Date: Thu, 28 Feb 2008 17:45:42 -0800 (PST) From: Dan Strick <dan_strick@sbcglobal.net> To: linimon@FreeBSD.org Cc: freebsd-i386@FreeBSD.org, dan@mist.nodomain Subject: Re: i386/121124: FreeBSD 6.3 installation deletes MBR partition Message-ID: <200802290145.m1T1jgAr003438@mist.nodomain> In-Reply-To: <200802282144.m1SLi4KJ086199@freefall.freebsd.org>
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> From linimon@FreeBSD.org Thu Feb 28 16:58:12 2008 > To: dan_strick@sbcglobal.net, linimon@FreeBSD.org, freebsd-i386@FreeBSD.org > Subject: Re: i386/121124: FreeBSD 6.3 installation deletes MBR partition > > Synopsis: FreeBSD 6.3 installation deletes MBR partition > > State-Changed-From-To: open->analyzed > State-Changed-By: linimon > State-Changed-When: Thu Feb 28 21:42:44 UTC 2008 > State-Changed-Why: > It sounds as though the problem is a lack of error-checking robustness. > > http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/query-pr.cgi?pr=121124 > My best guess is that sysinstall checked the MBR partition table for sanity and decided to "fix" an overlap by arbitrarily deleting one of the overlapping partitions. That was the wrong thing to do since none of the overlapping partitions was involved in the FreeBSD installation. What other operating systems do with their slices is their business. Generating a warning message was plausible. Making gratuitous changes to the partition table was not. I believe it is common sense for an MBR partition table editor to change only those partitions that it is explicitly told to modify. Sysinstall was not told to modify either of the overlapping slices and should have left them strictly alone. Dan Strick
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