Re: Way to specify offset suggestion autoalignment multiple in disklabel(8)? (w.o. paper, pen and a 2:nd computer)

[Sebastian Benoit]

Tinker(t1...@protonmail.ch) on 2018.04.16 03:30:37 -0400:
> Hi,
> 
> When in "disklabel -E" for instance in the OS installer, being able to
> specify that I want the partition offsets to be multiples of 2048 would
> be useful.

why?
to whom?

Re: Way to specify offset suggestion autoalignment multiple in disklabel(8)? (w.o. paper, pen and a 2:nd computer)

[Tinker]

On April 16, 2018 4:07 PM, Stuart Henderson  wrote:
> On 2018-04-16, Tinker t1...@protonmail.ch wrote:
> > When in "disklabel -E" for instance in the OS installer, being able to
> > specify that I want the partition offsets to be multiples of 2048 would
> > be useful.
> > 
> > Right now, when in "a" (add partition), i transcribe the suggested
> > offset to another computer, on the other computer calculate its value
> > rounded up to the next 2048 multiple, and then transcribe it back to
> > the computer with the OpenBSD installer.
> > 
> > It's fine as it is, all that's needed is a paper, a pen, and attention.
> > 
> > Just wanted to check if when reading through
> > http://man.openbsd.org/disklabel.8 I missed something, or, if it's not
> > there if anyone more knowledgeable than me would think it would be a
> > useful option.
> 
> You didn't miss anything, the only way to do this at the moment is by
> hand (I start at 2048 for the 'a' partition then just make sure the size
> is a multiple of 2048, then the offset takes care of itself).
> I don't see much value to making it optional, doing this as standard
> is a sane default for most systems.

Is your point that disklabel(8)'s multiple should be increased to 2048?

(What I had on my mind when I wrote the email would be a command
"* 2048" or similar, that would instruct disklabel what multiple i like
the offset suggestions to autoalign to. I guess 2048 would be the very
sanest default multiple also yes.)

Thanks,
Tinker

Re: Way to specify offset suggestion autoalignment multiple in disklabel(8)? (w.o. paper, pen and a 2:nd computer)

[Stuart Henderson]

On 2018-04-16, Tinker  wrote:
> When in "disklabel -E" for instance in the OS installer, being able to
> specify that I want the partition offsets to be multiples of 2048 would
> be useful.
>
> Right now, when in "a" (add partition), i transcribe the suggested
> offset to another computer, on the other computer calculate its value
> rounded up to the next 2048 multiple, and then transcribe it back to
> the computer with the OpenBSD installer.
>
> It's fine as it is, all that's needed is a paper, a pen, and attention.
>
> Just wanted to check if when reading through
> http://man.openbsd.org/disklabel.8 I missed something, or, if it's not
> there if anyone more knowledgeable than me would think it would be a
> useful option.

You didn't miss anything, the only way to do this at the moment is by
hand (I start at 2048 for the 'a' partition then just make sure the size
is a multiple of 2048, then the offset takes care of itself).

I don't see much value to making it optional, doing this as standard
is a sane default for most systems.