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Date: Mon, 04 Jun 2012 13:57:59 -0600
From: Gary Aitken <freebsd@dreamchaser.org>
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Cc: FreeBSD Mailing List <freebsd-questions@freebsd.org>
Subject: Re: bsdlabel geometry params
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On 06/04/12 08:42, Polytropon wrote:

>> In step #4, bsdlabel gives you a label with zeros for fsize, bsize, bps/cpg
>> Is it necessary to fill these in, or is there a way to get some
>> reasonable defaults?
>> "newfs -N" will give you numbers for bsize and fsize, but what about bps/cpg?
>>
>> What does the install process do for this step?  I don't remember
>> ever having to deal with it.
> 
> Maybe it's bit overcomplicated. I assume as you're creating
> /dev/da1s1e here (non-boot volume on 1st slice, which would
> be /dev/da1s1a instead), so basically you're creating a kind
> of "data disk" (one full disk, not bootable).

Actually, no.  That was a cut and paste from the handbook, IIRC.  The actual disk will have a backup system and another partition for cron dump files.

I don't quite understand the relationship between the params in the label and the filesystem.  My impression was that the params in the label for a filesystem were mandatory, but it appears not all of them are.  It seems like there should be a cmd to run to get reasonable starting point numbers.  If you don't have anything to go on, you could easily stick something in there that's worse than what a default would be.