Date: Mon, 9 Jul 2018 03:05:35 +0530 From: Manish Jain <jude.obscure@yandex.com> To: Ronald Klop <ronald-lists@klop.ws>, freebsd-fs@freebsd.org Subject: Re: A request for unnested UFS implementation in MBR Message-ID: <bfe79340-8027-9427-4cc6-a82c166727b1@yandex.com> In-Reply-To: <op.zltsqgb0kndu52@klop.ws> References: <98201d37-2d65-34c6-969e-c9649f1a3ab1@yandex.com> <op.zltsqgb0kndu52@klop.ws>
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On 07/08/18 14:32, Ronald Klop wrote: > On Sat, 07 Jul 2018 07:59:55 +0200, Manish Jain > <jude.obscure@yandex.com> wrote: > >> Hi all, >> >> I am a longtime user of FreeBSD, which now serves as my only OS. >> >> There is one request I wished to make for FreeBSD filesystems. While >> UFS implementation under GPT is unnested just as Ext2, the MBR >> implementation of UFS continues to piggyback on an unnecessary nest >> (in a BSD slice). >> >> Can it not be considered as an alternative to provide a UFS partition >> (unnested) under MBR too ? >> >> Existing users could continue to use the freebsd::freebsd-ufs scheme, >> while fresh usage could have the alternative of UFS directly recorded >> in the MBR. >> >> I should perhaps note that unlike most users who have shifted to GPT >> of late, I much prefer MBR because 1) the scheme's design by itself >> keeps the number of slices/partitions in a disk manageable; and 2) I >> can use the boot0 manager, my favourite boot manager. >> >> Thanks for reading this. >> Manish Jain > > Do you mean something like this? Gpart refuses to create a freebsd-ufs > partition in the MBR part. > > # mdconfig -s 512m > md0 > # gpart create -s MBR md0 > md0 created > # gpart add -t freebsd-ufs -s 256m md0 > gpart: Invalid argument > # gpart add -t freebsd-swap -s 256m md0 > gpart: Invalid argument > > But you can create and newfs other types. > > # gpart add -t linux-data -s 256M md0 > md0s1 added > # newfs /dev/md0s1 > /dev/md0s1: 256.0MB (524288 sectors) block size 32768, fragment size 4096 > using 4 cylinder groups of 64.03MB, 2049 blks, 8320 inodes. > super-block backups (for fsck_ffs -b #) at: > 192, 131328, 262464, 393600 > > # gpart add -t freebsd md0 > md0s2 added > # newfs /dev/md0s2 > /dev/md0s2: 256.0MB (524272 sectors) block size 32768, fragment size 4096 > using 4 cylinder groups of 64.00MB, 2048 blks, 8192 inodes. > super-block backups (for fsck_ffs -b #) at: > 192, 131264, 262336, 393408 Hi all, I will reply to all the answers (which accumulated as I had a very nice long sleep, thank you) to this thread here. This is what I get currently applying gpart to my USB pen drive: /root <<: gpart create -s MBR da0 da0 created /root <<: gpart add -t linux-data -s 1G da0 da0s1 added /root <<: gpart add -t freebsd-ufs -s 1G da0 gpart: Invalid argument # WHY ? It currently is a real bother having to create UFS, with a whole lot of extra commands: /root <<: gpart add -t freebsd -s 1G da0 da0s2 added /root <<: gpart create -s BSD da0s2 da0s2 created /root <<: gpart add -t freebsd-ufs da0s2 da0s2a added The extra commands mean that when a user wants to quickly put a partition on a disk of any kind, it is much easier using Ext2. If the original command (highlighted with WHY ?) could succeed as such (or perhaps with a slight alteration: gpart add -t ufs -s 1G da0), UFS becomes as convenient as Ext2 for general purpose usage. There is another way to think about the situation. FreeBSD currently caters to only 2 types of users: 1) Dedicated disk users - use BSD schema 2) Slice users - use MBR schema + BSD schema With very little effort, we can make the OS cater to the third kind of users : partition users (use MBR + EBR - no BSD). This makes FreeBSD behaviour same as what other operating systems do - expect the user to use one of the 3 primary partitions for /, and any extra filesystems (/usr or /var or swap) optionally needed to be found in the EBR. Thanks - particularly so if you see a valid point in my request. Manish Jain
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