From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Sun Nov 8 11:11:04 2009 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 162A51065670 for ; Sun, 8 Nov 2009 11:11:04 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from keramida@ceid.upatras.gr) Received: from poseidon.ceid.upatras.gr (poseidon.ceid.upatras.gr [150.140.141.169]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 861B98FC16 for ; Sun, 8 Nov 2009 11:11:03 +0000 (UTC) Received: from mail.ceid.upatras.gr (unknown [10.1.0.143]) by poseidon.ceid.upatras.gr (Postfix) with ESMTP id 22371EB4810; Sun, 8 Nov 2009 13:11:02 +0200 (EET) Received: from localhost (europa.ceid.upatras.gr [127.0.0.1]) by mail.ceid.upatras.gr (Postfix) with ESMTP id 142AD452EE; Sun, 8 Nov 2009 13:11:02 +0200 (EET) X-Virus-Scanned: amavisd-new at ceid.upatras.gr Received: from mail.ceid.upatras.gr ([127.0.0.1]) by localhost (europa.ceid.upatras.gr [127.0.0.1]) (amavisd-new, port 10024) with ESMTP id Cx0X+6OXOf82; Sun, 8 Nov 2009 13:11:01 +0200 (EET) Received: from kobe.laptop (adsl14-198.kln.forthnet.gr [77.49.141.198]) by mail.ceid.upatras.gr (Postfix) with ESMTP id C0C0B451B2; Sun, 8 Nov 2009 13:11:01 +0200 (EET) Received: from kobe.laptop (kobe.laptop [127.0.0.1]) by kobe.laptop (8.14.3/8.14.3) with ESMTP id nA8BB0q5003344 (version=TLSv1/SSLv3 cipher=DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA bits=256 verify=NO); Sun, 8 Nov 2009 13:11:00 +0200 (EET) (envelope-from keramida@ceid.upatras.gr) Received: (from keramida@localhost) by kobe.laptop (8.14.3/8.14.3/Submit) id nA8BAxk0003338; Sun, 8 Nov 2009 13:10:59 +0200 (EET) (envelope-from keramida@ceid.upatras.gr) From: Giorgos Keramidas To: David Chanters References: Date: Sun, 08 Nov 2009 13:10:59 +0200 In-Reply-To: (David Chanters's message of "Sat, 7 Nov 2009 21:34:48 +0000") Message-ID: <87hbt546gs.fsf@kobe.laptop> User-Agent: Gnus/5.13 (Gnus v5.13) Emacs/23.1.50 (berkeley-unix) MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Migrating from Linux (keeping partitions at install time) 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: Sun, 08 Nov 2009 11:11:04 -0000 On Sat, 7 Nov 2009 21:34:48 +0000, David Chanters wrote: > Hi all, > > I am considering switching from Debian Linux to FreeBSD. I am wondering > if at install time, sysinstall is able to allow me to keep "/home" from > my Debian installation. "/home" on Debian is currently a separate > partition in its own right, mounted as RXT3. I only have the one hard > disk in my machine. > > So, questions: > > 1. Can the installer be told to not touch "/home" at install time (I > appreciate I would have to ensure I mapped the current /dev/hda2 > terminology to slices in BSD parlance) Hi David, Yes, you can use sysinstall to _carefully_ partition and label only parts of an existing disk. It is certainly possible, but it is also slightly risky. One mistake and you can wipe tons of useful data. My own advice would be to *wait* until you have at least some way to backup your existing data. First make sure that you have a working and reliable copy of your existing data (meaning "you can read *all* of it from the backup medium and verify that it matches the existing files"). Then you can start experimenting with partitioning tools. We will be glad to have you as a FreeBSD user, and you asked at the right place. But losing data is always a bad thing, so it's ok if you keep using Debian for a while, until you have a reliable backup of everything. > 2. Does the fact that this is an EXT3 partition matter? (I have read > FreeBSD supports ext2, and ext3 is just ext2 with a journal, so it can be > mounted as ext2 if needed). I've seen ext3 partitions that are not mountable by our ext2fs driver. So your mileage may vary a lot here, depending on the exact on-disk format of your partition. You should probably keep this in mind when you prepare your backup mediums too. If at all possible, try to use a filesystem for the backup storage that is readable by both Linux *and* FreeBSD. VFAT is a possibility, but its file size limitations and partition size limitations are often annoying. Network-accessible storage is better. If nothing else works, you can always dump a "raw" tarball on a disk: linux# tar cf - / | dd bs=4m of=/dev/sda3 Then you can simply untar the "raw device" from FreeBSD. > 3. Is it possible/beneficial to convert this to UFS once FreeBSD is > installed? There are a few benefits indeed. The native filesystems of FreeBSD are these days UFS and ZFS. They are actively maintained, so you get the benefit of bugfixes and extensive testing from everyone else who uses the same filesystems.