From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Wed Feb 3 23:02:00 2010 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 C95C11065672 for ; Wed, 3 Feb 2010 23:02:00 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from martin@dc.cis.okstate.edu) Received: from dc.cis.okstate.edu (dc.cis.okstate.edu [139.78.103.93]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id A015B8FC12 for ; Wed, 3 Feb 2010 23:02:00 +0000 (UTC) Received: from dc.cis.okstate.edu (localhost.cis.okstate.edu [127.0.0.1]) by dc.cis.okstate.edu (8.14.2/8.13.8) with ESMTP id o13N1qoC037310 for ; Wed, 3 Feb 2010 17:01:52 -0600 (CST) (envelope-from martin@dc.cis.okstate.edu) Message-Id: <201002032301.o13N1qoC037310@dc.cis.okstate.edu> To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Date: Wed, 03 Feb 2010 17:01:52 -0600 From: Martin McCormick Subject: More sysinstall questions 1 of 2 X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Wed, 03 Feb 2010 23:02:00 -0000 Yesterday, I asked how sysinstall mounts the drive on which FreeBSD is to install. I might not have been clear enough so I will try again since my question may have been confusing. The system is booting via mfs so we are starting out with a virtual disk drive made of memory. The hard drive is sitting right there as /dev/ad0. It can be formatted and mounted and appears to be working properly. As a trouble-shooting step, I ran sysinstall from mfs manually exactly as I have done from a CDROM on that very box. With the mfs system, sysinstall sees the hard drive and appears to let you format it. The bsdlabel section appears to let you assign the partitions. One selects distributions and a ftp site and then . . . it all goes wrong. The commit does not format the disk. There is no "last chance" prompt. It goes right to the download and proceeds to install FreeBSD all over mfs. The CDROM for installing FreeBSD correctly formats the drive and installs the OS on that very same box. My first question is why doesn't the mfs do the same thing? My second question will be on a separate message. Martin McCormick