Skip site navigation (1)Skip section navigation (2)
Date:      Tue, 17 Jan 2012 23:57:10 -0600
From:      Nathan Whitehorn <nwhitehorn@freebsd.org>
To:        Ariane van der Steldt <ariane@stack.nl>
Cc:        freebsd-bugs@FreeBSD.org, eadler@FreeBSD.org, freebsd-sysinstall@FreeBSD.org
Subject:   Re: bin/164094: bsdinstall(8): installer progress over 100%
Message-ID:  <4F165F36.5070302@freebsd.org>
In-Reply-To: <20120118052308.GB31973@stack.nl>
References:  <201201140116.q0E1Gj7E055563@freefall.freebsd.org> <4F10DF18.9020703@freebsd.org> <20120114064224.GA66588@stack.nl> <20120118052308.GB31973@stack.nl>

next in thread | previous in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
On 01/17/12 23:23, Ariane van der Steldt wrote:
> 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)

That implies it's just MBR + BSD label. Why did you think it was GPT? 
Geom does prevent many utilities from altering the partition table. I 
was under the impression that fdisk had been modified to actually use 
geom these days, so it should have worked, but it's possible that didn't 
work somehow.
-Nathan



Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?4F165F36.5070302>