Date: Tue, 28 Apr 2026 20:53:56 +0000 (UTC) From: "Alexander Ziaee" <ziaee@FreeBSD.org> To: "Mark Millard" <marklmi@yahoo.com>, "dev-commits-src-all" <dev-commits-src-all@FreeBSD.org>, "dev-commits-src-main" <dev-commits-src-main@FreeBSD.org> Cc: "mckusick" <mckusick@FreeBSD.org> Subject: Re: git: 5ed26c21e4ff - main - bsdinstall: Improve auto-partition message Message-ID: <E1wHpRM-0004Ld-AB@rmmprod06.runbox> In-Reply-To: <18c071e0-e882-400b-97ca-2c7f54a9c5ef@yahoo.com>
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On 2026-04-28 16:16 -04:00 EDT, "Mark Millard" <marklmi@yahoo.com> wrote: > On 4/28/26 10:02, Alexander Ziaee wrote: >> The branch main has been updated by ziaee: >> >> URL: https://cgit.FreeBSD.org/src/commit/?id=5ed26c21e4ff1d478d4611abbf3dc14cc1b77244 >> >> commit 5ed26c21e4ff1d478d4611abbf3dc14cc1b77244 >> Author: Alexander Ziaee <ziaee@FreeBSD.org> >> AuthorDate: 2026-04-28 16:59:19 +0000 >> Commit: Alexander Ziaee <ziaee@FreeBSD.org> >> CommitDate: 2026-04-28 16:59:34 +0000 >> >> bsdinstall: Improve auto-partition message >> >> Manually tuning ZFS for systems with <8GB ram hasn't been necessary at >> least since the switch to OpenZFS. We have users reporting using 1GB RAM >> with no manual tuning/issues. > > It is my understanding that FreeBSD 15.1-RELEASE intends on have armv7 > fully supported with normal style distributions, unlike for 15.0 and > before. (This came up during the 15.0 effort.) That sets some context > for the below. > > Back when I experimented with such contexts for building ports on armv7, > there were definite memory tradeoffs vs. using UFS and what parallel > jobs / MAKE_JOBS_NUMBER_LIMIT combinations did. This was in the OpenZFS > time frame for sure. (I tested both ZFS and UFS types of context doing > the same builds.) These tests were "headless" (serial console and ssh) > that avoided also having any other notable competition for RAM+SWAP, > something that does not necessarily generally apply. > > I will note that armv7 no longer gets updating official port-package > builds via FreeBSD distributions. Some folks do not have/use aarch64 > that is also armv7 user space capable or just do not use aarch64 systems > to build the port-packages that they want to use. > > Compared to 64-bit contexts, 32-bit environments (such as armv7) also > have smaller multipliers for SWAP=MULTIPLIER*RAM before FreeBSD warns of > potential mis-tuning. armv7 is tier 2. > > In other words, it seems that more needs to be specified about the > workload context to make a solid claim. Yes, that's why I removed the stale claim and the link to stale doc. Thanks for the interest and the additional context! Best, Alex > A common case of needing to > personally build port-packages on such systems at least likely does have > differing tradeoffs involved from differing RAM usage. (Time to build is > also part of the tradeoff structure.) > > (I'm not claiming that https://wiki.freebsd.org/ZFSTuningGuide should be > referenced.) > > I do not know of Kirk McKusic would fully retract the paragraph that is > on pages 49 and 549 of the Design and Implementation of the FreeBSD > Operating System book as a summary of the issues. (Page 547 and 548 > indicate more about what contributes.) > > Further, the page this links to is a stale >> wiki page, which is causing complaints. Remove this misleading note and >> replace it with a similar message for UFS. While here, reword that note >> to be a bit clearer. >> >> PR: 287719 >> MFC after: 3 days >> Differential Revision: https://reviews.freebsd.org/D50971 >> --- >> usr.sbin/bsdinstall/scripts/auto | 4 ++-- >> 1 file changed, 2 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-) >> >> diff --git a/usr.sbin/bsdinstall/scripts/auto b/usr.sbin/bsdinstall/scripts/auto >> index e9d6da149a85..ca0561daac1a 100755 >> --- a/usr.sbin/bsdinstall/scripts/auto >> +++ b/usr.sbin/bsdinstall/scripts/auto >> @@ -50,10 +50,10 @@ msg_abort="Abort" >> msg_an_installation_step_has_been_aborted="An installation step has been aborted. Would you like\nto restart the installation or exit the installer?" >> msg_auto_ufs="Auto (UFS)" >> msg_auto_ufs_desc="Guided UFS Disk Setup" >> -msg_auto_ufs_help="Menu options help choose which disk to setup using UFS and standard partitions" >> +msg_auto_ufs_help="Choose which disk to setup using UFS and standard partition layout" >> msg_auto_zfs="Auto (ZFS)" >> msg_auto_zfs_desc="Guided Root-on-ZFS" >> -msg_auto_zfs_help="To use ZFS with less than 8GB RAM, see https://wiki.freebsd.org/ZFSTuningGuide" >> +msg_auto_zfs_help="Choose which disk to setup using ZFS and standard partition layout" >> msg_exit="Exit" >> msg_freebsd_installer="$OSNAME Installer" >> msg_gpt_active_fix="Your hardware is known to have issues booting in CSM/Legacy/BIOS mode from GPT partitions that are not set active. Would you like the installer to apply this workaround for you?" >> >> > > > -- > === > Mark Millard > marklmi at yahoo.com >home | help
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