Re: Zero-Fill format before installation

2008-10-28 Thread Bullet 446
On Tue, Oct 28, 2008 at 12:22 PM, Jeremy Chadwick <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> sysctl kern.geom.debugflags=16 then do the dd again.

Thanks Jeremy, that worked fine.

> I STRONGLY recommend you add "bs=64k" to that dd statement, or else it's
> going to take a million years.  :-)

That's a good tip, reduced formatting time by 85%! :)
___
freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list
http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions
To unsubscribe, send any mail to "[EMAIL PROTECTED]"


Re: Zero-Fill format before installation

2008-10-28 Thread Jeremy Chadwick
On Tue, Oct 28, 2008 at 10:21:00AM +, Bullet 446 wrote:
> I have a remote machine with KVM access that I'd like to format and
> reinstall FreeBSD 7.0. I've succeded in formatting /dev/ad6 but not the main
> drive, /dev/ad4.
> Is it possbile to zero-fill format during the installation instead of simply
> deleting and recreating partitions?
> 
> I've tried booting into single user mode without any success:
> # umount -a
> umount: /cdrom: not a file system root directory
> umount: /var: not a file system root directory
> umount: /usr: not a file system root directory
> umount: /tmp: not a file system root directory
> # dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/ad4
> dd: /dev/ad4: Operation not permitted

You need to tell GEOM to allow you to overwrite the MBR at the start
of the disk.

sysctl kern.geom.debugflags=16 then do the dd again.

I STRONGLY recommend you add "bs=64k" to that dd statement, or else it's
going to take a million years.  :-)

-- 
| Jeremy Chadwickjdc at parodius.com |
| Parodius Networking   http://www.parodius.com/ |
| UNIX Systems Administrator  Mountain View, CA, USA |
| Making life hard for others since 1977.  PGP: 4BD6C0CB |

___
freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list
http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions
To unsubscribe, send any mail to "[EMAIL PROTECTED]"


Zero-Fill format before installation

2008-10-28 Thread Bullet 446
I have a remote machine with KVM access that I'd like to format and
reinstall FreeBSD 7.0. I've succeded in formatting /dev/ad6 but not the main
drive, /dev/ad4.
Is it possbile to zero-fill format during the installation instead of simply
deleting and recreating partitions?

I've tried booting into single user mode without any success:
# umount -a
umount: /cdrom: not a file system root directory
umount: /var: not a file system root directory
umount: /usr: not a file system root directory
umount: /tmp: not a file system root directory
# dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/ad4
dd: /dev/ad4: Operation not permitted
___
freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list
http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions
To unsubscribe, send any mail to "[EMAIL PROTECTED]"