Date: Thu, 4 Aug 2005 19:35:44 -0400 From: Garance A Drosehn <gad@FreeBSD.org> To: Michael Dexter <dexter@ambidexter.com>, freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.org Subject: Re: 5.x separate /boot slice? Message-ID: <p0623091cbf185266a616@[128.113.24.47]> In-Reply-To: <a06230950bf183ca09eba@[192.168.1.102]> References: <a06230950bf183ca09eba@[192.168.1.102]>
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At 12:56 AM +0300 8/5/05, Michael Dexter wrote: >>> I would like to try a separate /boot slice as permitted >>>by FreeBSD 5.x... I missed the beginning of this thread. Where did you get the impression that FreeBSD will work if you create /boot as a separate partition? >>Search the list. This comes up about once a month, and I've >>yet to see anyone succeed. It came up on this very mailing list back on July 19th, with the subject of: 'Re: /boot on a separate partition' >>Aside from "it's the way Linux does it", do you have any good >>reason for wanting this? > >All of my questions seem to generate that response. :) Trust me, >they are informed questions. In short: >I was thinking that previous and updated kernels could both coexist >in /boot and a second root slice (plus usr ... as appropriate) could >be mounted under /mnt and receive a fresh installation of the updated >OS, rather than a overlay that requires mergemastering. .... >In some respects this is a question of dual-booting FreeBSD and >FreeBSD and I was hoping to share some partitions that are not >affected by the update process, likely including var and tmp. But why does that shared partition have to be '/boot', and not '/'? FreeBSD tends to have a small-ish '/' partition, and then have separate partitions for /var and /usr, and often for /tmp. I do exactly what you'd like to do, but the partition I duplicate is '/'. I have a '/' partition and a '/xRoot' partition, and I use FreeBSD's snapshot feature (in 5.x and better) to duplicate that partition into /xRoot. This gives me a nice backup of /boot, /root, and /etc. I then upgrade the running system. It seems to work fine for me. This is where we get back to the question, "Why *must* your goal be done using a separate partition for '/boot'?". I do not mean that to be a hostile question. I'm just saying that I seem to be doing exactly what you want to do, and I've never needed a separate /boot partition to do it. The one trick involved is that you duplicate '/' to '/xRoot', and then you have to remember to change '/xRoot/etc/fstab' so that it points to itself as the '/' partition... I do that in a script, so that change is handled automatically... -- Garance Alistair Drosehn = gad@gilead.netel.rpi.edu Senior Systems Programmer or gad@FreeBSD.org Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute; Troy, NY; USA
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