From owner-freebsd-questions Wed Apr 12 17:27:45 2000 Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from freebie.lemis.com (freebie.lemis.com [192.109.197.137]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 059E637B82A for ; Wed, 12 Apr 2000 17:27:40 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from grog@freebie.lemis.com) Received: (from grog@localhost) by freebie.lemis.com (8.9.3/8.9.0) id JAA43724; Thu, 13 Apr 2000 09:57:25 +0930 (CST) Date: Thu, 13 Apr 2000 09:57:24 +0930 From: Greg Lehey To: FreeBSD MAIL Cc: FreeBSD Questions Subject: Re: "dangerously dedicated" Message-ID: <20000413095724.T35391@freebie.lemis.com> References: <20000412162705.O35391@freebie.lemis.com> <200004121542.FAA13591@mauibuilt.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-Mailer: Mutt 1.0pre2i In-Reply-To: <200004121542.FAA13591@mauibuilt.com> WWW-Home-Page: http://www.lemis.com/~grog X-PGP-Fingerprint: 6B 7B C3 8C 61 CD 54 AF 13 24 52 F8 6D A4 95 EF Organization: LEMIS, PO Box 460, Echunga SA 5153, Australia Phone: +61-8-8388-8286 Fax: +61-8-8388-8725 Mobile: +61-41-739-7062 Sender: owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG Please copy FreeBSD-questions on follow up messages. On Wednesday, 12 April 2000 at 5:42:54 -1000, FreeBSD MAIL wrote: >> [Format recovered--see http://www.lemis.com/email/email-format.html] >> >> On Wednesday, 12 April 2000 at 8:40:05 +0200, Micke Josefsson wrote: >>> >>> On 12-Apr-00 `ekips wrote: >>>> when making partitions with /stand/sysinstall, i decided to press >>>> "A" and got the following message: >>>> >>>> "Do you want to do this with a true partition entry so as to remain >>>> cooperative with any future operating systemss on the drive(s)?" >>>> >>>> ... and then points me to the FreeBSD FAQ, where i could not find >>>> any info on the subject. where can i find good documentation on >>>> this? or even better, could someone explain all the ramifications >>>> of my two options [yes/no]. thanx. >>> >>> In short: Normally a disk consists of up to 4 primary partitions (or >>> three primary and one extended, which can contain infinately many >>> extended partitions). A table at the beginning of the disk has space >>> for four pointers to these four regions on disk. A dangerously >>> dedicated disk ignores this table and starts using the disk from its >>> very beginning, as a result of this you cannot afterwards repartition >>> your disk to make space for (shudder) windows. This works all right >>> for FreeBSD: If you have no intention of installing anything but >>> FreeBSD on it then go straight ahead with 'dangerously dedicated'. >>> >>> You can still erase the entire disk and partition it with dos's fdisk >>> later if you want - but you'll lose the your FreeBSD installation >>> then. >> >> This is a frequently cited reason, but when you think about it, it >> doesn't make much sense: even if the disk has a Microsoft partition >> table, if you assign the entire disk to FreeBSD, you can repartition, >> but you'll lose the FreeBSD installation. > > Quick question on this supject (sorta related). > > I notice that with the option "Dagerously Dedicated" using the > entire drive for FreeBSD I notice that fdisk (sysinstall) does not > give the option to install the boot manager.. > > What if I have another drive on the system that I want to boot? If it's a different operating system, you'll need a Microsoft partition table. Otherwise you can put it in /boot/loader.conf or tell it interactively at the boot prompt. > I dont belive "Dangerously Dedicated" should effect the MBR as to > not allow the boot manager should it? Yes, it must. The MBR *is* the Microsoft partition table. Without it, there's no MBR. Greg -- When replying to this message, please copy the original recipients. For more information, see http://www.lemis.com/questions.html Finger grog@lemis.com for PGP public key See complete headers for address and phone numbers To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message