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Date: Wed, 10 Apr 96 19:16:33 EDT
Original-From: aluxpo!aloft!gtc (gary.corcoran)
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Subject: Disk questions
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I just added a second SCSI disk to my new FreeBSD setup to get some room to
grow beyond the basics.  As I'm still a new user of FreeBSD, I have some
questions...

1. Is there any difference between what MS-DOS calls a 'partition'
and what FreeBSD calls a 'slice' ?

I have my second hard disk setup with the following (MS-DOS) partitions:

Partition 1: DOS
Partition 2: Unused (for the moment)
Partition 3: Unused (for the moment)
Partition 4: FreeBSD

I setup the FreeBSD slice in disktab with an 'a' partition, a 'b' partition,
and of course a 'c' partition.

2. The man page isn't clear on this: are the 'offsets' in the disktab
describing the partitions relative to the _slice_ and NOT the start of the
entire disk?

3. Does FreeBSD automagically find the FreeBSD partition (i.e. slice) based
on the entries in the MS-DOS partition table, thus enabling the FreeBSD
partitions to be described and accessed with only sizes and offsets relative
to the slice?  For example, even though I have my FreeBSD partition/slice
as number 4, is it correct to simply access the FreeBSD filesystem on my
second disk as /dev/sd1a ?

4. Under /dev, I noticed entries of the form sd?s[1-4].  Do these refer
to the various slices of sd0 and sd1 ?

5. My primary swap is referenced as sd0s1b.  How do I reference my swap
('b' partition) on my second disk?  I would guess that it might be
referenced as sd1s4b - but there is no such device in /dev.  Can MAKEDEV
make this?  If so, what option(s) should I give to MAKEDEV?

6. Is sd1s4b the "proper" way to refer to my secondary swap partition, or
is sd1b okay/sufficient/the same ?  I haven't tried to enable my secondary
swap yet - I don't want to accidently scribble on a wrong portion of my
disk!  At least not until I learn how to make FreeBSD backups using my
new SCSI DAT drive which I also just installed...    ;-}

Thank you for taking the time to help another newcomer...

Gary Corcoran