Date: Sun, 18 Sep 2011 20:56:46 -0700 From: Kevin Oberman <kob6558@gmail.com> To: Fbsd8 <fbsd8@a1poweruser.com> Cc: freebsd-current@freebsd.org Subject: Re: 9.0 beta2 & the new bsdinstaller Message-ID: <CAN6yY1sieP4%2BydNFs-vCMW1eQ35_eFa7rU3uc=h8fhpVF=bQrA@mail.gmail.com> In-Reply-To: <4E769252.4040101@a1poweruser.com> References: <20110918095526.D866D1065670@hub.freebsd.org> <CAN6yY1vA1jj=9GcijAUW3aKzzbGMKSnacA-WMzvcNL5POYzQRg@mail.gmail.com> <4E769252.4040101@a1poweruser.com>
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On Sun, Sep 18, 2011 at 5:52 PM, Fbsd8 <fbsd8@a1poweruser.com> wrote: > Kevin Oberman wrote: >> >> On Sun, Sep 18, 2011 at 2:55 AM, =A0<"Thomas Mueller >> <mueller6727"@bellsouth.net> wrote: >>> >>> Some more ideas on the new bsdinstaller cross my mind. >>> >>> Since the way the bsdinstaller would make partitions is unpredictable, = at >>> least to the uninitiated, and in all likelihood at variance with how mu= ch >>> space the user wants to allocate, it might be better to offer a roadmap= to >>> help guide the user to allocating space for FreeBSD using gpart or Rod >>> Smith's gdisk. >>> >>> Also, I can't see the function of the 64 KB boot partition with no file >>> system, which does not boot for me, though I can boot the main partitio= n >>> using grub2 from the System Rescue CD (http://sysresccd.org/). >> >> The 64KB freebsd-boot partition is to contain the GPT boot code which >> is used by UEFI BIOS in >> place of the old MBR used by legacy BIOS. You need to use gpart(8) to >> write the GPT boot code to that partition, but I don't know if >> bsdinstall does so. It might just write the PMBR that is used for >> booting with legacy BIOS. I'll admit that I have not checked. (See the >> gpart(8) man page for details on writing the pmbr and gptboot.) =A0I >> assume bsdinstall writes both so that AMD64 machines with EFI and >> 32-bit systems will both work. This is very different from the old >> traditional slice/partition system. > > The above info is another example of the type of information that should = be > added to a "help" option on the dialog screen for the bsdinstall disk > configuration function. > > I also think that the bsdinstaller should offer the user an option to sel= ect > between using the old MBR configuration used by legacy BIOS that sysinsta= ll > uses and the new gpart configuration which bsdinstall offers now. I can only see two advantages of the old MBR scheme over GPT. 1. Booteasy is not available, so you need to use gpart to designate booting from a different partition 2. Some other OSes don't support it. 32-bit Windows, Solaris, 64-bit Window= s on systems lacking EFI While GPT has major advantages over the old MBR system, I think these two justify maintaining the ability to install FreeBSD with MBR. I also should be clear in that sysinstall does work fine on a disk that is already configured with MBR partitioning. I am sure of this because I have done it and had no problems with that part of the install. It's only if you want to partition a new disk with the intent of later installing an OS that does not support GPT. --=20 R. Kevin Oberman, Network Engineer - Retired E-mail: kob6558@gmail.com
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