From owner-freebsd-stable@FreeBSD.ORG Thu Mar 16 18:53:51 2006 Return-Path: X-Original-To: freebsd-stable@FreeBSD.ORG Delivered-To: freebsd-stable@FreeBSD.ORG Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id C46AF16A420 for ; Thu, 16 Mar 2006 18:53:51 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from olli@lurza.secnetix.de) Received: from lurza.secnetix.de (lurza.secnetix.de [83.120.8.8]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id E5CCB43D48 for ; Thu, 16 Mar 2006 18:53:50 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from olli@lurza.secnetix.de) Received: from lurza.secnetix.de (yvwfgj@localhost [127.0.0.1]) by lurza.secnetix.de (8.13.4/8.13.4) with ESMTP id k2GIriiE040327 for ; Thu, 16 Mar 2006 19:53:49 +0100 (CET) (envelope-from oliver.fromme@secnetix.de) Received: (from olli@localhost) by lurza.secnetix.de (8.13.4/8.13.1/Submit) id k2GIrinA040326; Thu, 16 Mar 2006 19:53:44 +0100 (CET) (envelope-from olli) Date: Thu, 16 Mar 2006 19:53:44 +0100 (CET) Message-Id: <200603161853.k2GIrinA040326@lurza.secnetix.de> From: Oliver Fromme To: freebsd-stable@FreeBSD.ORG In-Reply-To: <20060316080758.GA3323@lorien.int.gecko.de> X-Newsgroups: list.freebsd-stable User-Agent: tin/1.8.0-20051224 ("Ronay") (UNIX) (FreeBSD/4.11-STABLE (i386)) X-Greylist: Sender IP whitelisted, not delayed by milter-greylist-2.1.2 (lurza.secnetix.de [127.0.0.1]); Thu, 16 Mar 2006 19:53:49 +0100 (CET) Cc: Subject: Re: swap at beginning of slice - danger? X-BeenThere: freebsd-stable@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list Reply-To: freebsd-stable@FreeBSD.ORG List-Id: Production branch of FreeBSD source code List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Thu, 16 Mar 2006 18:53:51 -0000 Gunther Nikl wrote: > Oliver Fromme wrote: > > By the way, the first partition on a disk is usually the root partition, > > not the swap partition. So the problem could arise only in unusual > > circumstances. > > IMHO this is a very dangerous assumption It's not an assumption. It's the layout that most people use. It's also the sysinstall default, first because of historical reasons, and second because some BIOSes can't boot if the root partition is too far from the start, so it's best to put it at the very front of the disk. Of course there are people who don't adhere to the default settings, for whatever reason. But those should know what they're doing. As I said, both swap and UFS skip the first sectors, so there is no danger. If you put other things on your partitions (e.g. a FAT FS) which _do_ use the first sectors, then you should make sure that your partition doesn't start on sector 0 of the disk. Otherwise you will notice very quickly. :-) Anyway, that was always the case, and people never had any problems with it. At least I can't remember any complaints about it in the past few years. Best regards Oliver -- Oliver Fromme, secnetix GmbH & Co. KG, Marktplatz 29, 85567 Grafing Dienstleistungen mit Schwerpunkt FreeBSD: http://www.secnetix.de/bsd Any opinions expressed in this message may be personal to the author and may not necessarily reflect the opinions of secnetix in any way. "I have stopped reading Stephen King novels. Now I just read C code instead." -- Richard A. O'Keefe