From owner-freebsd-current  Wed Oct 17  2:56:33 2001
Delivered-To: freebsd-current@freebsd.org
Received: from mailhub.fokus.gmd.de (mailhub.fokus.gmd.de [193.174.154.14])
	by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP
	id 029F037B405; Wed, 17 Oct 2001 02:56:28 -0700 (PDT)
Received: from beagle (beagle [193.175.132.100])
	by mailhub.fokus.gmd.de (8.8.8/8.8.8) with ESMTP id LAA03848;
	Wed, 17 Oct 2001 11:56:20 +0200 (MET DST)
Date: Wed, 17 Oct 2001 11:56:19 +0200 (CEST)
From: Harti Brandt <brandt@fokus.gmd.de>
To: Bruce Evans <bde@zeta.org.au>
Cc: Harti Brandt <brandt@fokus.gmd.de>, <roberto@freebsd.org>,
	<bde@freebsd.org>, <current@freebsd.org>
Subject: Re: newfs fails to build small file systems.
In-Reply-To: <20011017142232.B14272-100000@delplex.bde.org>
Message-ID: <20011017114519.A1072-100000@beagle.fokus.gmd.de>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII
Sender: owner-freebsd-current@FreeBSD.ORG
Precedence: bulk
List-ID: <freebsd-current.FreeBSD.ORG>
List-Archive: <http://docs.freebsd.org/mail/> (Web Archive)
List-Help: <mailto:majordomo@FreeBSD.ORG?subject=help> (List Instructions)
List-Subscribe: <mailto:majordomo@FreeBSD.ORG?subject=subscribe%20freebsd-current>
List-Unsubscribe: <mailto:majordomo@FreeBSD.ORG?subject=unsubscribe%20freebsd-current>
X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG

On Wed, 17 Oct 2001, Bruce Evans wrote:

BE>On Tue, 16 Oct 2001, Harti Brandt wrote:
BE>
BE>> since version 1.41 of newfs.c newfs fails to build 2MByte md-based
BE>> file systems. We use these file systems in our diskless pc's.
BE>

[patch snipped]

Thanks, the patch worked. However:

BE>The problem addressed by the patch is that the default geometry of 1
BE>track with 4096 sectors is extremly bogus for devices that don't even
BE>have 4096 sectors altogether.  Users should override the default
BE>geometry for these devices, but most users don't (the release Makefiles
BE>set bad examples...), and newfs emits alarming warnings.  The changes

Well, if one really careful reads the newfs manpage he will find these
defaults (but not their implications). A hint in the EXAMPLES section of
the page would really be useful. Something along the lines of:

"To format a file system with lesser than (default sectors/track *
default tracks/cylinder) = 4096 sectors use the -u switch the specify the
number of sectors:

	newfs -u 2048 /dev/md0c

for a 1MByte memory disk."

would be really useful.

harti
-- 
harti brandt, http://www.fokus.gmd.de/research/cc/cats/employees/hartmut.brandt/private
              brandt@fokus.fhg.de


To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org
with "unsubscribe freebsd-current" in the body of the message