From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Tue Feb 2 17:28:28 2010 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 41C531065672 for ; Tue, 2 Feb 2010 17:28:28 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from martin@dc.cis.okstate.edu) Received: from dc.cis.okstate.edu (dc.cis.okstate.edu [139.78.103.93]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 1A07B8FC23 for ; Tue, 2 Feb 2010 17:28:27 +0000 (UTC) Received: from dc.cis.okstate.edu (localhost.cis.okstate.edu [127.0.0.1]) by dc.cis.okstate.edu (8.14.2/8.13.8) with ESMTP id o12HSDDi092152 for ; Tue, 2 Feb 2010 11:28:22 -0600 (CST) (envelope-from martin@dc.cis.okstate.edu) Message-Id: <201002021728.o12HSDDi092152@dc.cis.okstate.edu> To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Date: Tue, 02 Feb 2010 11:28:13 -0600 From: Martin McCormick Subject: Re: Swap Partition First? X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Tue, 02 Feb 2010 17:28:28 -0000 I figured out a way to install swap as the only fixed-sized partition such that whatever is left is marked as BSD (165) but I am not sure if this is a workable solution so I am asking for suggestions. If I set up the disk label reference file as follows: # /dev/ad0s1: 8 partitions: # size offset fstype [fsize bsize bps/cpg] a: * 2097152 4.2BSD 2048 16384 28552 b: 2097152 0 swap bsdlabel gets very confused and one ends up with possibly swap and about 4 gigabytes of FreeBSD which is not right. So, I inverted things since what we want is for everything but swap to be FreeBSD and we want this to work on some disk for which we may not know the size. # /dev/ad0s1: 8 partitions: # size offset fstype [fsize bsize bps/cpg] a: 2097152 0 swap b: * 2097152 4.2BSD 2048 16384 28552 This means one mounts ad0s1b instead of ad0s1a which is what you normally see. Will this create some sort of monster later down the line? The hope is to create a largely automated process that coworkers can use if we ever need to recreate X or Y server from a new piece of hardware during an upgrade or after a lightening storm when every minute counts. Many thanks. Martin McCormick WB5AGZ Stillwater, OK Systems Engineer OSU Information Technology Department Telecommunications Services Group