Date: Wed, 3 Feb 2010 10:26:06 -0700 From: Steve Franks <bahamasfranks@gmail.com> To: Jerry McAllister <jerrymc@msu.edu> Cc: FreeBSD Mailing List <freebsd-questions@freebsd.org> Subject: Re: can't make an 'a' slice except with auto-defaults Message-ID: <539c60b91002030926r28d67355u3930058b9fc759d7@mail.gmail.com> In-Reply-To: <20100203151808.GC15086@gizmo.acns.msu.edu> References: <539c60b91002021859h6761ef1fk244d69000e089c65@mail.gmail.com> <20100203151808.GC15086@gizmo.acns.msu.edu>
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On Wed, Feb 3, 2010 at 8:18 AM, Jerry McAllister <jerrymc@msu.edu> wrote: > On Tue, Feb 02, 2010 at 07:59:15PM -0700, Steve Franks wrote: > >> On a running system. =A0I mean, I know I should quit being a &%^#& and >> read the manpage for bsdlabel, but sysintall really does have a nice >> tui. =A0 =A0'C'reate slice goes straight to 'd', even on a 'fresh' disk. >> I see in the handbook, this is alluded to, but some intermediate level >> between begginer and expert (bsdlabel just strikes me as way too easy >> to trash the disk I'm running off of while trying to make a backup), >> would be nice...512M just won't fit the kernel+symbols. >> >> <fuming, reading man bsdlabel ;) > > > Well, Create slice would be an fdisk(8) thing, not bsdlabel. > bsdlabel creates partitions within a slice. > > But, generally you cannot run fdisk on a disk that is in use on a > running system - which generally means that it is the boot device, > has filesystems mounted or has part of the currently designated swap > space. =A0You will need to plug in a boot cd or bring up the fixit system > for that. =A0 The fixit system runs from memory - creates filesystems > and mount points in memory rather than on disk, so it can talk to > any disk. > > New, if you are working on a non-used (extra) disk, eg one that is not > the boot device nor has any mounted filesystems or swap space > on it, then you should be able to fdisk and bsdlabel that from > a running system. > > I have no idea what you mean by "'C'reate slice goes straight to 'd'" > It does not match anything I remember being possible. =A0I don't happen > to have any system handy at the moment that I can muck with disks on. > > ////jerry Ok, terminology crash. As someone pointed out, I'm talking about label, here, not fdisk, and partitions, not slices (had those two backwards in my head). Basically, as far as I can tell, on a running system, there is no combination of keystrokes in sysinstall's label editor that will create an "ad[1-9]s1a", except the 'a' key which produces a 512M s1a. All other keystrokes (namely 'c') go straight to "ad[1-9]s1d" when a second disk is placed in a system booted from ad0s1a. I'm just trying to make a fresh disk ready for dump/restore with a 1G /, so I guess sysinstall is out as an option at this time. Steve
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