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Date:      Mon, 4 Jan 1999 13:16:36 +0200 (SAT)
From:      Robert Nordier <rnordier@nordier.com>
To:        synker@sanyusan.se (synker)
Cc:        rnordier@nordier.com, current@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject:   Re: Update bootblocks with dedicated disks?
Message-ID:  <199901041116.NAA00747@ceia.nordier.com>
In-Reply-To: <19990104105719.A15320@sanyusan.se> from synker at "Jan 4, 99 10:57:20 am"

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synker wrote:

> Maybe I could also ask if it recommended to use 'dangerously dedicated'
> disks on a FreeBSD server or not.
> 
> Some ppl in both freebsd mailinglista and in news said that it is not 
> recommended to use the 'dangerrously dedicated' disks since there have been 
> some reported trouble with those? Anybody know of what kind of trouble?

The trouble with "dangerously dedicated" disks is that they appear, to
everything besides FreeBSD, to contain a corrupted "partition" table 
(slice table, in BSD terms).

If you let some non-FreeBSD disk utility near the disk, it may decide to
"fix" the damage.

Also, according to the FAQ, some BIOSes may refuse to boot a disk if
they believe the table is invalid.

Folks who are more orientated to UNIX on non-PC hardware may prefer an
unsliced (dangerously dedicated) disk for consistency.

So, unless you are strongly in favor of unsliced disks, you probably
don't want to use them.

> 
> And if I should use 'standard' disks with slices instead how can I get FreeBSD 
> to boot? Last time I tried this 'BootEasy' popped up after reboot and showed: 
> 
> F1: BSD
> F2: ????  or something...   
> 
> Since FreeBSd is the only OS on my boxes I couldnt boot by pressing F1. I had 
> to use a floppy and type in the kernel location by hand at the boot prompt.

You probably want the sysinstall "Standard MBR" option, or the fdisk
equivalent, rather than boot0/booteasy.

With this option, the disk is dedicated to one OS, but not dangerously
so.

-- 
Robert Nordier

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