From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Wed Feb 3 17:26:08 2010 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 2C4F7106566B for ; Wed, 3 Feb 2010 17:26:08 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from bahamasfranks@gmail.com) Received: from mail-vw0-f54.google.com (mail-vw0-f54.google.com [209.85.212.54]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id D435D8FC13 for ; Wed, 3 Feb 2010 17:26:07 +0000 (UTC) Received: by vws11 with SMTP id 11so871235vws.13 for ; Wed, 03 Feb 2010 09:26:06 -0800 (PST) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=gmail.com; s=gamma; h=domainkey-signature:mime-version:received:in-reply-to:references :date:message-id:subject:from:to:cc:content-type :content-transfer-encoding; bh=Zxvk7XBqPyn1OSmc7Vs7gxR8PMHUgbIkdT3XRgQSm0I=; b=qw9aSZvh/tOgOOcwleCFHYN/GYk3Qj1XSgxl2bbmvOrZu1U7fYva21P776cS6vikNd kKkWe2uWWFyGP6WnnKgWMLY0BPzS9ydwSQWQVKkPDmo14ZAjJkewhAnM5Vur/DTsDbop IZcoT/qT22ODznaU4wjFOo80kgkpRY1f6HRjo= DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; c=nofws; d=gmail.com; s=gamma; h=mime-version:in-reply-to:references:date:message-id:subject:from:to :cc:content-type:content-transfer-encoding; b=lIsmS5L6UJvvtFYl3xpNmec1OgoYrxPuduyuk55VvYtOLP3y5Lmur2cvZplEcbQvvO JWuKLStc7+zMSXXjJkG/MeytOTNXbUymT9GlfVVFABwCnQJ3OJfwh3KGRZ6i7mjxbFLS y+9MhLLJ3YOGweDOI9m3msj9GMOTyKSZ/sXI8= MIME-Version: 1.0 Received: by 10.143.25.15 with SMTP id c15mr2161644wfj.47.1265217966264; Wed, 03 Feb 2010 09:26:06 -0800 (PST) In-Reply-To: <20100203151808.GC15086@gizmo.acns.msu.edu> References: <539c60b91002021859h6761ef1fk244d69000e089c65@mail.gmail.com> <20100203151808.GC15086@gizmo.acns.msu.edu> Date: Wed, 3 Feb 2010 10:26:06 -0700 Message-ID: <539c60b91002030926r28d67355u3930058b9fc759d7@mail.gmail.com> From: Steve Franks To: Jerry McAllister Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Cc: FreeBSD Mailing List Subject: Re: can't make an 'a' slice except with auto-defaults 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: Wed, 03 Feb 2010 17:26:08 -0000 On Wed, Feb 3, 2010 at 8:18 AM, Jerry McAllister 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. >> >> > > 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