From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Sat Jun 1 14:41:38 2013 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:1900:2254:206a::19:1]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 57126484 for ; Sat, 1 Jun 2013 14:41:38 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from freebsd@edvax.de) Received: from mx01.qsc.de (mx01.qsc.de [213.148.129.14]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 1F924214 for ; Sat, 1 Jun 2013 14:41:38 +0000 (UTC) Received: from r56.edvax.de (port-92-195-136-185.dynamic.qsc.de [92.195.136.185]) by mx01.qsc.de (Postfix) with ESMTP id 659683CD9F; Sat, 1 Jun 2013 16:41:37 +0200 (CEST) Received: from r56.edvax.de (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by r56.edvax.de (8.14.5/8.14.5) with SMTP id r51Efls4001977; Sat, 1 Jun 2013 16:41:47 +0200 (CEST) (envelope-from freebsd@edvax.de) Date: Sat, 1 Jun 2013 16:41:47 +0200 From: Polytropon To: "Thomas Mueller" Subject: Re: define more partitions in freebsd Message-Id: <20130601164147.98270430.freebsd@edvax.de> In-Reply-To: <164411.98747.bm@smtp105.sbc.mail.bf1.yahoo.com> References: <20130601092111.8c1ad1c0.freebsd@edvax.de> <164411.98747.bm@smtp105.sbc.mail.bf1.yahoo.com> Organization: EDVAX X-Mailer: Sylpheed 3.1.1 (GTK+ 2.24.5; i386-portbld-freebsd8.2) Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.14 Precedence: list Reply-To: Polytropon List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Sat, 01 Jun 2013 14:41:38 -0000 On Sat, 1 Jun 2013 05:36:13 -0700 (PDT), Thomas Mueller wrote: > > On Sat, 1 Jun 2013 11:10:32 +0430, s m wrote: > > hello all > > > > > i want to install freebsd8.2 on my system. for some reasons, i need > > > partitions more than 6. my freebsd just allow me to define partitions > > > from a to h, not any more. > > > That's correct and expected for the MBR partitioning approach > > (which is considered "mostly outdated" today). > > > > > > i checked FreeBSD handbook, but it doesn't say anything about defining > > > more partitions. > > > Because you _cannot_ define more partitions than up to 'h'. > > This is a hard-defined limit of MBR-style partitions (as > > they are initialized with bsdlabel). > > > > > > my question is: how can i define more partitions on my freebsd? (for > > > example, ad3s1a, ..., ad3s1h, ad3s1i, ad3s1j, ...). > > > You cannot. You need to use the GPT partitioning approach > > and repartition your disk. With gpart, you can create more > > than 'h' partitions, but the partitions will have different > > names, such as ad3s1p1, ad3s1p2, ..., ad3s1p10, ad3s1p11, ... > > and so on. > > > > Polytropon > > Magdeburg, Germany > > Happy FreeBSD user since 4.0 > > Andra moi ennepe, Mousa, ... > > > Are you sure of this? Can you GPT-partition an MBR slice as > opposed to the whole disk? Probably not. GPT "obsoletes" both slices and partitions. > You should get ad3p1, ad3p2, ...,ad3p10, ad3p11, ... That is what I should have written. :-) > Then you would have to migrate an MBR partition table to GPT, > if you have non-FreeBSD slices. I don't know if gpart can do > that, but Rod Smith's gdisk (included in FreeBSD ports) or > gpt (still used in NetBSD but not FreeBSD) can. The "simplest" approach would probably be to backup the data from the existing partitions, re-inialize the whole disk with a GPT scheme, format the (GPT) partitions and then restore the dump previously taken. I'm not sure if such kind of "harsh re-partitioning" can be done _safely_ on the fly... -- Polytropon Magdeburg, Germany Happy FreeBSD user since 4.0 Andra moi ennepe, Mousa, ...