gpart delete -i 1 ada2s1 The message is that ada2s1 is an invalid argument. I cannot experiment on my backup as it has only one disk. gpart takes a -F option to destroy which makes it unnecessary to delete all the partitions first. Back up data first, and make certain that you and the computer agree on which drive is which. Great. My storage disks are formatted with zfs and my files are moved. Thanks. -- Steve Blue Seahorse Syndicate http://www.blueleafsyndicate.org Maine New Hampshire Using Opera's revolutionary email client: http://www.opera.com/mail/ ___ 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
Partitioning with gpart
Dear FreeBSD - I have installed PC-BSD 9.1 RC1 last week. Very nice I must say. The default file system is zfs. I have one storage disk which is ufs and another which is on an mbr partition. I thought I would format the mbr disk with zfs and move everything from the ufs disk and then format the ufs disk with zfs. I have not tried the command line before so I just tried to create over the disk with: gpart create -s gpt ada2 The message is that ada2 already exists as a file system. Show indicates that it is not gpt but mbr. Then in order to start over I tried to delete and destroy by starting with: gpart delete -i 1 ada2s1 The message is that ada2s1 is an invalid argument. I cannot experiment on my backup as it has only one disk. Comment please? -- Steve Blue Seahorse Syndicate http://www.blueleafsyndicate.org Maine New Hampshire Using Opera's revolutionary email client: http://www.opera.com/mail/ ___ 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: Partitioning with gpart
On Tue, 28 Aug 2012, Lynn Steven Killingsworth wrote: I have installed PC-BSD 9.1 RC1 last week. Very nice I must say. The default file system is zfs. I have one storage disk which is ufs and another which is on an mbr partition. I thought I would format the mbr disk with zfs and move everything from the ufs disk and then format the ufs disk with zfs. I have not tried the command line before so I just tried to create over the disk with: gpart create -s gpt ada2 The message is that ada2 already exists as a file system. The exact message would help; gpart is not a filesystem tool. Show indicates that it is not gpt but mbr. Then in order to start over I tried to delete and destroy by starting with: gpart delete -i 1 ada2s1 The message is that ada2s1 is an invalid argument. I cannot experiment on my backup as it has only one disk. gpart takes a -F option to destroy which makes it unnecessary to delete all the partitions first. Back up data first, and make certain that you and the computer agree on which drive is which. ___ 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
Difficulties partitioning disk FreeBSD 9.0
I am trying to install 9.0 on a small notebook on which I have previously successfully installed 8.2. I don't get very far. When defining partitions I have opted for Guided and chosen a drive with enough space (3.5GB), Entire disk. I am then asked if I'm sure I want to proceed, to which I answer yes. I am then shown the results and invited to Finish. I'm then warned I will lose all my data. I commit and get Bootcode Error Device not configured followed by Error Error installing partcode on partition ada0p1 at which point installation ends. I have searched for these messages with no success... TIA Bernard Higonnet ___ 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: Difficulties partitioning disk FreeBSD 9.0
El día Monday, January 16, 2012 a las 09:45:23AM +0100, Bernard Higonnet escribió: I am trying to install 9.0 on a small notebook on which I have previously successfully installed 8.2. I don't get very far. When defining partitions I have opted for Guided and chosen a drive with enough space (3.5GB), Entire disk. I am then asked if I'm sure I want to proceed, to which I answer yes. I am then shown the results and invited to Finish. I'm then warned I will lose all my data. I commit and get ... Maybe you could make use of this to install FreeBSD into the entire disk of a small netbook: http://www.unixarea.de/installEeePC.txt (it describes 10-CURRENT, but could easy adapted for any other release) HIH matthias -- Matthias Apitz e g...@unixarea.de - w http://www.unixarea.de/ UNIX since V7 on PDP-11, UNIX on mainframe since ESER 1055 (IBM /370) UNIX on x86 since SVR4.2 UnixWare 2.1.2, FreeBSD since 2.2.5 ___ 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: Difficulties partitioning disk FreeBSD 9.0
On 16/01/2012 09:55, Matthias Apitz wrote: El día Monday, January 16, 2012 a las 09:45:23AM +0100, Bernard Higonnet escribió: I am trying to install 9.0 on a small notebook on which I have previously successfully installed 8.2. I don't get very far. When defining partitions I have opted for Guided and chosen a drive with enough space (3.5GB), Entire disk. I am then asked if I'm sure I want to proceed, to which I answer yes. I am then shown the results and invited to Finish. I'm then warned I will lose all my data. I commit and get ... Maybe you could make use of this to install FreeBSD into the entire disk of a small netbook: http://www.unixarea.de/installEeePC.txt (it describes 10-CURRENT, but could easy adapted for any other release) ¡Muchissimas grácias! I didn't really follow all of the steps, it looks as if the first two fd commands did it. Bernard Higonnet ___ 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
Problems with EFI / partitioning with FreeBSD ONLY mac mini ... from USB drive ...
I booted the 8.2-RELEASE CD on my Intel mac mini, which has a thumb drive plugged into USB. I promptly entered FIXIT and used dd to zero out the ENTIRE internal hard drive. I may use it, I may not, but for now I want to reduce variables and I don't want remnants of OSX on that disk tripping me up. I exited FIXIT and proceeded with a plain old install of FreeBSD 8.2 onto the thumb drive, which was seen as da0. Upon rebooting, I see a folder icon with a question mark inside of it, blinking on the screen. The mac mini cannot see an OS to boot. I have tried to solve this by: - same as above, but plain old loader instead of FreeBSD boot manager. Both failed - During install, in FDISK, using the T option to change the type to 238 Still failing. Any idea what the missing part of this recipe is ? NOTE: I see something of an answer here: http://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-current/2011-September/027585.html But I do not know how to put a dummy MBR there even if using GPT layout ... so if that is the answer, some additional details, please :) Just trying to boot FreeBSD, and only FreeBSD, off of the thumb drive plugged into a mac mini with no other disks. Any help appreciated. ___ 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: Partitioning with gpart or old style slices?
Robert Simmons rsimmo...@gmail.com wrote: How do I wipe the whole thing in one go so that I can start afresh? gpart destroy ad4 ?? Yes, but first you must delete all of the slices/partitions. Think of it this way: you must go backwards down the path you just came with a delete for each add, then a destroy for each create. So there is no way to just say clean up this whole disk in a single operation? That seems a considerable step backwards, given that the old tools have fdisk -i and bsdlabel -w. ___ 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: Partitioning with gpart or old style slices?
On Sun, Jun 5, 2011 at 3:35 AM, per...@pluto.rain.com wrote: Robert Simmons rsimmo...@gmail.com wrote: How do I wipe the whole thing in one go so that I can start afresh? gpart destroy ad4 ?? Yes, but first you must delete all of the slices/partitions. Think of it this way: you must go backwards down the path you just came with a delete for each add, then a destroy for each create. So there is no way to just say clean up this whole disk in a single operation? That seems a considerable step backwards, given that the old tools have fdisk -i and bsdlabel -w. I've never had to use it, but I think gpart destroy -F ad4 is what you are looking for, so I guess it is not necessary to step backwards after all. ___ 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: Partitioning with gpart or old style slices?
On 5/6/11 7:03 AM, Robert Simmons wrote: On Sunday, June 05, 2011 12:40:22 AM Matthias Apitz wrote: # gpart create -s mbr ad4 # Init the disk with an MBR # gpart add -t freebsd ad4# Create a BSD container # gpart create -s bsd ad4s1 # Init with a BSD scheme # gpart add -t freebsd-ufs -s 1G ad4s1 # 1GB for / # gpart add -t freebsd-swap -s 2G ad4s1 # 2GB for swap # gpart add -t freebsd-ufs -s 2G ad4s1 # 2GB for /var # gpart add -t freebsd-ufs -s 1G ad4s1 # 1GB for /tmp # gpart add -t freebsd-ufs ad4s1 # all rest for /usr # gpart set -a active -i 1 ad4 You need to install the bootcode: This will install the interactive one: gpart bootcode -b /mnt2/boot/boot0 ad4 this will install the non-interactive one: gpart bootcode -b /mnt2/boot/mbr ad4 Thanks Warren, great article, and thanks all for the follow up posts as well. Just one more question, the usual mbr and boot files will boot a gpt partition? I see there are some additional files gptboot and pmbr? Thanks, Erik ___ 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: Partitioning with gpart or old style slices?
On Sat, 4 Jun 2011, Robert Simmons wrote: On Sat, Jun 4, 2011 at 10:43 PM, Warren Block wbl...@wonkity.com wrote: There's a sample in the second half of my disk setup article: http://www.wonkity.com/~wblock/docs/html/disksetup.html Looks good. I have a few critiques: 1) Linux and FreeBSD do not have alignment requirements, as far as I know. So you may want to include a note about this when you say Create partition for /. It should start at the 1M boundary for alignment on 4K sector drives, or 2048 blocks: This would only be necessary for dual-boot with an OS that has alignment requirements such as windows. This would essentially be the difference between the two old methods of dedicated and not. The 1M size is compatible with Windows and aligns partitions for better performance on 4K sector drives. Doesn't affect performance on 512-byte sector drives, easier to set up initially than add later, and costs less than 1M of space. Cheap compatibility insurance, I guess I'm saying. 2) Perhaps add a note about softupdates (-U) for partitions other than / when you describe the newfs steps. Yikes, yes. I think your article would be a good place to start for making an updated section in the handbook. Thanks! ___ 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
Partitioning with gpart or old style slices?
Hi: I just realized how many years ago I haven't been partitioning any disks .. this system is so stable :) So, now I see I have gpart as alternative to fdisk/bsdlabel. I have a 320GB disk which will be dedicated to FBSD, is there any advantage - or any problems (problems as in I've never tried that before) - using gpart instead of the old scheme? Do I need kernel modules not in the generic kernel or create extra boot partition? Thanks, Erik ___ 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: Partitioning with gpart or old style slices?
On Sat, Jun 4, 2011 at 6:14 PM, Erik Nørgaard norga...@locolomo.org wrote: - or any problems (problems as in I've never tried that before) - using gpart instead of the old scheme? Sorry for the double post, but the only problem that I've encountered is after creating a encrypted provider with geli(8), that provider cannot be partitioned using the GPT scheme. You can still partition it using gpart(8), but the scheme must be BSD or MBR. I am not sure whether this is a bug or just the way GPT partitions work, but it is not that big of a problem unless you want to have very large encrypted providers that are GPT scheme partitions. ___ 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: Partitioning with gpart or old style slices?
On Sat, Jun 4, 2011 at 6:14 PM, Erik Nørgaard norga...@locolomo.org wrote: I just realized how many years ago I haven't been partitioning any disks .. this system is so stable :) So, now I see I have gpart as alternative to fdisk/bsdlabel. gpart(8) from my experience is far superior to all the older tools. I have a 320GB disk which will be dedicated to FBSD, is there any advantage - or any problems (problems as in I've never tried that before) - using gpart instead of the old scheme? It is clean and clear as to what you are doing, and it supports GPT scheme partitions. Do I need kernel modules not in the generic kernel or create extra boot partition? If you use it to make GPT partitions, you will need a freebsd-boot partition with the proper bootcode for what you want to do. If you search this mailing list's archive, I've posted basic instructions for gpart/GPT partitioning recently, perhaps there needs to be a section added to Handbook 18.3.2 describing the basics. Unfortunately, the only mention in the handbook is a link to the man page in section 18.3. ___ 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: Partitioning with gpart or old style slices?
On Sat, 4 Jun 2011, Robert Simmons wrote: Do I need kernel modules not in the generic kernel or create extra boot partition? If you use it to make GPT partitions, you will need a freebsd-boot partition with the proper bootcode for what you want to do. If you search this mailing list's archive, I've posted basic instructions for gpart/GPT partitioning recently, perhaps there needs to be a section added to Handbook 18.3.2 describing the basics. Unfortunately, the only mention in the handbook is a link to the man page in section 18.3. There's a sample in the second half of my disk setup article: http://www.wonkity.com/~wblock/docs/html/disksetup.html ___ 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: Partitioning with gpart or old style slices?
On Sat, Jun 4, 2011 at 10:43 PM, Warren Block wbl...@wonkity.com wrote: There's a sample in the second half of my disk setup article: http://www.wonkity.com/~wblock/docs/html/disksetup.html Looks good. I have a few critiques: 1) Linux and FreeBSD do not have alignment requirements, as far as I know. So you may want to include a note about this when you say Create partition for /. It should start at the 1M boundary for alignment on 4K sector drives, or 2048 blocks: This would only be necessary for dual-boot with an OS that has alignment requirements such as windows. This would essentially be the difference between the two old methods of dedicated and not. 2) Perhaps add a note about softupdates (-U) for partitions other than / when you describe the newfs steps. 3) I like to put /root in its own partition on the off chance that it fills up. That way it's in a little sandbox and does not fill /. But this is personal preference, I guess. I think your article would be a good place to start for making an updated section in the handbook. ___ 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: Partitioning with gpart or old style slices?
El día Saturday, June 04, 2011 a las 08:43:37PM -0600, Warren Block escribió: On Sat, 4 Jun 2011, Robert Simmons wrote: Do I need kernel modules not in the generic kernel or create extra boot partition? If you use it to make GPT partitions, you will need a freebsd-boot partition with the proper bootcode for what you want to do. If you search this mailing list's archive, I've posted basic instructions for gpart/GPT partitioning recently, perhaps there needs to be a section added to Handbook 18.3.2 describing the basics. Unfortunately, the only mention in the handbook is a link to the man page in section 18.3. There's a sample in the second half of my disk setup article: http://www.wonkity.com/~wblock/docs/html/disksetup.html Since some time I'm as well using gpart(8) to setup new systems with the following sequence: # gpart create -s mbr ad4 # Init the disk with an MBR # gpart add -t freebsd ad4# Create a BSD container # gpart create -s bsd ad4s1 # Init with a BSD scheme # gpart add -t freebsd-ufs -s 1G ad4s1 # 1GB for / # gpart add -t freebsd-swap -s 2G ad4s1 # 2GB for swap # gpart add -t freebsd-ufs -s 2G ad4s1 # 2GB for /var # gpart add -t freebsd-ufs -s 1G ad4s1 # 1GB for /tmp # gpart add -t freebsd-ufs ad4s1 # all rest for /usr # gpart set -a active -i 1 ad4 But the result is not ready for boot after install the kernel and system; I allways have to go again with the sysinstall(8) tool to set the 'A' flag; don't know what I'm missing (and the man page is not very instructive on this); thanks PS: next time will try the example of your page, Warren; thx matthias -- Matthias Apitz t +49-89-61308 351 - f +49-89-61308 399 - m +49-170-4527211 e g...@unixarea.de - w http://www.unixarea.de/ ___ 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: Partitioning with gpart or old style slices?
On Sun, 5 Jun 2011 06:40:22 +0200, Matthias Apitz g...@unixarea.de wrote: Since some time I'm as well using gpart(8) to setup new systems with the following sequence: # gpart create -s mbr ad4 # Init the disk with an MBR # gpart add -t freebsd ad4# Create a BSD container # gpart create -s bsd ad4s1 # Init with a BSD scheme # gpart add -t freebsd-ufs -s 1G ad4s1 # 1GB for / # gpart add -t freebsd-swap -s 2G ad4s1 # 2GB for swap # gpart add -t freebsd-ufs -s 2G ad4s1 # 2GB for /var # gpart add -t freebsd-ufs -s 1G ad4s1 # 1GB for /tmp # gpart add -t freebsd-ufs ad4s1 # all rest for /usr # gpart set -a active -i 1 ad4 Just a side question that may be interesting for addition in a new Handbook section: When you use the old method, you can leave out the slicing step, creating a dangerously (haha) dedicated disk for use with FreeBSD. Would this also work with gpart by omitting the gpart create -s bsd ad4s1 step and then refering to ad4 instead of ad4s1 in the gpart add -t freebsd-ufs/swap steps? But the result is not ready for boot after install the kernel and system; I allways have to go again with the sysinstall(8) tool to set the 'A' flag; don't know what I'm missing (and the man page is not very instructive on this); thanks I agree about the manpage; gpart set -a attrib -i index [-f flags] geom is mentioned in the synopsis, but there's no further mentioning of the -a option and its parameters. Maybe (haven't tested!) gpart set -a active -i 1 ad4s1 is equivalent to setting the A flag using 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: Partitioning with gpart or old style slices?
On Sunday, June 05, 2011 12:40:22 AM Matthias Apitz wrote: Since some time I'm as well using gpart(8) to setup new systems with the following sequence: # gpart create -s mbr ad4 # Init the disk with an MBR # gpart add -t freebsd ad4# Create a BSD container # gpart create -s bsd ad4s1 # Init with a BSD scheme # gpart add -t freebsd-ufs -s 1G ad4s1 # 1GB for / # gpart add -t freebsd-swap -s 2G ad4s1 # 2GB for swap # gpart add -t freebsd-ufs -s 2G ad4s1 # 2GB for /var # gpart add -t freebsd-ufs -s 1G ad4s1 # 1GB for /tmp # gpart add -t freebsd-ufs ad4s1 # all rest for /usr # gpart set -a active -i 1 ad4 But the result is not ready for boot after install the kernel and system; I allways have to go again with the sysinstall(8) tool to set the 'A' flag; don't know what I'm missing (and the man page is not very instructive on this); thanks You need to install the bootcode: This will install the interactive one: gpart bootcode -b /mnt2/boot/boot0 ad4 this will install the non-interactive one: gpart bootcode -b /mnt2/boot/mbr ad4 ___ 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: Partitioning with gpart or old style slices?
On Sunday, June 05, 2011 12:59:44 AM Polytropon wrote: On Sun, 5 Jun 2011 06:40:22 +0200, Matthias Apitz g...@unixarea.de wrote: Since some time I'm as well using gpart(8) to setup new systems with the following sequence: # gpart create -s mbr ad4 # Init the disk with an MBR # gpart add -t freebsd ad4# Create a BSD container # gpart create -s bsd ad4s1 # Init with a BSD scheme # gpart add -t freebsd-ufs -s 1G ad4s1 # 1GB for / # gpart add -t freebsd-swap -s 2G ad4s1 # 2GB for swap # gpart add -t freebsd-ufs -s 2G ad4s1 # 2GB for /var # gpart add -t freebsd-ufs -s 1G ad4s1 # 1GB for /tmp # gpart add -t freebsd-ufs ad4s1 # all rest for /usr # gpart set -a active -i 1 ad4 Just a side question that may be interesting for addition in a new Handbook section: When you use the old method, you can leave out the slicing step, creating a dangerously (haha) dedicated disk for use with FreeBSD. Would this also work with gpart by omitting the gpart create -s bsd ad4s1 step and then refering to ad4 instead of ad4s1 in the gpart add -t freebsd-ufs/swap steps? Yes, that would be the equivalent, but if you do that, you might as well use GPT. The reason you would want to use MBR is to dual boot with another OS that only understands MBR. If you are using certain newer 64bit versions of Windows, they understand GPT boot, so the whole BSD inside MBR vs. BSD dedicated is becoming moot in my opinion. A good reference if you must dual boot is: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/hardware/gg463525 Also, at the bottom of this page is a list of OSs and GPT support: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GUID_Partition_Table But the result is not ready for boot after install the kernel and system; I allways have to go again with the sysinstall(8) tool to set the 'A' flag; don't know what I'm missing (and the man page is not very instructive on this); thanks I agree about the manpage; gpart set -a attrib -i index [-f flags] geom is mentioned in the synopsis, but there's no further mentioning of the -a option and its parameters. Maybe (haven't tested!) gpart set -a active -i 1 ad4s1 is equivalent to setting the A flag using sysinstall? After reexamining the man page I think I see where it could be made more clear. The Examples section at the bottom should be changed into sections, one for MBR with BSD inside, one for BSD dedicated, one for GPT, and one for VTOC8. Or at minimum add that you _must_ install bootcode if you wish to boot from the disk. From the confusion above it seems that people think that gpart create -s GPT ad0 installs the bootcode, which it does not (replace the GPT in my example with MBR, BSD etc). ___ 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: Partitioning with gpart or old style slices?
On Sun, Jun 5, 2011 at 08:03, Robert Simmons rsimmo...@gmail.com wrote: On Sunday, June 05, 2011 12:40:22 AM Matthias Apitz wrote: Since some time I'm as well using gpart(8) to setup new systems with the following sequence: # gpart create -s mbr ad4 # Init the disk with an MBR # gpart add -t freebsd ad4# Create a BSD container # gpart create -s bsd ad4s1 # Init with a BSD scheme # gpart add -t freebsd-ufs -s 1G ad4s1 # 1GB for / # gpart add -t freebsd-swap -s 2G ad4s1 # 2GB for swap # gpart add -t freebsd-ufs -s 2G ad4s1 # 2GB for /var # gpart add -t freebsd-ufs -s 1G ad4s1 # 1GB for /tmp # gpart add -t freebsd-ufs ad4s1 # all rest for /usr # gpart set -a active -i 1 ad4 But the result is not ready for boot after install the kernel and system; I allways have to go again with the sysinstall(8) tool to set the 'A' flag; don't know what I'm missing (and the man page is not very instructive on this); thanks You need to install the bootcode: This will install the interactive one: gpart bootcode -b /mnt2/boot/boot0 ad4 this will install the non-interactive one: gpart bootcode -b /mnt2/boot/mbr ad4 This is interesting and here is my question: Taking the above example from Matthias, assume that I have done everything including installing the bootcode, then I realize I am not happy with the scheme and I need to change. How do I wipe the whole thing in one go so that I can start afresh? gpart destroy ad4 ?? Why is there no sysinstall-style GUI for gpart? -- Best regards, Odhiambo WASHINGTON, Nairobi,KE +254733744121/+254722743223 _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ I can't hear you -- I'm using the scrambler. Please consider the environment before printing this email. ___ 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: Partitioning with gpart or old style slices?
On Sun, Jun 5, 2011 at 1:39 AM, Odhiambo Washington odhia...@gmail.com wrote: On Sun, Jun 5, 2011 at 08:03, Robert Simmons rsimmo...@gmail.com wrote: On Sunday, June 05, 2011 12:40:22 AM Matthias Apitz wrote: Since some time I'm as well using gpart(8) to setup new systems with the following sequence: # gpart create -s mbr ad4 # Init the disk with an MBR # gpart add -t freebsd ad4 # Create a BSD container # gpart create -s bsd ad4s1 # Init with a BSD scheme # gpart add -t freebsd-ufs -s 1G ad4s1 # 1GB for / # gpart add -t freebsd-swap -s 2G ad4s1 # 2GB for swap # gpart add -t freebsd-ufs -s 2G ad4s1 # 2GB for /var # gpart add -t freebsd-ufs -s 1G ad4s1 # 1GB for /tmp # gpart add -t freebsd-ufs ad4s1 # all rest for /usr # gpart set -a active -i 1 ad4 But the result is not ready for boot after install the kernel and system; I allways have to go again with the sysinstall(8) tool to set the 'A' flag; don't know what I'm missing (and the man page is not very instructive on this); thanks You need to install the bootcode: This will install the interactive one: gpart bootcode -b /mnt2/boot/boot0 ad4 this will install the non-interactive one: gpart bootcode -b /mnt2/boot/mbr ad4 This is interesting and here is my question: Taking the above example from Matthias, assume that I have done everything including installing the bootcode, then I realize I am not happy with the scheme and I need to change. How do I wipe the whole thing in one go so that I can start afresh? gpart destroy ad4 ?? Yes, but first you must delete all of the slices/partitions. Think of it this way: you must go backwards down the path you just came with a delete for each add, then a destroy for each create. Why is there no sysinstall-style GUI for gpart? Hopefully, because sysinstall is soon going to be taken out back and shot, and its replacement will be gpart-aware and therefore GPT-aware. ___ 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: Laptop Multi-HD partitioning advice (ZFS)
On 5 May 2011 00:17, Daniel Staal dst...@usa.net wrote: I just got notified my new Thinkpad X220 is on it's way, and I'm thinking about the best way to use it. ;) Obviously, FreeBSD with ZFS is on top of the list. (De-dup and compression on my space-limited laptop? Yes, please.) Some relevant vitals (after a couple of upgrades that are also on their way): 6GB of RAM 250GB 2.5in HDD 40GB mSATA SSD I'm planning on installing the patched version of 8.2, with the patches for ZFS v28. My idea at this point is to use the main HDD as the primary drive, with the SSD partitioned into a small[1] ZIL-device and a larger cache drive. Since it's a SSD, I don't think disk contention should be an issue for that use, and it should speed up both reads and writes. It might even reduce the amount of main-disk use that happens. (Or at least, make it happen in short bursts, and let the drive idle in between.) I might still upgrade that HDD to something larger than stock. I could go to an SSD there too (and it's on a SATA III connection, so it could be a *faster* SSD), but I think I'm more likely to go with more space if I decide to upgrade. Obviously, I'm not afraid of a weird config in this case. ;) I'm also not trying to optimize hard for space, or for any specific use-case: I tend to use a laptop for light-duty when I'm not traveling, then more heavy-duty (as well as watching movies, etc) during occasional traveling. The idea here is to let ZFS do the disk optimization. It'll probably slow down my boot times from what could be possible, but I'm hoping ZFS will do things like move a movie I'm *currently* watching to the cache drive, and let the machine shut down the hard drive. Two things I'm *not* sure what the best choices for are the swap partition, and the boot sector. Swap could be on the HDD (slow, reduces my apparent disk-space), on the SSD (fast, reduces my most valuable disk space), or in ZFS (doesn't use dedicated space, but has stability issues under heavy load). Of course I may not ever *need* much swap, as I have a fair amount of RAM. (And I don't care about crash dumps on this box.) The boot sector doesn't really matter as much; if I go with a dedicated swap partition that will probably also hold the boot sector. Otherwise, I'm leaning towards the SSD, as I'm already planning on partitioning that, and I'm less likely to pull it out. Or, of course, there may be other considerations that I've overlooked in the rest. So, I'm looking for wisdom, or other thoughts people have. ;) Daniel T. Staal [1] As per: http://www.solarisinternals.com/wiki/index.php/ZFS_Best_Practices_Guide#Separate_Log_Devices ZIL devices will never use more than 1/2 of RAM, at absolute max, and in most cases will use significantly less. Fully upgraded, this machine supports 8GB of RAM, so a 4GB ZIL device would be plenty in all cases, and would probably be overkill. --- This email copyright the author. Unless otherwise noted, you are expressly allowed to retransmit, quote, or otherwise use the contents for non-commercial purposes. This copyright will expire 5 years after the author's death, or in 30 years, whichever is longer, unless such a period is in excess of local copyright law. --- ___ 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 I think you may be agonizing to much. You would have to to seriously bad to make it slow and even then its a relative thing. Giving it 4GB ZIL, 8 GB swap, and 28 gb l2arc will make it rapid and cover you for most things. Putting the swap on the 250 gig drive wont make much difference though as like you said you wont be paging to disk much Put the bootblocks etc on the hd. They are only 64kb anyhow so will make no noticable difference to the boot time. Also if your ssd dies you wont have an unusable system (apart from a zil issue maybe) ___ 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: Laptop Multi-HD partitioning advice (ZFS)
I think you may be agonizing to much. You would have to to seriously bad to make it slow and even then its a relative thing. Giving it 4GB ZIL, 8 GB swap, and 28 gb l2arc will make it rapid and cover you for most things. Putting the swap on the 250 gig drive wont make much difference though as like you said you wont be paging to disk much Put the bootblocks etc on the hd. They are only 64kb anyhow so will make no noticable difference to the boot time. Also if your ssd dies you wont have an unusable system (apart from a zil issue maybe) I know I'm completely over-analyzing this. ;) But where's the fun in computers if you can't over-analyze something? I know any of the ways will *work*. (Or can be made to.) I'm just asking for the wisdom and the opinions of the internets on whether anything could be considered 'better'. So: Thanks for your thoughts. (One note: Loss of the ZIL drive should not be a problem under the patched ZFS. As of ZFS v19, the ZIL can be lost or removed without affecting the filesystem. Prior to that once you had defined a ZIL drive you needed to always have a working ZIL drive.) Daniel T. Staal --- This email copyright the author. Unless otherwise noted, you are expressly allowed to retransmit, quote, or otherwise use the contents for non-commercial purposes. This copyright will expire 5 years after the author's death, or in 30 years, whichever is longer, unless such a period is in excess of local copyright law. --- ___ 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
Laptop Multi-HD partitioning advice (ZFS)
I just got notified my new Thinkpad X220 is on it's way, and I'm thinking about the best way to use it. ;) Obviously, FreeBSD with ZFS is on top of the list. (De-dup and compression on my space-limited laptop? Yes, please.) Some relevant vitals (after a couple of upgrades that are also on their way): 6GB of RAM 250GB 2.5in HDD 40GB mSATA SSD I'm planning on installing the patched version of 8.2, with the patches for ZFS v28. My idea at this point is to use the main HDD as the primary drive, with the SSD partitioned into a small[1] ZIL-device and a larger cache drive. Since it's a SSD, I don't think disk contention should be an issue for that use, and it should speed up both reads and writes. It might even reduce the amount of main-disk use that happens. (Or at least, make it happen in short bursts, and let the drive idle in between.) I might still upgrade that HDD to something larger than stock. I could go to an SSD there too (and it's on a SATA III connection, so it could be a *faster* SSD), but I think I'm more likely to go with more space if I decide to upgrade. Obviously, I'm not afraid of a weird config in this case. ;) I'm also not trying to optimize hard for space, or for any specific use-case: I tend to use a laptop for light-duty when I'm not traveling, then more heavy-duty (as well as watching movies, etc) during occasional traveling. The idea here is to let ZFS do the disk optimization. It'll probably slow down my boot times from what could be possible, but I'm hoping ZFS will do things like move a movie I'm *currently* watching to the cache drive, and let the machine shut down the hard drive. Two things I'm *not* sure what the best choices for are the swap partition, and the boot sector. Swap could be on the HDD (slow, reduces my apparent disk-space), on the SSD (fast, reduces my most valuable disk space), or in ZFS (doesn't use dedicated space, but has stability issues under heavy load). Of course I may not ever *need* much swap, as I have a fair amount of RAM. (And I don't care about crash dumps on this box.) The boot sector doesn't really matter as much; if I go with a dedicated swap partition that will probably also hold the boot sector. Otherwise, I'm leaning towards the SSD, as I'm already planning on partitioning that, and I'm less likely to pull it out. Or, of course, there may be other considerations that I've overlooked in the rest. So, I'm looking for wisdom, or other thoughts people have. ;) Daniel T. Staal [1] As per: http://www.solarisinternals.com/wiki/index.php/ZFS_Best_Practices_Guide#Separate_Log_Devices ZIL devices will never use more than 1/2 of RAM, at absolute max, and in most cases will use significantly less. Fully upgraded, this machine supports 8GB of RAM, so a 4GB ZIL device would be plenty in all cases, and would probably be overkill. --- This email copyright the author. Unless otherwise noted, you are expressly allowed to retransmit, quote, or otherwise use the contents for non-commercial purposes. This copyright will expire 5 years after the author's death, or in 30 years, whichever is longer, unless such a period is in excess of local copyright law. --- ___ 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
Partitioning/slicing USB HD
So I've hot a 60GB 2.5 IDE Hard Drive in a USB Enclosure. Thing works like a champ, even in FreeBSD. I'm curious the best (or most efficient?) way to cut the drive up. My Goal is to have a bootable slice (5ish GB for the latest stable DVD), some free space if I need to write to a location reliably from the Fixit prompt and then have several slices for various branches, checked out at my leisure that I can mount to /usr/src on what ever machine I happen to be on or traveling to. Should I suffice to use bsdlabel or should I think about gpt? I've read a bit on both and am not sure which is really the best choice for this application. c- ___ 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
partitioning a gmirror (was Re: sysinstall vs gmirror)
binE6c8fkIE6U.bin Description: Binary data ___ 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: Partitioning for multiple systems
Some points - I've done most of these... 1. Grub can boot from a secondary partition (my current laptop has a recovery partition in 1, vista (b) in 2, fbsd in 3, and linux in 4 as 2 secondary partitions.) works fine. Grub doesn't boot vista correctly, but handles bsd fine and (of course) linux. 2. Linux as of 2.6.27 can mount ufs2 once you figure out the incantation (you need -t ufs and -o ufstype=ufs2). I don't know if this is ok r/w or not; I leave the ntfs (actually all non-self) filesystems ro. (the linux ntfs-3g is supposedly safe for r/w and even growing files. Since it runs in userland over fuse it should port easily to fbsd. I don't know if that applies to the vista version of ntfs.) 3. BSD's ext2 driver (on stable) can't yet handle the 256-byte inodes that most modern linux's install on. /boot tends to be 128-byte and pure ext2. A journal replay would be a nice addition to fbsd's ext2 driver but isn't needed if linux was properly shut down. So this laptop has the ntfs and bsd mounted readonly in linux, ntfs mounted in bsd but only the grub partition (which is secondary - ad4s5) of the linux stuff mounted in bsd. The geom-linux-lvm does indeed work on this laptop, and mount finds and mounts the main linux partition; then any reference gets an errno back, apparently due to the inode length issue. I saw a request for mfc of the fix for this (it is apparently in fbsd-current, and already pr'd regarding 7-stable.) -- Pete ___ 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: Partitioning for multiple systems
2009/4/26 Jorg Andersson jorg_anders...@lavabit.com: On Sun, Apr 26, 2009 at 03:45:33PM -0600, Tim Judd wrote: I don't recall FreeBSD supporting extended partitions... at all I remember reading they aren't in /dev/ but still is mountable. Is this still the case? They show up just fine here (8-current), and I am fairly sure they were visible in /dev when I was running 7.x The big deal is that you can't (easily) install FreeBSD on a logical slice. http://forums.freebsd.org/showthread.php?t=3194 -- -- ___ 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: Partitioning for multiple systems
On Sun, Apr 26, 2009 at 11:45:07AM -0700, Michael David Crawford wrote: I have a machine I plan to use solely for testing. I have FreeBSD 8.0-CURRENT on it right now, and would like to add FreeBSD 7.2-RC2 as well as CentOS 5.3 Linux. Presently I have three Master Boot Record primary partitions - slices in the FreeBSD parlance, if I understand correctly: - A Linux slice to be used for CentOS' /boot - A BSD slice subdivided into partitions that hold 8.0-CURRENT - A big FAT slice (so to speak) meant to be split up for 7.2 and CentOS A PC-style Master Boot Record can hold a maximum of four primary partitions, or it can hold three primaries and a single extended partition that is subdivided into logical partitions. The geometries of the logical partitions aren't given in the MBR, but exist as a linked list. I *should* be able to split that FAT slice up into a primary for 7.2 and an extended partition that will hold CentOS' other partitions; however: In Googling about this, I have read some dire warnings about FreeBSD being unable to understand logical partitions; apparently installing FreeBSD *before* an extended partition will result in all your logicals getting trashed. One is advised to put all the FreeBSD MBR partitions *after* the extended partition. Is that the case? Have you any advice for me? FreeBSD is not happy with MS 'extended partitions'. But, I don't really see your problem. You are not using Microsloth for anything. Create your Lunix slice first, then one for FreeBSD 7.2 and finally one for FreeBSD 8.0. You still logically have one left for something but it doesn't seem to be needed and neither does a 'logical partition'. Note that FreeBSD will not run from the FAT slice as far as I know. FreeBSD might be able to mount the CENTOS slice stuff if you use the right type of mount. I don't know about mounting Lunix from FreeBSD. But, you can't do it the other way (eg mount a FreeBSD type filesystem from Lunix - though maybe, I have never tried it) One more thing: if it's possible, I'd like for the /home directory to be shared between both of my FreeBSD installations. In a normal installation, there is a real /usr/home directory, with /home being a symbolic link. If I'm running FreeBSD out of one MBR partition (or slice), can I mount a directory that's in a different one? MBR has nothing to do with the filesystem type. MBR is just a [usually] one block/sector of code that makes a few choices and then reads in a subsequent, OS-specific block of code to begin the actual boot process.MS MBRs are not very friendly. The FreeBSD MBR will boot any OS that follows the official standard for boot code location. Linux wants you to use some fancier, non-standard (but by now, pretty much usable everywhere) MBRs such as Grub. They all do essentially the same thing - ask you which block you want to boot and then go load it in and transfer over control to it. Generally they don't care what is in the block but MS still goes out of its way to pretend that the rest of the world does not exist so it won't play with others, though I have heard rumors that the newest stuff takes a somewhat broader outlook. From FreeBSD you can mount other types of filesystems such as MS by using the correct mount types. For example, if you want to mount an MS FAT or FAT32, you use an 'msdosfs' type in your fstab file or mount_msdosfs(8) utility to do the mount. Do some studying to see if you can mount any Lunxi type filesystem from FreeBSD. When you create a new __non-root__ account, you can put the home directory anywhere the system can reliably read and write. DO NOT put the home directory for a root account outside of the root (/) filesystem. Since both FreeBSD 7.xx and 8.xx are going to be UFS type file systems, you could put them both in your /etc/fstab for each and pick a single partition for (non root) home directories. I don't know if that is a good idea, but it should work OK. jerry Thanks for your help! Mike -- Michael David Crawford m...@prgmr.com prgmr.com - We Don't Assume You Are Stupid. Xen-Powered Virtual Private Servers: http://prgmr.com/xen ___ 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: Partitioning for multiple systems
ill...@gmail.com skrev: 2009/4/26 Jorg Andersson jorg_anders...@lavabit.com: On Sun, Apr 26, 2009 at 03:45:33PM -0600, Tim Judd wrote: I don't recall FreeBSD supporting extended partitions... at all I remember reading they aren't in /dev/ but still is mountable. Is this still the case? They show up just fine here (8-current), and I am fairly sure they were visible in /dev when I was running 7.x The big deal is that you can't (easily) install FreeBSD on a logical slice. http://forums.freebsd.org/showthread.php?t=3194 I've had my FreeBSD running from a logical slice for a while now. It's not too hard to do if you already have a working FreeBSD on one of the primary slices. To be able to boot the system I use a patched GRUB boot manager and a patched FreeBSD /boot/loader The tricky part is bootstrapping the system to get all this in place. Gyrd ^_^ ___ 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: Partitioning for multiple systems
On Mon, 27 Apr 2009 10:30:43 -0400, Jerry McAllister jerr...@msu.edu wrote: On Sun, Apr 26, 2009 at 11:45:07AM -0700, Michael David Crawford wrote: FreeBSD is not happy with MS 'extended partitions'. But, I don't really see your problem. You are not using Microsloth for anything. That's why I'm not sure why FAT has been mentioned. As far as I understood, the disk should have three operating systems (Linux, FreeBSD 7, FreeBSD 8) and a partition where all these systems can have a shared mount point for /home. So my idea would be... no, my further questions would be: 1. Can FreeBSD mount -o rw a file system that is usable on Linux, maybe ext2? If yes, use this file system type for the partition that is /home then. 2. Can Linux mount -o rw a file system that is usable on FreeBSD, maybe UFS? If yes, use this file system type for the partition that is /home then. Because the /home partition is not intended to be booted from, it should be possible to add it. Create your Lunix slice first, then one for FreeBSD 7.2 and finally one for FreeBSD 8.0. You still logically have one left for something but it doesn't seem to be needed and neither does a 'logical partition'. Hasn't the fact that Linux needs two primary partitions (one for itself, one for its boot loader) mentioned? FreeBSD might be able to mount the CENTOS slice stuff if you use the right type of mount. I don't know about mounting Lunix from FreeBSD. But, you can't do it the other way (eg mount a FreeBSD type filesystem from Lunix - though maybe, I have never tried it) That would be the idea. From FreeBSD you can mount other types of filesystems such as MS by using the correct mount types. For example, if you want to mount an MS FAT or FAT32, you use an 'msdosfs' type in your fstab file or mount_msdosfs(8) utility to do the mount. Do some studying to see if you can mount any Lunxi type filesystem from FreeBSD. Exactly. Or, if not, maybe it works vice-versa: mounting a FreeBSD partition (within a slice, a primary partition) from within this Linux. -- Polytropon From 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: Partitioning for multiple systems
On Mon, Apr 27, 2009 at 10:17:47PM +0200, Polytropon wrote: On Mon, 27 Apr 2009 10:30:43 -0400, Jerry McAllister jerr...@msu.edu wrote: On Sun, Apr 26, 2009 at 11:45:07AM -0700, Michael David Crawford wrote: FreeBSD is not happy with MS 'extended partitions'. But, I don't really see your problem. You are not using Microsloth for anything. That's why I'm not sure why FAT has been mentioned. As far as The FAT (more likely FAT32) can be the filesystem type that each of the OSen can read/write.I occasionally make one for scratch space that more than one OS on a machine can access. I understood, the disk should have three operating systems (Linux, FreeBSD 7, FreeBSD 8) and a partition where all these systems can have a shared mount point for /home. So my idea would be... no, my further questions would be: 1. Can FreeBSD mount -o rw a file system that is usable on Linux, maybe ext2? If yes, use this file system type for the partition that is /home then. 2. Can Linux mount -o rw a file system that is usable on FreeBSD, maybe UFS? If yes, use this file system type for the partition that is /home then. Because the /home partition is not intended to be booted from, it should be possible to add it. Create your Lunix slice first, then one for FreeBSD 7.2 and finally one for FreeBSD 8.0. You still logically have one left for something but it doesn't seem to be needed and neither does a 'logical partition'. Hasn't the fact that Linux needs two primary partitions (one for itself, one for its boot loader) mentioned? I thought that the fancy MBR went in the extra track space beyond that official single sector that almost no one actually uses any more. I haven't heard of that.The RHEL and SUSE installs I did recently did not look like they were using two primaries.But I didn't make a point of looking for that, so I am not sure. jerry FreeBSD might be able to mount the CENTOS slice stuff if you use the right type of mount. I don't know about mounting Lunix from FreeBSD. But, you can't do it the other way (eg mount a FreeBSD type filesystem from Lunix - though maybe, I have never tried it) That would be the idea. From FreeBSD you can mount other types of filesystems such as MS by using the correct mount types. For example, if you want to mount an MS FAT or FAT32, you use an 'msdosfs' type in your fstab file or mount_msdosfs(8) utility to do the mount. Do some studying to see if you can mount any Lunxi type filesystem from FreeBSD. Exactly. Or, if not, maybe it works vice-versa: mounting a FreeBSD partition (within a slice, a primary partition) from within this Linux. -- Polytropon From 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
Partitioning for multiple systems
I have a machine I plan to use solely for testing. I have FreeBSD 8.0-CURRENT on it right now, and would like to add FreeBSD 7.2-RC2 as well as CentOS 5.3 Linux. Presently I have three Master Boot Record primary partitions - slices in the FreeBSD parlance, if I understand correctly: - A Linux slice to be used for CentOS' /boot - A BSD slice subdivided into partitions that hold 8.0-CURRENT - A big FAT slice (so to speak) meant to be split up for 7.2 and CentOS A PC-style Master Boot Record can hold a maximum of four primary partitions, or it can hold three primaries and a single extended partition that is subdivided into logical partitions. The geometries of the logical partitions aren't given in the MBR, but exist as a linked list. I *should* be able to split that FAT slice up into a primary for 7.2 and an extended partition that will hold CentOS' other partitions; however: In Googling about this, I have read some dire warnings about FreeBSD being unable to understand logical partitions; apparently installing FreeBSD *before* an extended partition will result in all your logicals getting trashed. One is advised to put all the FreeBSD MBR partitions *after* the extended partition. Is that the case? Have you any advice for me? One more thing: if it's possible, I'd like for the /home directory to be shared between both of my FreeBSD installations. In a normal installation, there is a real /usr/home directory, with /home being a symbolic link. If I'm running FreeBSD out of one MBR partition (or slice), can I mount a directory that's in a different one? Thanks for your help! Mike -- Michael David Crawford m...@prgmr.com prgmr.com - We Don't Assume You Are Stupid. Xen-Powered Virtual Private Servers: http://prgmr.com/xen ___ 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: Partitioning for multiple systems
2009/4/26 Michael David Crawford m...@prgmr.com: I have a machine I plan to use solely for testing. I have FreeBSD 8.0-CURRENT on it right now, and would like to add FreeBSD 7.2-RC2 as well as CentOS 5.3 Linux. Presently I have three Master Boot Record primary partitions - slices in the FreeBSD parlance, if I understand correctly: - A Linux slice to be used for CentOS' /boot - A BSD slice subdivided into partitions that hold 8.0-CURRENT - A big FAT slice (so to speak) meant to be split up for 7.2 and CentOS A PC-style Master Boot Record can hold a maximum of four primary partitions, or it can hold three primaries and a single extended partition that is subdivided into logical partitions. The geometries of the logical partitions aren't given in the MBR, but exist as a linked list. I *should* be able to split that FAT slice up into a primary for 7.2 and an extended partition that will hold CentOS' other partitions; however: In Googling about this, I have read some dire warnings about FreeBSD being unable to understand logical partitions; apparently installing FreeBSD *before* an extended partition will result in all your logicals getting trashed. One is advised to put all the FreeBSD MBR partitions *after* the extended partition. Is that the case? Have you any advice for me? I haven't found that to be the case at all. I don't have as many variable as you, but on my dual boot I have ad4s1[a-g] FreeBSD ad4s2 Linux /boot ad4s3 extended ad4s5 Linux swap ad4s6 Linux / and I have tested using nothing but logical slices for Linux (including /boot) and it works fine. I would advise (roughly, you can do it as you please) adNs1 FreeBSD 7.x / /var /usr /tmp* adNs2 FreeBSD 8 / /var /usr /ports* adNs3 Fat32 /home adNs4 extended adNs5 . . . Linux /boot / swap I would install Linux first and just use grub as the boot loader for everyone. (*whichever, but they can be mounted on both FreeBSDs, don't forget to symlink /usr/ports) One more thing: if it's possible, I'd like for the /home directory to be shared between both of my FreeBSD installations. In a normal installation, there is a real /usr/home directory, with /home being a symbolic link. I would mount a Fat32 partition for /home and use it for all 3 OSes. And symlink /usr/home to /home. If I'm running FreeBSD out of one MBR partition (or slice), can I mount a directory that's in a different one? Yes. -- -- ___ 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: Partitioning for multiple systems
On Sun, Apr 26, 2009 at 12:45 PM, Michael David Crawford m...@prgmr.comwrote: I have a machine I plan to use solely for testing. I have FreeBSD 8.0-CURRENT on it right now, and would like to add FreeBSD 7.2-RC2 as well as CentOS 5.3 Linux. Presently I have three Master Boot Record primary partitions - slices in the FreeBSD parlance, if I understand correctly: - A Linux slice to be used for CentOS' /boot - A BSD slice subdivided into partitions that hold 8.0-CURRENT - A big FAT slice (so to speak) meant to be split up for 7.2 and CentOS A PC-style Master Boot Record can hold a maximum of four primary partitions, or it can hold three primaries and a single extended partition that is subdivided into logical partitions. FreeBSD's standard bootloader (not boot0) will only boot off the first 0xA5/dec.165 partition it finds. I've never tried multibooting with boot0. I don't recall FreeBSD supporting extended partitions... at all The 4-entry MBR will be the problem GPT (GEOM Partition Table) bumps that limit up to like 127 entries. you'd have to use an external non-native (terms of boot0 versus 'standard') boot loader to start working. You might utilize a 5.25 HDD enclosure as a solution to run multiple OSs on a box. The enclosures are pretty inexpensive and I have enjoyed working them that way. The geometries of the logical partitions aren't given in the MBR, but exist as a linked list. I *should* be able to split that FAT slice up into a primary for 7.2 and an extended partition that will hold CentOS' other partitions; however: In Googling about this, I have read some dire warnings about FreeBSD being unable to understand logical partitions; apparently installing FreeBSD *before* an extended partition will result in all your logicals getting trashed. One is advised to put all the FreeBSD MBR partitions *after* the extended partition. Is that the case? Have you any advice for me? One more thing: if it's possible, I'd like for the /home directory to be shared between both of my FreeBSD installations. In a normal installation, there is a real /usr/home directory, with /home being a symbolic link. If I'm running FreeBSD out of one MBR partition (or slice), can I mount a directory that's in a different one? Thanks for your help! ___ 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: Partitioning for multiple systems
On Sun, Apr 26, 2009 at 03:45:33PM -0600, Tim Judd wrote: I don't recall FreeBSD supporting extended partitions... at all I remember reading they aren't in /dev/ but still is mountable. Is this still the case? ___ 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: UFS partitioning
AFAIK the danger is that someone boots the machine with an installer for some other OS, and that installer treats the disk as unformatted -- hence obviously containing nothing important -- because it doesn't have a recognizable MBR. some people rarely boot other OS :) ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: UFS partitioning
On Fri, Dec 05, 2008 at 11:28:32PM -0800, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Dangerous is probably overstating the issue a bit ... AFAIK the danger is that someone boots the machine with an installer for some other OS, and that installer treats the disk as unformatted -- hence obviously containing nothing important -- because it doesn't have a recognizable MBR. Yes, that could happen if you run a non-FreeBSD installer that doesn't know about FreeBSD and Dangerously Dedicated disks. jerry ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: UFS partitioning
On Sat, Dec 06, 2008 at 09:16:00AM +0100, Wojciech Puchar wrote: AFAIK the danger is that someone boots the machine with an installer for some other OS, and that installer treats the disk as unformatted -- hence obviously containing nothing important -- because it doesn't have a recognizable MBR. some people rarely boot other OS :) And, in that case, it probably doesn't matter. jerry ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: UFS partitioning
Dangerous is probably overstating the issue a bit ... AFAIK the danger is that someone boots the machine with an installer for some other OS, and that installer treats the disk as unformatted -- hence obviously containing nothing important -- because it doesn't have a recognizable MBR. ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: UFS partitioning
On Wed, 2008-12-03 at 20:55 -0500, Robert Huff wrote: Da Rock writes: Excuse my nose in here- I just have a couple of questions. 1) It IS possible to boot from a dedicated disk? Yes. Can't remember the last time I used anything else. So you've never booted from a disk that has been partitioned as a file system? ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: UFS partitioning
Da Rock writes: Excuse my nose in here- I just have a couple of questions. 1) It IS possible to boot from a dedicated disk? Yes. Can't remember the last time I used anything else. So you've never booted from a disk that has been partitioned as a file system? I have never booted a FreeBSD system from a disk which contained any other operating system. I have only used dangerously dadicated mode for FreeBSD, except when sysinstall made selecting/implementing that too much work. Clear? Robert Huff ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: UFS partitioning
On Thu, Dec 04, 2008 at 11:47:23AM +1000, Da Rock wrote: On Tue, 2008-12-02 at 11:39 -0500, Jerry McAllister wrote: On Tue, Dec 02, 2008 at 11:17:40AM +0100, Polytropon wrote: On Tue, 2 Dec 2008 10:56:44 +0100 (CET), Pieter Donche [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: If FreeBSD is to put on the system as only operating system (Fdisk: A = Use Entire disk), then will the BSD-partitions will show up as ad0a (/), ad0b (swap), ad0d (/var) etc... correct or not (then what)? You're mixing terminology here. :-) The use entire disk will create a slice for FreeBSD covering the complete disk. A slice is what MICROS~1 calls primary partition. Now the conclusion: Let's say you create a slice on ad0, it will be ad0s1. Now you can create partitions inside this slice as you mentioned it, e. g. ad0s1a = /, ad0s1b = swap, ad0s1d = /tmp, ad0s1e = /var, ad0s1f = /usr and ad0s1g = /home. True. Too bad MS had to use the same terminology for slices as FreeBSD uses for subdivisions of slices. But, it won't be undone now, so the confusion will continue. But if you're refering to ad0a, ad0b, ad0d etc. you're stating that there's no slice, implying that (if I see this correctly) it isn't possible to boot from that disk. It is correct that this would imply no slice being created. But it is not correct that it could not be bootable. You can use bsdlabel to write the boot sector to ad0 instead of ad0s1 and it would be bootable - but would be what someone has enjoyed describing as a 'dangerously dedicated' disk. FreeBSD can deal with it, but other systems cannot. I don't know if you can do this from sysinstall though. I have never tried. But, it can be done by running bsdlabel by hand. Of couse, if you would intend to use a (physical) second disk for only the home partition, you could omit the slice and the partition and simply newfs ad1 - but that wasn't your question. Probably the 'dangerously dedicated' disk is more often used this way as an additional (second) drive that is not made bootable. In that case, it is unlikely that one would mount any of the partitions on '/' making it the root filesystem. That may be a problem. But, otherwise this looks probable or more likely it would have some swap to add to the first disk and all the rest in either the a or d partitions mounted as something like '/work' or /scratch'. ad0 |---| the whole disk ad0s1 \--/ one slice ad0s1X \--/\---/\-/\-/\---/\/ partitions a b d e f g / swap /tmp /var/usr /home mount point Excuse my nose in here- I just have a couple of questions. 1) It IS possible to boot from a dedicated disk? Yes, as described above. 2) Does using dedicated mode increase the space available to use? Partitioning normally takes up space so a HDD loses about 10% of usable space doesn't it, so the space used by partitioning is can now be used as filespace. No. Slicing and Partitioning take up negligible space. Building a file system on the disk/slice/partition takes up a chunk. The most is taken up by an 8% (by default) reserve that is held back for root use when a file system is built. jerry These questions are all theoretical: I've only read in passing about dedicated mode, but the use of this would be highly specialised by extension. ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: UFS partitioning
On Thu, Dec 04, 2008 at 12:57:45PM +1000, Da Rock wrote: On Wed, 2008-12-03 at 20:55 -0500, Robert Huff wrote: Da Rock writes: Excuse my nose in here- I just have a couple of questions. 1) It IS possible to boot from a dedicated disk? Yes. Can't remember the last time I used anything else. So you've never booted from a disk that has been partitioned as a file system? You are getting your terms scrambled here. Partitioning has nothing directly to do with creating a file system. You can build a filesystem (with newfs) on just about any piece of disk whether it is the whole disk, a slice of the disk or a partition of a slice. Making one of those divisions bootable is also pretty much an independant operation too, though as far as I know, only whole disks and slices can be made bootable but not partitions - the fact that the partition contains the system files is not what makes it bootable. Being bootable is dependant on the boot sector which gets the control from either the BIOS or an MBR and then finds the system partition (/), mounts it (Read Only) and finds system files and starts those things running. jerry ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: UFS partitioning
I have never booted a FreeBSD system from a disk which contained any other operating system. I have only used dangerously dadicated mode for FreeBSD, except when sysinstall made selecting/implementing that too much work. almost like me except i don't use sysinstall, and manually i don't create slices ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: UFS partitioning
On Thu, 2008-12-04 at 10:49 -0500, Jerry McAllister wrote: On Thu, Dec 04, 2008 at 12:57:45PM +1000, Da Rock wrote: On Wed, 2008-12-03 at 20:55 -0500, Robert Huff wrote: Da Rock writes: Excuse my nose in here- I just have a couple of questions. 1) It IS possible to boot from a dedicated disk? Yes. Can't remember the last time I used anything else. So you've never booted from a disk that has been partitioned as a file system? You are getting your terms scrambled here. Partitioning has nothing directly to do with creating a file system. You can build a filesystem (with newfs) on just about any piece of disk whether it is the whole disk, a slice of the disk or a partition of a slice. Making one of those divisions bootable is also pretty much an independant operation too, though as far as I know, only whole disks and slices can be made bootable but not partitions - the fact that the partition contains the system files is not what makes it bootable. Being bootable is dependant on the boot sector which gets the control from either the BIOS or an MBR and then finds the system partition (/), mounts it (Read Only) and finds system files and starts those things running. Yes, I would say I'm getting my terms mixed up- fortunately the actual reality is clear in my head (hard as that is to believe..). I have only one more question then: Why would you use dangerously dedicated mode at all? I can only see where it might be useful for files, no advantage to being a boot sector. It was some time ago that I read up on all this, but what I remembered was that BSD could use a dedicated disk- but only BSD could read and write from it and this is dangerous. Maybe what I was reading was regarding bootable and that was considered dangerous... At any rate I'm very clear now. Thanks for all the information guys- cheers ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: UFS partitioning
On Tue, 2008-12-02 at 11:39 -0500, Jerry McAllister wrote: On Tue, Dec 02, 2008 at 11:17:40AM +0100, Polytropon wrote: On Tue, 2 Dec 2008 10:56:44 +0100 (CET), Pieter Donche [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: If FreeBSD is to put on the system as only operating system (Fdisk: A = Use Entire disk), then will the BSD-partitions will show up as ad0a (/), ad0b (swap), ad0d (/var) etc... correct or not (then what)? You're mixing terminology here. :-) The use entire disk will create a slice for FreeBSD covering the complete disk. A slice is what MICROS~1 calls primary partition. Now the conclusion: Let's say you create a slice on ad0, it will be ad0s1. Now you can create partitions inside this slice as you mentioned it, e. g. ad0s1a = /, ad0s1b = swap, ad0s1d = /tmp, ad0s1e = /var, ad0s1f = /usr and ad0s1g = /home. True. Too bad MS had to use the same terminology for slices as FreeBSD uses for subdivisions of slices. But, it won't be undone now, so the confusion will continue. But if you're refering to ad0a, ad0b, ad0d etc. you're stating that there's no slice, implying that (if I see this correctly) it isn't possible to boot from that disk. It is correct that this would imply no slice being created. But it is not correct that it could not be bootable. You can use bsdlabel to write the boot sector to ad0 instead of ad0s1 and it would be bootable - but would be what someone has enjoyed describing as a 'dangerously dedicated' disk. FreeBSD can deal with it, but other systems cannot. I don't know if you can do this from sysinstall though. I have never tried. But, it can be done by running bsdlabel by hand. Of couse, if you would intend to use a (physical) second disk for only the home partition, you could omit the slice and the partition and simply newfs ad1 - but that wasn't your question. Probably the 'dangerously dedicated' disk is more often used this way as an additional (second) drive that is not made bootable. In that case, it is unlikely that one would mount any of the partitions on '/' making it the root filesystem. That may be a problem. But, otherwise this looks probable or more likely it would have some swap to add to the first disk and all the rest in either the a or d partitions mounted as something like '/work' or /scratch'. ad0 |---| the whole disk ad0s1 \--/ one slice ad0s1X \--/\---/\-/\-/\---/\/ partitions a b d e f g / swap /tmp /var/usr /home mount point Excuse my nose in here- I just have a couple of questions. 1) It IS possible to boot from a dedicated disk? 2) Does using dedicated mode increase the space available to use? Partitioning normally takes up space so a HDD loses about 10% of usable space doesn't it, so the space used by partitioning is can now be used as filespace. These questions are all theoretical: I've only read in passing about dedicated mode, but the use of this would be highly specialised by extension. ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: UFS partitioning
Da Rock writes: Excuse my nose in here- I just have a couple of questions. 1) It IS possible to boot from a dedicated disk? Yes. Can't remember the last time I used anything else. 2) Does using dedicated mode increase the space available to use? Partitioning normally takes up space so a HDD loses about 10% of usable space doesn't it, so the space used by partitioning is can now be used as filespace. Not really; certainly not in the scale of state of the market drives. Robert Huff ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
