Date: Wed, 30 Aug 1995 13:55:44 -0500 From: Jon Loeliger <jdl@chrome.onramp.net> To: hackers@freebsd.org Subject: /etc/disktab and stuff Message-ID: <199508301855.NAA09405@chrome.onramp.net> In-Reply-To: Your message of "Thu, 31 Aug 1995 03:45:57 %2B1000." <199508301745.DAA16267@godzilla.zeta.org.au>
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Apparently, Bruce Evans scribbled: > Learn how to use fdisk/disklabel/newfs. > > The simplest case is a new disk sd1 (with all zeros in the first 2 > sectors) that you want to use entirely for FreeBSD: > > disklabel -B -r -w sd1 xxx > newfs /dev/rsd1a > newfs ... # any other partitions on disk > > where xxx is a suitable entry that you wrote and put in /etc/disktab. Does it make sense to attempt to collect people's /etc/disktab entries and make them more available in the (next) released /etc/disktab? In particular, it seems to me that many of the questions that float down this list are fdisk/disklable related and maybe providing more example configurations there might mitigate some of those problems. Granted, I'm personally not too familiar with this whole area and am willing to concede that the disktab entries might be so specialized that a collection/distribution of them might be infeasible, really impractical or not that useful. On the otherhand, a pool of examples might be a better starting point for some. For example, I've got only Western Digital WD31000's, and there's no disktab entry for them and I haven't got a clue what it *should* be. I didn't get any technical spec when I bought the drives, and would have to "work harder" to get the gory details myself. In true lazy haker style, I'd rather there was a wd31000 entry I could scam off of and start from it. I eventually punted creating my own distab entry, and used the normal install sequence to "install" onto my second drive. I aborted the installation well into the process, but after the labels had been written and newfs'ed. Wadda hack! To generalize and maybe speak (incorrectly?) for others, I think this area of sysadmin scares people. I know I was scared by it because I use it so infrequently, know so little about it, and it's so potentially "catastrophic" when things go wrong. Handholding during this stage can be very useful and very important. Not to belittle *anyone's* effort, but just by sheer volume of mail alone, it's clear that some improvements are needed in the area of disk creation, documentation or overall usability of disk utilities. Am I all wet? Can someone put their finger on the precise problem here, identify a good long term plan, and get us on the road to improvement? jdl
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