From owner-freebsd-current@FreeBSD.ORG Mon Sep 19 03:56:47 2011 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 63F94106564A for ; Mon, 19 Sep 2011 03:56:47 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from kob6558@gmail.com) Received: from mail-iy0-f182.google.com (mail-iy0-f182.google.com [209.85.210.182]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 30FE08FC15 for ; Mon, 19 Sep 2011 03:56:47 +0000 (UTC) Received: by iadk27 with SMTP id k27so7631917iad.13 for ; Sun, 18 Sep 2011 20:56:46 -0700 (PDT) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=gmail.com; s=gamma; h=mime-version:in-reply-to:references:date:message-id:subject:from:to :cc:content-type:content-transfer-encoding; bh=r33FCbs/aOUOk8M1V91nybdpCuM4EyiDZRQSKmZqKqc=; b=FbWLSbfC6b5GZ41vawESaNsKBLR6O3iSvYG0WFcSau7TeuaEPVnMENseXB4bkqNcWD hmV94NM20Pv5gljGn/4jkEUjf4QNoPIv6Hy8la3Wuot01pBVI2wfimpoAEi1BR0mSC+P udcjJD/WmEfik41+K87sbS31uSV7MZxMmiSjE= MIME-Version: 1.0 Received: by 10.231.46.66 with SMTP id i2mr3334898ibf.0.1316404606166; Sun, 18 Sep 2011 20:56:46 -0700 (PDT) Received: by 10.231.36.69 with HTTP; Sun, 18 Sep 2011 20:56:46 -0700 (PDT) In-Reply-To: <4E769252.4040101@a1poweruser.com> References: <20110918095526.D866D1065670@hub.freebsd.org> <4E769252.4040101@a1poweruser.com> Date: Sun, 18 Sep 2011 20:56:46 -0700 Message-ID: From: Kevin Oberman To: Fbsd8 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Cc: freebsd-current@freebsd.org Subject: Re: 9.0 beta2 & the new bsdinstaller 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: Mon, 19 Sep 2011 03:56:47 -0000 On Sun, Sep 18, 2011 at 5:52 PM, Fbsd8 wrote: > Kevin Oberman wrote: >> >> On Sun, Sep 18, 2011 at 2:55 AM, =A0<"Thomas Mueller >> 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