From owner-freebsd-arch@FreeBSD.ORG Mon Feb 21 23:24:53 2011 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-arch@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 429831065675; Mon, 21 Feb 2011 23:24:53 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from bruce@cran.org.uk) Received: from muon.cran.org.uk (unknown [IPv6:2a01:348:0:15:5d59:5c40:0:1]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id C1AFF8FC14; Mon, 21 Feb 2011 23:24:52 +0000 (UTC) Received: from muon.cran.org.uk (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by muon.cran.org.uk (Postfix) with ESMTP id AA40AE61BC; Mon, 21 Feb 2011 23:24:50 +0000 (GMT) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha1; c=relaxed; d=cran.org.uk; h=subject :from:to:cc:in-reply-to:references:content-type:date:message-id :mime-version:content-transfer-encoding; s=mail; bh=xC6B+zWdVyXf +pmAt7mpxOCReM0=; b=I1jv6HKCAp8g6XunlErsjJy5qQfe5DdXYg5HdypDkukm 8mojj9HZOscu3HpxeJYY7AvXQwUehN+cB0LHkxQRwamX8xco8KLesxOQnAn2B5RA 93uZUaMmoNILdW4SJInsRi1SlbAL6TWvDHf5oOe1hENZ9IlXv+M6QdZiEfF4Db0= DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; c=nofws; d=cran.org.uk; h=subject:from :to:cc:in-reply-to:references:content-type:date:message-id :mime-version:content-transfer-encoding; q=dns; s=mail; b=LBp56o V9oFgVRvZGBj3unl79FQ7hww56SNzwNcS/ix3Ff1MNo88Bw8hJ7zLn63ObKPuSDY iYq6dih3nO+h7384gUWTg/4906WnAlCJDe92q0qeUb3JlFJjBbPw55qufvEJZn54 RGGKtPsY+sPWQdZXd/CXtOHDDwP3ZrH5CuUsE= Received: from [192.168.0.11] (client-86-31-177-138.oxfd.adsl.virginmedia.com [86.31.177.138]) (using TLSv1 with cipher DHE-RSA-CAMELLIA256-SHA (256/256 bits)) (No client certificate requested) by muon.cran.org.uk (Postfix) with ESMTPSA id 3995DE61BA; Mon, 21 Feb 2011 23:24:50 +0000 (GMT) From: Bruce Cran To: Josh Paetzel In-Reply-To: <201102211612.51233.josh@tcbug.org> References: <4D35CFFB.3010302@freebsd.org> <61079648-D76C-4699-AC4D-F6EBE64ABFFC@vicor.com> <201102190844.43267.bruce@cran.org.uk> <201102211612.51233.josh@tcbug.org> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8" Date: Mon, 21 Feb 2011 23:24:47 +0000 Message-ID: <1298330687.4940.57.camel@debian.nessbank> Mime-Version: 1.0 X-Mailer: Evolution 2.30.3 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Cc: Nathan, Devin Teske , freebsd-current@freebsd.org, Whitehorn , freebsd-arch@freebsd.org, freebsd-sysinstall@freebsd.org Subject: Re: FreeBSD Installer Roadmap X-BeenThere: freebsd-arch@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Discussion related to FreeBSD architecture List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Mon, 21 Feb 2011 23:24:53 -0000 On Mon, 2011-02-21 at 16:12 -0600, Josh Paetzel wrote: > pc-sysinstall has been used as the PC-BSD installer for quite a while now, and > has done a lot of installs on a lot of different hardware platforms. I'll > wager that the compatibility of the shell command gpart is a better bet than > the "stick your thumbs in you ears and yell nananana while you scribble 1's > and 0's to a disk and voila, there's a disklabel" approach that sysinstall > uses. I wish that was true: unfortunately I tried and failed to create a ZFS installation with pc-sysinstall, and I get a few worrying error messages even with UFS while it repartitions the disk - people have been reporting it creating unbootable systems. gpart might be more compatible, but I don't think parsing the output of tools like as fdisk, diskinfo and dmesg is. The concerns about GPT, ZFS, gmirror etc. in sysinstall could all be resolved in a couple of days by ripping out the existing partitioning code and replacing it with ae@'s new version of sade from /user/ae/usr.sbin/sade . However since the future is pc-sysinstall I've now shifted my work to improving the Qt front-end. -- Bruce Cran