From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Sat Nov 24 22:42:07 2012 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [69.147.83.52]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 971A38FE for ; Sat, 24 Nov 2012 22:42:07 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from freebsd@edvax.de) Received: from mx02.qsc.de (mx02.qsc.de [213.148.130.14]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 4F5148FC08 for ; Sat, 24 Nov 2012 22:42:07 +0000 (UTC) Received: from r56.edvax.de (port-92-195-51-39.dynamic.qsc.de [92.195.51.39]) by mx02.qsc.de (Postfix) with ESMTP id 3AE5B27629; Sat, 24 Nov 2012 23:35:19 +0100 (CET) Received: from r56.edvax.de (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by r56.edvax.de (8.14.5/8.14.5) with SMTP id qAOMZK5F004346; Sat, 24 Nov 2012 23:35:20 +0100 (CET) (envelope-from freebsd@edvax.de) Date: Sat, 24 Nov 2012 23:35:20 +0100 From: Polytropon To: Ralf Mardorf Subject: Re: How to create a partition for FreeBSD 9.0? Message-Id: <20121124233520.7ad4b4be.freebsd@edvax.de> In-Reply-To: <1353795280.2662.12.camel@q> References: <1353795280.2662.12.camel@q> Organization: EDVAX X-Mailer: Sylpheed 3.1.1 (GTK+ 2.24.5; i386-portbld-freebsd8.2) Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.14 Precedence: list Reply-To: Polytropon List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Sat, 24 Nov 2012 22:42:07 -0000 On Sat, 24 Nov 2012 23:14:40 +0100, Ralf Mardorf wrote: > I use the amd64 install DVD. > > With or without deleting, I can't format a bootable FreeBSD partition to > ada0s1, aka Linux /dev/sda1. You mention ada0s1. This is not a partition. It's called a slice (different term: "DOS primary partition"). You need to create partitions inside the slice (or one covering the whole slice, typically not recommended). To _format_ a partition (freebsd-ufs GPT, or MBR slice + partitions), newfs is the tool. I know this might sound confusing, taking "DOS primary partitions", "DOS extended partition" and "logical volume inside a DOS extended partition" into account. Still it's helpful to know the proper BSD terminology for those things, and the understanding of _what_ a partition is (it's a part of a "DOS primary partition", so to say - it works like the "logical volume inside a DOS extended partition", but without requiring the "DOS extended partition"). > FWIW if I reinstall GRUB legacy > to /dev/sda, the boot flag will be set for the extended > partition. /dev/sda1 is an empty ext3 partition, size 57.83 GiB. I think it would be better to delete the partition (not "empty partition", but then "no partition") and let the installer allocate the free space to a slice. Then you shouldn't need to bother with boot flags as you're probably going to chainload per GRUB. When you have created the partition, either by using gpart for the more convenient GPT or MBR approach (gpart supports this mechanism), or by using fdisk for the traditional MBR approach, you can create partitions inside this slice, for example a root partition, a swap partition, and maybe partitions for functional separation of OS and data components, such as /tmp, /var, /usr and /home. You can do this as mentioned with fdisk + bsdlabel (MBR approach) or gpart (GPT approach, but only if this is supported by the rest of your disk organisation). > Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System > /dev/sda1 63 121274684 60637311 83 Linux This is the partition you're going to install FreeBSD to? Good, just delete it and let the installer do the work. :-) You can also switch to "manual mode" and use the CLI tools to create a slice and partitions. It's not very complicated and should be possible from the "Fixit" live system (not tested). See this document for details on partitioning preparation and disk initialisation: http://www.wonkity.com/~wblock/docs/html/disksetup.html -- Polytropon Magdeburg, Germany Happy FreeBSD user since 4.0 Andra moi ennepe, Mousa, ...