From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Thu Oct 15 19:17:45 2009 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 9FD55106568D for ; Thu, 15 Oct 2009 19:17:45 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from freebsd@edvax.de) Received: from mx02.qsc.de (mx02.qsc.de [213.148.130.14]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 5F3EF8FC0A for ; Thu, 15 Oct 2009 19:17:45 +0000 (UTC) Received: from r55.edvax.de (port-92-195-71-245.dynamic.qsc.de [92.195.71.245]) by mx02.qsc.de (Postfix) with ESMTP id 8BBE51DD00; Thu, 15 Oct 2009 21:17:44 +0200 (CEST) Received: from r55.edvax.de (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by r55.edvax.de (8.14.2/8.14.2) with SMTP id n9FJHhAc002160; Thu, 15 Oct 2009 21:17:43 +0200 (CEST) (envelope-from freebsd@edvax.de) Date: Thu, 15 Oct 2009 21:17:43 +0200 From: Polytropon To: PJ Message-Id: <20091015211743.e910374e.freebsd@edvax.de> In-Reply-To: <4AD77127.1060805@videotron.ca> References: <4AD74198.9010301@videotron.ca> <20091015203922.d98bc249.freebsd@edvax.de> <4AD77127.1060805@videotron.ca> Organization: EDVAX X-Mailer: Sylpheed 2.4.7 (GTK+ 2.12.1; i386-portbld-freebsd7.0) Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: how to prepare disk for dump/restore X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list Reply-To: Polytropon List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Thu, 15 Oct 2009 19:17:45 -0000 On Thu, 15 Oct 2009 14:59:51 -0400, PJ wrote: > I would like to just partition, label and newfs the disk; livefs wants > to waste my time by installing other stuff like the kernel & man pages > etc that I have not even selected; Just don't go through the whole installation cycle; from the sysinstall main menu, select "Custom" and perform slicing (setting disk active, adding standard MBR) and partitioning (creating partitions, format them with "w" or "z"). Then leave the menu and use the shell. You can get to the "Fdisk" and "Label" through "Configure" in the main menu, too. > and if I use postinstall > configuration, that doesn't do anything. Or should I use fixit and then > do the manual thing? You can use sysinstall from the Fixit CD, too. That's the way I'm mostly doing this kind of thing: Preparing the disk with the sysinstall tool, then dropping to CLI for the restoring process. > Sysinstall requires already being booted... ??? No. You can execute it even on a running system. > Or do I do it manually as per Polytropon's recipe of fdisk, bsdlabel, > newfs mount, dump/restore and use/play? ;-) This method is quite usable when you completely understood what you're doing; furthermore, it enables scripting automated processes, which is very handy especially when you want to provide larger numbers of cloned systems. In any case: Be sure which device you're operating on, and keep in mind that it may (!) be a different device when in the place where it should go. For example, if you intend to prepare a disk to be ad4 in the target system, let it be (if possible) ad4 in the source system, and boot your source system from ad12. From this running system, perform the cloning. If everything is done, check references for ad12 and change them to ad4 (even *that* can be scripted); eyes on /etc/fstab. After you've done everything, shut down the running system, unplug ad12 and let the system boot from ad4. Everything should be alright now. Extract ad4 and take it to its new system. -- Polytropon Magdeburg, Germany Happy FreeBSD user since 4.0 Andra moi ennepe, Mousa, ...