From owner-freebsd-stable Wed Mar 22 13: 7:47 2000 Delivered-To: freebsd-stable@freebsd.org Received: from mass.cdrom.com (mg134-217.ricochet.net [204.179.134.217]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id A36C837B84D for ; Wed, 22 Mar 2000 13:07:41 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from msmith@mass.cdrom.com) Received: from mass.cdrom.com (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by mass.cdrom.com (8.9.3/8.9.3) with ESMTP id NAA01236; Wed, 22 Mar 2000 13:10:25 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from msmith@mass.cdrom.com) Message-Id: <200003222110.NAA01236@mass.cdrom.com> X-Mailer: exmh version 2.1.1 10/15/1999 To: Vivek Khera Cc: stable@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: "dangerously dedicated" In-reply-to: Your message of "Wed, 22 Mar 2000 10:06:44 EST." <14552.57732.739752.665443@onceler.kcilink.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Date: Wed, 22 Mar 2000 13:10:23 -0800 From: Mike Smith Sender: owner-freebsd-stable@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG > > Why is using /dev/da0a stupid? FreeBSD is the only system I've > encountered that totally locks up (during a 3.3-RELEASE install from > CD) when there is no fdisk disk label. Is that why it is stupid? You can't boot from a disk that doesn't have an MBR on it. This is a feature of the PC BIOS, and it can't be worked around. > BSD/OS and Linux (RedHat 6.1) both deal with the lack of an fdisk disk > label just fine, and BSD/OS doesn't even require one, letting you use > the direct unix partitioning scheme. I much prefer it that way as it > just makes sense on a dedicated box, which is what all of mine are. You're out of your depth here, unfortunately. Both of these systems do install an MBR, they just don't tell you that they are. Regardless of what you think, the only correct way to divvy up a disk on a PC is to start with an MBR and work down from there. There is no other way to do this properly, and to think otherwise merely demonstrates your ignorance. -- \\ Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day. \\ Mike Smith \\ Tell him he should learn how to fish himself, \\ msmith@freebsd.org \\ and he'll hate you for a lifetime. \\ msmith@cdrom.com To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-stable" in the body of the message