From owner-freebsd-stable@FreeBSD.ORG Tue Feb 14 19:51:11 2012 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-stable@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id A75BA10657B0 for ; Tue, 14 Feb 2012 19:51:11 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from kob6558@gmail.com) Received: from mail-ww0-f50.google.com (mail-ww0-f50.google.com [74.125.82.50]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 36F908FC19 for ; Tue, 14 Feb 2012 19:51:10 +0000 (UTC) Received: by wgbdq11 with SMTP id dq11so289905wgb.31 for ; Tue, 14 Feb 2012 11:51:09 -0800 (PST) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=gmail.com; s=gamma; h=mime-version:in-reply-to:references:date:message-id:subject:from:to :cc:content-type:content-transfer-encoding; bh=Ny3MLLIdalr6miGqMdzishiqQ6lNVl+Jc5Jbt7mEYD0=; b=Db7EA3X4Qq+tDj2roiaGlZ0qXLQdA90OMZQY48WZAlr+Z7cEt0BNy3/UbyIW2NTdDA 35ShIIZ+358BIweflpQSHUwxITvvASOLkT29QNM+yRopvoJvvynRZtQERBVue9DDou0f i4/92YsOFZe1aK+GYW1BwXQmogYOrZe8lJePM= MIME-Version: 1.0 Received: by 10.180.92.229 with SMTP id cp5mr31145808wib.8.1329249069872; Tue, 14 Feb 2012 11:51:09 -0800 (PST) Received: by 10.223.158.143 with HTTP; Tue, 14 Feb 2012 11:51:09 -0800 (PST) In-Reply-To: <092c01cceb40$2dc8f240$895ad6c0$@fisglobal.com> References: <4F355A5B.9080007@rewt.org.uk> <4F35743B.4020302@os2.kiev.ua> <4F37DBA3.7030304@cran.org.uk> <20120213195554.O46120@sola.nimnet.asn.au> <092c01cceb40$2dc8f240$895ad6c0$@fisglobal.com> Date: Tue, 14 Feb 2012 11:51:09 -0800 Message-ID: From: Kevin Oberman To: Devin Teske Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Cc: Bruce Cran , FreeBSD Stable Mailing List , Joe Holden , Alex Samorukov , Ian Smith Subject: Re: New BSD Installer X-BeenThere: freebsd-stable@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Production branch of FreeBSD source code List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Tue, 14 Feb 2012 19:51:11 -0000 On Tue, Feb 14, 2012 at 9:43 AM, Devin Teske wr= ote: > > >> -----Original Message----- >> From: owner-freebsd-stable@freebsd.org [mailto:owner-freebsd- >> stable@freebsd.org] On Behalf Of Ian Smith >> Sent: Tuesday, February 14, 2012 9:15 AM >> To: Bruce Cran >> Cc: FreeBSD Stable Mailing List; Joe Holden; Alex Samorukov >> Subject: Re: New BSD Installer >> >> Strangely, the big push to GPT partitions was oft said to be because MBR >> slices provided too few partitions. > > That's part of it (no pun intended). > > The other big deal is that you can't exceed 2TB on a single primary parti= tion. > > >> I never found 4 * 6 much of a limit >> myself, and now the default install makes a Linux-like single partition, >> rendering dump & restore more or less unusable or at least impractical, > > I'm with you on this one. I really don't like the single-"/" setup. > > >> while booting multiple systems on GPT also seems to require Linux tools. >> >> I don't know whether this move away from BSD traditional filesystem >> partitioning (/, /var, /usr etc) to Linux-style came down from Core On >> High or is just the prerogative of installer-writers? =A0Jordan was both >> the latter and a big part of the former for many years, but I guess >> that's something that can be reverted if people feel to do so. >> > > Maybe a vote should be taken. There's about 12 votes in this office here = alone > for putting the partition scheme back the way it was (Colin Percival had = a great > formula for determining partition sizes). I suggest that both be implemented, which looks to the untrained eye as a straight-forward thing to implement, and then the install ask if a single partition or a traditional multi-partition system should be installed. I prefer multi and use that on all of my systems. I also really prefer GPT for a variety of reasons, but we need better tools to support things. I miss booteasy. Yes, you can get it to boot from a different partition, but it is a pain. I deal with it by putting FreeBSD on one disk and Windows on another when I want a dual-boot system. I put the MBR formatted (Windows) is first in the boot order, so I can just hit F5 to boot the FreeBSD disk. This works for me, but I suspect that lots of people would prefer having multiple OSes on a single disk...especially when it's a single spindle laptop. (I suspect laptops are more commonly dual-boot than most any other platform.) As for fdisk and bsdlabel, I'm happy to see both go. They have a horrid user interface and require a calculator to get right. Yes, I use them, but only because there is no other way to do some things. (sade(8) comes closer all of the time, though.) --=20 R. Kevin Oberman, Network Engineer E-mail: kob6558@gmail.com