From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Thu Dec 4 10:15:54 2008 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 8915E1065673 for ; Thu, 4 Dec 2008 10:15:54 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from Pieter.Donche@ua.ac.be) Received: from hmacs.cmi.ua.ac.be (hmacs.cmi.ua.ac.be [143.129.75.10]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 21E568FC0C for ; Thu, 4 Dec 2008 10:15:53 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from Pieter.Donche@ua.ac.be) Received: from hmacs.cmi.ua.ac.be (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by hmacs.cmi.ua.ac.be (8.13.8+Sun/8.13.8) with ESMTP id mB4AFqIv009851 for ; Thu, 4 Dec 2008 11:15:52 +0100 (CET) Received: from localhost (pdon@localhost) by hmacs.cmi.ua.ac.be (8.13.8+Sun/8.13.8/Submit) with ESMTP id mB4AFpmS009847 for ; Thu, 4 Dec 2008 11:15:51 +0100 (CET) X-Authentication-Warning: hmacs.cmi.ua.ac.be: pdon owned process doing -bs Date: Thu, 4 Dec 2008 11:15:51 +0100 (CET) From: Pieter Donche X-X-Sender: pdon@hmacs.cmi.ua.ac.be To: "mail.list freebsd-questions" Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed Subject: newinstall and GPT X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list Reply-To: Pieter Donche List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Thu, 04 Dec 2008 10:15:54 -0000 If one would use GPT (GUID (Globally Unique Identifier) Partition Table right from the start of an installation of a new system, how must one proceed ? During install from a DVD, first you are asked to do a DOS-style ("fdisk") partitioning (slice making in FreeBSD parlance), which would be responded with "A=Use Entire Disk". What if you have, say 8 TB disk space (in RAID6, presenting itself as a single "unused" space), will fdisk be able to deal with that ? Has fdisk a limit as to the number of sectors (2^31- 1 = 2TB) ? If fdisk can't deal with that, what then ??? Bsdlabel, the next tool coming up after fdisk, uses 32-bit integers can't be used for 8 TB available space. Then GPT would have to be used (uses 64-bit integers). How to proceed ? Should your first during initial go for bsdlabel, and only use maximum 2TB, continue with the rest of the install and then, after install, use GPT to change the FreeBSD existing partitions? Any documents describing a FreeBSD install for large diskspaces with GPT ??