From owner-freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Sat Sep 15 12:24:34 2012 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [69.147.83.52]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id A01FB106566C for ; Sat, 15 Sep 2012 12:24:34 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from wblock@wonkity.com) Received: from wonkity.com (wonkity.com [67.158.26.137]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 5C2F18FC0C for ; Sat, 15 Sep 2012 12:24:34 +0000 (UTC) Received: from wonkity.com (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by wonkity.com (8.14.5/8.14.5) with ESMTP id q8FCOXn7040299; Sat, 15 Sep 2012 06:24:33 -0600 (MDT) (envelope-from wblock@wonkity.com) Received: from localhost (wblock@localhost) by wonkity.com (8.14.5/8.14.5/Submit) with ESMTP id q8FCOWFI040296; Sat, 15 Sep 2012 06:24:33 -0600 (MDT) (envelope-from wblock@wonkity.com) Date: Sat, 15 Sep 2012 06:24:32 -0600 (MDT) From: Warren Block To: Yuri In-Reply-To: <50541103.6050608@rawbw.com> Message-ID: References: <5053C9A1.3030605@rawbw.com> <50541103.6050608@rawbw.com> 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-4.2.7 (wonkity.com [127.0.0.1]); Sat, 15 Sep 2012 06:24:33 -0600 (MDT) Cc: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Why fdisk can't open root disk with MBR for writing? X-BeenThere: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Technical Discussions relating to FreeBSD List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Sat, 15 Sep 2012 12:24:34 -0000 On Fri, 14 Sep 2012, Yuri wrote: > On 09/14/2012 19:23, Warren Block wrote: >> Did you actually try gpart? GEOM prevents writes to providers that are in >> use, but gpart should handle it correctly if the problem is just that fdisk >> doesn't understand GEOM. >> >> # gpart set -a active -i 1 ada0 >> >> If that fails, the provider is in use, usually mounted. The safety can be >> disabled, but it's better to figure out what has it in use. > > Yes it is the hard drive with mounted /. But changing the active slice should > be safe in any case. > gpart worked. > This safety feature is protecting people from themselves. Sounds very > familiar. gpart allowed it, so it's not the safety feature but merely that fdisk is aging and can't deal well with GEOM.