From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Thu Aug 4 23:35:51 2005 Return-Path: X-Original-To: freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.org Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id AEEE616A41F for ; Thu, 4 Aug 2005 23:35:51 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from gad@FreeBSD.org) Received: from smtp4.server.rpi.edu (smtp4.server.rpi.edu [128.113.2.4]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 4F8BA43D46 for ; Thu, 4 Aug 2005 23:35:49 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from gad@FreeBSD.org) Received: from [128.113.24.47] (gilead.netel.rpi.edu [128.113.24.47]) by smtp4.server.rpi.edu (8.13.0/8.13.0) with ESMTP id j74NZiI2012344; Thu, 4 Aug 2005 19:35:45 -0400 Mime-Version: 1.0 Message-Id: In-Reply-To: References: Date: Thu, 4 Aug 2005 19:35:44 -0400 To: Michael Dexter , freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.org From: Garance A Drosehn Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" ; format="flowed" X-CanItPRO-Stream: default X-RPI-SA-Score: undef - spam-scanning disabled X-Scanned-By: CanIt (www . canit . ca) on 128.113.2.4 Cc: Subject: Re: 5.x separate /boot slice? X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Thu, 04 Aug 2005 23:35:51 -0000 At 12:56 AM +0300 8/5/05, Michael Dexter wrote: >>> I would like to try a separate /boot slice as permitted >>>by FreeBSD 5.x... I missed the beginning of this thread. Where did you get the impression that FreeBSD will work if you create /boot as a separate partition? >>Search the list. This comes up about once a month, and I've >>yet to see anyone succeed. It came up on this very mailing list back on July 19th, with the subject of: 'Re: /boot on a separate partition' >>Aside from "it's the way Linux does it", do you have any good >>reason for wanting this? > >All of my questions seem to generate that response. :) Trust me, >they are informed questions. In short: >I was thinking that previous and updated kernels could both coexist >in /boot and a second root slice (plus usr ... as appropriate) could >be mounted under /mnt and receive a fresh installation of the updated >OS, rather than a overlay that requires mergemastering. .... >In some respects this is a question of dual-booting FreeBSD and >FreeBSD and I was hoping to share some partitions that are not >affected by the update process, likely including var and tmp. But why does that shared partition have to be '/boot', and not '/'? FreeBSD tends to have a small-ish '/' partition, and then have separate partitions for /var and /usr, and often for /tmp. I do exactly what you'd like to do, but the partition I duplicate is '/'. I have a '/' partition and a '/xRoot' partition, and I use FreeBSD's snapshot feature (in 5.x and better) to duplicate that partition into /xRoot. This gives me a nice backup of /boot, /root, and /etc. I then upgrade the running system. It seems to work fine for me. This is where we get back to the question, "Why *must* your goal be done using a separate partition for '/boot'?". I do not mean that to be a hostile question. I'm just saying that I seem to be doing exactly what you want to do, and I've never needed a separate /boot partition to do it. The one trick involved is that you duplicate '/' to '/xRoot', and then you have to remember to change '/xRoot/etc/fstab' so that it points to itself as the '/' partition... I do that in a script, so that change is handled automatically... -- Garance Alistair Drosehn = gad@gilead.netel.rpi.edu Senior Systems Programmer or gad@FreeBSD.org Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute; Troy, NY; USA