From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Sat Jul 7 21:45:25 2012 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [69.147.83.52]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id E1757106564A for ; Sat, 7 Jul 2012 21:45:25 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from mueller23@insightbb.com) Received: from mail.insightbb.com (smtp3.insight.synacor.com [208.47.185.25]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id A52708FC0C for ; Sat, 7 Jul 2012 21:45:25 +0000 (UTC) X_CMAE_Category: 0,0 Undefined,Undefined X-CNFS-Analysis: v=1.1 cv=+xLE55qJV472OMinQMEkQVy9ymy9FBxzBvw0IGZe0n8= c=1 sm=0 a=rIqdQNP2logA:10 a=jLN7EqiLvroA:10 a=XsXBrGuOALsSNub_erkA:9 a=Q/oqmR4JO1zR3vNQamCQeQ==:117 X-CM-Score: 0 X-Scanned-by: Cloudmark Authority Engine Authentication-Results: smtp01.insight.synacor.com header.from=mueller23@insightbb.com; sender-id=softfail Authentication-Results: smtp01.insight.synacor.com smtp.mail=mueller23@insightbb.com; spf=softfail; sender-id=softfail Received-SPF: softfail (smtp01.insight.synacor.com: transitional domain insightbb.com does not designate 74.134.26.53 as permitted sender) Received: from [74.134.26.53] ([74.134.26.53:45731] helo=localhost) by mail.insightbb.com (envelope-from ) (ecelerity 2.2.2.40 r(29895/29896)) with ESMTP id 7E/91-25131-DEDA8FF4; Sat, 07 Jul 2012 17:45:18 -0400 Date: Sat, 07 Jul 2012 17:45:17 -0400 Message-ID: <7E.91.25131.DEDA8FF4@smtp01.insight.synacor.com> From: "Thomas Mueller" To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Cc: Carmel , Polytropon Subject: Re: Format a USB flash drive using gpart 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: Sat, 07 Jul 2012 21:45:26 -0000 > On Sat, 7 Jul 2012 13:15:10 -0400, Carmel wrote: > > This is probably a dumb question, but does gpart even work on a USB > > flash drive? I have not been able to figure out how to do it. I want to > > erase the entire drive and format it for a FreeBSD UFS2 file system. > In that case, screw slices and partitions 'n stuff. :-) > # newfs /dev/da0 > This is all you need (see "man newfs" and "man tunefs" for > options you might need to optimize utilization, and check > best fitting options for /etc/fstab, e. g. noatime if you > are not going to need it). > Polytropon > Magdeburg, Germany I have used gpart to partition a USB flash drive into FreeBSD boot partition, root partition and swap partition. I ran newfs on the second (root) partition, even installed FreeBSD built from source, and made the flash drive bootable, both for amd64 and i386. Does a USB flash drive also work as a giant floppy, no partitions? Can you make a flash drive bootable when nonpartitioned and formatted that way? Tom