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Date: Sun, 02 Oct 2016 01:09:45 -0700
From: perryh@pluto.rain.com (Perry Hutchison)
To: wblock@wonkity.com, smithi@nimnet.asn.au
Cc: dpchrist@holgerdanske.com, freebsd-questions@freebsd.org
Subject: Re: FreeBSD-10.3-RELEASE-i386-memstick.img installer changes contents
 of USB flash drive
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Ian Smith <smithi@nimnet.asn.au> wrote:

> And then Perry Hutchinson (cc'd) is having the 'opposite' problem of 
> wanting to update the 10.3 i386 memstick he'd booted off with gpart 
> recover and gpart add for another partition, apparently successfully 
> according to gpart show, only to have the updates disappear on reboot?

Actually, it's weirder than simply having _all_ changes to the GPT
disappear on reboot:  the disappearances are selective.  Changes
made to the GPT by 'gpart recover', and labels added to existing
partitions on the memstick using 'gpart modify -l', survive reboots;
but a new partition, created in the free space at the end of the
memstick by 'gpart add', does not survive reboot (whether or not it
is defined with a label).  Setting the foot-shooting flag:

# sysctl kern.geom.debugflags=16

does not help.