From owner-freebsd-stable  Sun Sep 15 14: 5:45 2002
Delivered-To: freebsd-stable@freebsd.org
Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.FreeBSD.org [216.136.204.125])
	by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id BF0BF37B400
	for <stable@FreeBSD.ORG>; Sun, 15 Sep 2002 14:05:43 -0700 (PDT)
Received: from mail.allcaps.org (h-66-166-142-198.SNDACAGL.covad.net [66.166.142.198])
	by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 44AE543E3B
	for <stable@FreeBSD.ORG>; Sun, 15 Sep 2002 14:05:43 -0700 (PDT)
	(envelope-from bsder@mail.allcaps.org)
Received: by mail.allcaps.org (Postfix, from userid 501)
	id A912B154FD; Sun, 15 Sep 2002 14:05:40 -0700 (PDT)
Received: from localhost (localhost [127.0.0.1])
	by mail.allcaps.org (Postfix) with ESMTP
	id 9D368154FC; Sun, 15 Sep 2002 14:05:40 -0700 (PDT)
Date: Sun, 15 Sep 2002 14:05:40 -0700 (PDT)
From: "Andrew P. Lentvorski" <bsder@mail.allcaps.org>
To: Mike Tancsa <mike@sentex.net>
Cc: Valentin Nechayev <netch@iv.nn.kiev.ua>,
	Dmitry Suhodoev <raven@bingo.chel.ru>, <stable@FreeBSD.ORG>
Subject: Re: creating ad2s1a
In-Reply-To: <5.1.0.14.0.20020915120003.05e01890@192.168.0.12>
Message-ID: <20020915135238.V93261-100000@mail.allcaps.org>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII
Sender: owner-freebsd-stable@FreeBSD.ORG
Precedence: bulk
List-ID: <freebsd-stable.FreeBSD.ORG>
List-Archive: <http://docs.freebsd.org/mail/> (Web Archive)
List-Help: <mailto:majordomo@FreeBSD.ORG?subject=help> (List Instructions)
List-Subscribe: <mailto:majordomo@FreeBSD.ORG?subject=subscribe%20freebsd-stable>
List-Unsubscribe: <mailto:majordomo@FreeBSD.ORG?subject=unsubscribe%20freebsd-stable>
X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG

All these workarounds kind of point to an interesting problem:

Why doesn't FreeBSD have a consistent disk label/partitioner/editor as a
standalone command?

I bump into strange problems quite often when I am setting up RAID
partitioning schemes.  I wind up having to utter several magic
incantations that I never remember between setups.  Things like using dd
to zero out the initial label, fdisk to set the slice, disklabel to set
the partition, oh did I remember to set the slice bootable, oops, I forgot
to write the boot code, oh, bummer, now I have to newfs it, oh, blast, I
forgot to set softupdates, etc.

That's an awful lot of magic to expect people to work out.  A single tool
which moves a blank device with possibly random data up to a state where
newfs actually works would be Useful Thing(tm).

-a


To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org
with "unsubscribe freebsd-stable" in the body of the message