Skip site navigation (1)Skip section navigation (2)
Date:      Wed, 18 Jan 2012 06:23:08 +0100
From:      Ariane van der Steldt <ariane@stack.nl>
To:        Nathan Whitehorn <nwhitehorn@freebsd.org>
Cc:        freebsd-bugs@FreeBSD.org, eadler@FreeBSD.org, freebsd-sysinstall@FreeBSD.org
Subject:   Re: bin/164094: bsdinstall(8): installer progress over 100%
Message-ID:  <20120118052308.GB31973@stack.nl>
In-Reply-To: <20120114064224.GA66588@stack.nl>
References:  <201201140116.q0E1Gj7E055563@freefall.freebsd.org> <4F10DF18.9020703@freebsd.org> <20120114064224.GA66588@stack.nl>

next in thread | previous in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
Hi Nathan,

On Sat, Jan 14, 2012 at 07:42:24AM +0100, Ariane van der Steldt wrote:
> On Fri, Jan 13, 2012 at 07:49:12PM -0600, Nathan Whitehorn wrote:
> > On 01/13/12 19:16, eadler@FreeBSD.org wrote:
> > > FreeBSD installer changed my MBR-only partition table to MBR+GPT 
> > > partition table.


> > > The other OS does not have GPT logic; I want to be at least warned 
> > > this is happening and prefer to have the option at least. 
> > > Alternatively, the installer may opt not to install a GPT if the disk 
> > > does not require it (as in the case in this machine)
> > 
> > Can you give some more details here? This is something that the 
> > installer is not programmed to do and that I cannot reproduce.
> 
> Sure. I used a VM to reproduce the problem, so I could provide pretty
> screenshots in an attempt to better explain the problem.
> 
> 
> Pre-install:
> only 1 OS installed, windows XP, using MBR partition table.
> 
> Using a live CD, I can instruct fdisk to (pointlessly) alter the active
> partition, as can be seen in attached screenshot 1
> 
> 
> Post-install:
> Both windows XP and FreeBSD are installed.
> Unfortunately, fdisk can no longer be used to alter the active
> partition, gpart is to be used instead.
> As can be seen in attached screenshot 2, fdisk fails.
> 
> After install, only gpart can be used to change the active partition.

Upon rereading the manpage for gpart, I'm wondering if what I concluded
really happened. On closer examination, it's possible the geom logic
blocked fdisk from modifying the partition table. Can you tell me how I
can confirm out what partitioning schemes are present on my harddisk?
I put the output of gpart show at the bottom of the e-mail, which
suggests the mbr scheme is used regardless.

If geom indeed blocks fdisk from altering the partition table, I'm
wondering what the use of the binary is though, as it seems gpart does
everything fdisk does, but without failing.

# gpart show
=>        63  1250263665  ada0  MBR  (596G)
          63   209712447     1  ntfs  [active]  (100G)
   209712510   102398310     2  ntfs  (48G)
   312110820   937426896     3  freebsd  (447G)
  1249537716      726012        - free -  (354M)

=>        0  937426896  ada0s3  BSD  (447G)
          0  929038336       1  freebsd-ufs  (443G)
  929038336    8388559       2  freebsd-swap  (4G)
  937426895          1          - free -  (512B)
-- 
Ariane



Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?20120118052308.GB31973>