Date: Mon, 26 Sep 2011 09:27:02 -0400 From: John Baldwin <jhb@freebsd.org> To: freebsd-current@freebsd.org Cc: Brett Glass <brett@lariat.net> Subject: Re: Experiences with FreeBSD 9.0-BETA2 Message-ID: <201109260927.02540.jhb@freebsd.org> In-Reply-To: <201109260053.SAA25795@lariat.net> References: <201109260053.SAA25795@lariat.net>
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On Sunday, September 25, 2011 8:52:37 pm Brett Glass wrote: > First thing I noticed, when running the new FreeBSD installer from > a memory stick image, is that disk partitioning was odd. It > abandoned standard UNIX parlance, calling what are traditionally > called "slices" partitions. It also diverged from past practice by > creating one big UFS filesystem rather than the usual separate > partitions for /, /tmp, /var, /usr. It then made a separate slice > (to use the traditional terminology) for swap, rather than > including it in the slice that contained the big file system. This > seemed odd; if the file system was being lumped together in one > place, why break out the swap to an entirely separate slice? I can't speak to the "one-big-fs" bit (there was another thread long ago about that). However, as to the partitioning bit, bsdinstall is defaulting to using the newer GPT scheme instead of an MBR with a nested BSD label. It is simpler (only LBAs, no C/H/S dance), more extensible (partition table can be sized at creation time), supports larger disks (64-bit LBAs, which neither MBR nor the BSD label support), and is the x86 disk layout scheme of the future (EFI mandates GPT). It is actually more like a traditional BSD system that would have only had a BSD label (and no MBR) on the disk. -- John Baldwin
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