From owner-freebsd-current@FreeBSD.ORG Mon Sep 8 15:10:42 2003 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-current@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 543EF16A4BF for ; Mon, 8 Sep 2003 15:10:42 -0700 (PDT) Received: from basement.kutulu.org (pcp03610121pcs.longhl01.md.comcast.net [68.49.239.235]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 62DFE43FAF for ; Mon, 8 Sep 2003 15:10:39 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from kutulu@kutulu.org) Received: from wombat.localnet (wombat.localnet [192.168.69.3]) by basement.kutulu.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 92955A9E8; Mon, 8 Sep 2003 18:10:38 -0400 (EDT) Received: by wombat.localnet (Postfix, from userid 1001) id 478D2B82A; Mon, 8 Sep 2003 18:10:38 -0400 (EDT) Date: Mon, 8 Sep 2003 18:10:38 -0400 From: Michael Edenfield To: Jason Stone Message-ID: <20030908221037.GA25200@wombat.localnet> Mail-Followup-To: Jason Stone , freebsd-current@freebsd.org References: <20030908203049.5FF375D04@ptavv.es.net> <20030908143810.V55021@walter> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: multipart/signed; micalg=pgp-sha1; protocol="application/pgp-signature"; boundary="NzB8fVQJ5HfG6fxh" Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <20030908143810.V55021@walter> X-Mailer: Mutt http://www.mutt.org/ X-Accept-Language: en X-PGP-Key: http://www.kutulu.org/pgp/kutulu.asc X-PGP-Fingerprint: 1CE0 3C31 7013 D529 406D 37DC 09CC CD84 A46C 878F User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.4i cc: freebsd-current@freebsd.org Subject: Re: re-fdisk'ing a partition - permission denied? X-BeenThere: freebsd-current@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 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, 08 Sep 2003 22:10:42 -0000 --NzB8fVQJ5HfG6fxh Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable * Jason Stone [030908 17:54]: > -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- > Hash: SHA1 >=20 >=20 > > You have hit one of the main issues still to be resolved in GEOM. (I > > don't know that phk thinks it's a problem to be resolved or a feature to > > be documented.) > > > > In any case, since GEOM was added you can no longer slice or label an > > active device. >=20 > Ah - is that to say that, in general, you can't mess with the disk's MBR? Yes, if there are any slices in use on the disk you cannot edit the MBR. Nor can you edit the disklable of an inactive slice if another slice on the same phyisical disk is in use. In general I beleive all direct-to-disk access is forbidden. e.g., if you have ad0s1a mounted as /, you cannot: * fdisk ad0 to create ad0s2 * disklabel ad0s2 to create ad0s2a * perform any data transfer with ad0 as the target. All of this based on my own attempts to repartition a dual-boot disk into a single-boot disk, admittedly at least 2 months ago but I suspect not much has changed since then. As mentioned, phk, at least, seemed to beleive very strongly that this was never going to be permitted and people just needed to be made aware.. Ultimately you need to use a boot floppy and unmount the whole physical disk device. There was, at one point, talk of adding some sort of "geom.dont_blame_phk_when_you_shoot_your_ankle_off" sysctl to permit this type of access when the user was absolutely sure they knew exactly what kind of dangerous and potentially corrupting thing they were doing and wanted to do it anyway, but I'm not sure it got anywhere. --Mike --NzB8fVQJ5HfG6fxh Content-Type: application/pgp-signature Content-Disposition: inline -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.2.3 (FreeBSD) iD8DBQE/XP5dCczNhKRsh48RAstPAKDO6AFIwrXSzTK/8et8hb6UOAbvfwCfYm8f tLGQDdwj1xwOj4XbDzaHN3M= =tOS7 -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- --NzB8fVQJ5HfG6fxh--