From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG  Sun Jul 28 14:18:47 2013
Return-Path: <owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG>
Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org
Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org
 [IPv6:2001:1900:2254:206a::19:1])
 (using TLSv1 with cipher ADH-AES256-SHA (256/256 bits))
 (No client certificate requested)
 by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id C1A24DA5
 for <freebsd-questions@freebsd.org>; Sun, 28 Jul 2013 14:18:47 +0000 (UTC)
 (envelope-from wblock@wonkity.com)
Received: from wonkity.com (wonkity.com [67.158.26.137])
 (using TLSv1 with cipher DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA (256/256 bits))
 (No client certificate requested)
 by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id 5E71E2E2E
 for <freebsd-questions@freebsd.org>; Sun, 28 Jul 2013 14:18:46 +0000 (UTC)
Received: from wonkity.com (localhost [127.0.0.1])
 by wonkity.com (8.14.7/8.14.7) with ESMTP id r6SEIdmC008900;
 Sun, 28 Jul 2013 08:18:39 -0600 (MDT)
 (envelope-from wblock@wonkity.com)
Received: from localhost (wblock@localhost)
 by wonkity.com (8.14.7/8.14.7/Submit) with ESMTP id r6SEIdlR008897;
 Sun, 28 Jul 2013 08:18:39 -0600 (MDT)
 (envelope-from wblock@wonkity.com)
Date: Sun, 28 Jul 2013 08:18:39 -0600 (MDT)
From: Warren Block <wblock@wonkity.com>
To: Polytropon <freebsd@edvax.de>
Subject: Re: FreeBSD slices and the Boot Manager
In-Reply-To: <20130728080912.c6ce592a.freebsd@edvax.de>
Message-ID: <alpine.BSF.2.00.1307280814400.8473@wonkity.com>
References: <alpine.BSF.2.00.1306291951460.1488@alice.nodomain.nowhere>
 <20130728080912.c6ce592a.freebsd@edvax.de>
User-Agent: Alpine 2.00 (BSF 1167 2008-08-23)
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed
X-Greylist: Sender IP whitelisted, not delayed by milter-greylist-4.4.3
 (wonkity.com [127.0.0.1]); Sun, 28 Jul 2013 08:18:39 -0600 (MDT)
Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org, Conny Andersson <ataraxi@telia.com>
X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org
X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.14
Precedence: list
List-Id: User questions <freebsd-questions.freebsd.org>
List-Unsubscribe: <http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/options/freebsd-questions>, 
 <mailto:freebsd-questions-request@freebsd.org?subject=unsubscribe>
List-Archive: <http://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-questions>
List-Post: <mailto:freebsd-questions@freebsd.org>
List-Help: <mailto:freebsd-questions-request@freebsd.org?subject=help>
List-Subscribe: <http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions>, 
 <mailto:freebsd-questions-request@freebsd.org?subject=subscribe>
X-List-Received-Date: Sun, 28 Jul 2013 14:18:47 -0000

On Sun, 28 Jul 2013, Polytropon wrote:
> On Sat, 27 Jul 2013 19:39:30 +0200 (CEST), Conny Andersson wrote:

>> A very important question is if sysinstall's option "Install the FreeBSD
>> Boot Manager" detects that I have a FreeBSD 8.3 and detect it as slice 2 on
>> disk 1?
>
> I'm not sure I'm following you correctly. The sysinstall program
> is considered obsolete, the new system installer is bsdinstall.

AFAIK, sysinstall is still used in FreeBSD 8.X, and bsdinstall does not 
have a boot manager option anyway.

>> So it becomes a boot option when I am rebooting? (Maybe the slice
>> may come up as ad6s2, because AHCI in FreeBSD 8.4 isn't enabled at the time
>> of the install.)

Sorry, I don't understand this at all.  AHCI should not be involved with 
identifying slices.

> That is a _good_ consideration! To make sure things work independently
> from "boot-time recognition", use labels for the file system and then
> mount them by using the labels. Encode the OS version number in the
> labels, so it's even easier to deal with them. Use "newfs -L" on
> un-mounted partitions (you can do that from the install media).

For existing filesystems, that would be tunefs -L.  And agreed, 
filesystem labels make relocation much easier.