From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Wed Feb 22 08:56:12 2006 Return-Path: X-Original-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id A2FC416A420 for ; Wed, 22 Feb 2006 08:56:12 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from keramida@ceid.upatras.gr) Received: from igloo.linux.gr (igloo.linux.gr [62.1.205.36]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id D11F843D45 for ; Wed, 22 Feb 2006 08:56:10 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from keramida@ceid.upatras.gr) Received: from flame.pc (aris.bedc.ondsl.gr [62.103.39.226]) (authenticated bits=128) by igloo.linux.gr (8.13.5/8.13.5/Debian-3) with ESMTP id k1M8trUV018506 (version=TLSv1/SSLv3 cipher=DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA bits=256 verify=NOT); Wed, 22 Feb 2006 10:55:56 +0200 Received: from flame.pc (flame [127.0.0.1]) by flame.pc (8.13.4/8.13.4) with ESMTP id k1M8tUnJ001624; Wed, 22 Feb 2006 10:55:30 +0200 (EET) (envelope-from keramida@ceid.upatras.gr) Received: (from keramida@localhost) by flame.pc (8.13.4/8.13.4/Submit) id k1M8tU0J001623; Wed, 22 Feb 2006 10:55:30 +0200 (EET) (envelope-from keramida@ceid.upatras.gr) Date: Wed, 22 Feb 2006 10:55:30 +0200 From: Giorgos Keramidas To: Peter Message-ID: <20060222085530.GA1513@flame.pc> References: <20060221174550.GA54062@flame.pc> <20060221192846.71648.qmail@web60015.mail.yahoo.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <20060221192846.71648.qmail@web60015.mail.yahoo.com> X-Hellug-MailScanner: Found to be clean X-Hellug-MailScanner-SpamCheck: not spam, SpamAssassin (score=-3.368, required 5, autolearn=not spam, ALL_TRUSTED -1.80, AWL 0.83, BAYES_00 -2.60, DNS_FROM_RFC_ABUSE 0.20) X-Hellug-MailScanner-From: keramida@ceid.upatras.gr Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: getting started with USB hard drive X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Wed, 22 Feb 2006 08:56:12 -0000 On 2006-02-21 14:28, Peter wrote: > Thanks for your links. I have a hell of a time setting up > disks. This is what I did: > > # fdisk -BI da0 (using just -I failed) > # bsdlabel -w da0 > > Then I get stuck. > > # bsdlabel da0s1 (fails) That's ok. You used: # bsdlabel /dev/da0 This installs a "BSD label" starting at the boot record of the disk, not in a BIOS-like partition. You can then use BSD partitions named: /dev/da0a /dev/da0b ... If you really want to use a single BIOS slice (what DOS calls a "partition"), that contains one or more BSD partitions defined by a label, then you should install the BSD label on `da0s1' instead of `da0': # dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/da0 bs=1024 count=64 # fdisk -B -I /dev/da0 # bsdlabel -w -B /dev/da0s1 Note the device name passed to bsdlabel. It's not da0, but da0s1. > Now I wonder why this disk which is supposed to be 200 GB, was > detected by FreeBSD (when connected) as 190 GB, shows up as 186 > GB inside sysinstall, and has a size of 180 GB when seen by df. A certain amount of slack space is occupied by partition and filesystem metadataand/or reserved for the superuser. You can't really do much to avoid wasting some space for a partition table, but that's pretty minimal. What you *can* and should do is think about the average file size you will be using and specify an appropriate set of newfs(8) or tunefs(8) options to configure the resulting filesystems. The tuning(7) manpage has some hints, but a bit of prior experience with tuning filesystems and some experimentation before the filesystem is put to real use can also go a long way :) - Giorgos