From owner-freebsd-current@FreeBSD.ORG Wed Oct 21 14:47:49 2009 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-current@FreeBSD.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 52B6310656C0 for ; Wed, 21 Oct 2009 14:47:49 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from scf@FreeBSD.org) Received: from mail.farley.org (mail.farley.org [IPv6:2001:470:1f0f:20:2::11]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 12D118FC24 for ; Wed, 21 Oct 2009 14:47:49 +0000 (UTC) Received: from thor.farley.org (HPooka@thor.farley.org [IPv6:2001:470:1f0f:20:1::5]) by mail.farley.org (8.14.3/8.14.3) with ESMTP id n9LEllKE097449; Wed, 21 Oct 2009 09:47:47 -0500 (CDT) (envelope-from scf@FreeBSD.org) Date: Wed, 21 Oct 2009 09:47:47 -0500 (CDT) From: "Sean C. Farley" To: Aristedes Maniatis In-Reply-To: <4ADE995A.8080009@ish.com.au> Message-ID: References: <4ADE995A.8080009@ish.com.au> User-Agent: Alpine 2.00 (BSF 1167 2008-08-23) MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed X-Spam-Status: No, score=-2.6 required=4.0 tests=BAYES_00,NO_RELAYS autolearn=ham version=3.2.5 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.2.5 (2008-06-10) on mail.farley.org Cc: freebsd-current@FreeBSD.org, Jurgen Weber Subject: Re: gpart, bsdlabel and fdisk X-BeenThere: freebsd-current@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Discussions about the use of FreeBSD-current List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Wed, 21 Oct 2009 14:47:49 -0000 On Wed, 21 Oct 2009, Aristedes Maniatis wrote: > We are setting up a FreeBSD system from scratch and wanting to > understand the new gpart utility. Our goal is to create a ZFS bootable > install (mirror). In the past our approach has been to: > > 1. fdisk (allocate entire disk) > 2. partition (1Gb UFS boot partition, swap and rest empty for ZFS) > 3. set up ZFS [1] *snip* I will let others answer your specific questions. However, I have a file[1] that I have been writing to test installing a system with gmirror using only gpart. It may need tweaking and is a little overkill (making room for a future install of Windows 7, if desired), but I can use it to install successfully inside a VM. The '-b 16' options are important for the first partition within a slice to make room for the metadata even though swap and UFS know to skip those bytes (thanks for note from pjd about that). The plan is to add this to my Wiki page at some point when I am ready. If Windows is not involved, you could also try a GPT version of the install instead of the MBR in the file, but this file should provide a clue of what gpart can do. I plan on making something equivalent for gvinum next. Comments and corrections welcome. Sean 1. http://people.freebsd.org/~scf/Install-gmirror.txt -- scf@FreeBSD.org