From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Fri Mar 14 15:25:19 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 ABEC01065676 for ; Fri, 14 Mar 2008 15:25:19 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from xfb52@dial.pipex.com) Received: from mk-outboundfilter-2.mail.uk.tiscali.com (mk-outboundfilter-2.mail.uk.tiscali.com [212.74.114.38]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 53EB38FC1C for ; Fri, 14 Mar 2008 15:25:19 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from xfb52@dial.pipex.com) X-Trace: 28266595/mk-outboundfilter-2.mail.uk.tiscali.com/PIPEX/$INTERNET-ACCEPTED/None/62.31.10.181 X-SBRS: None X-RemoteIP: 62.31.10.181 X-IP-MAIL-FROM: xfb52@dial.pipex.com X-IP-BHB: Once X-IronPort-Anti-Spam-Filtered: true X-IronPort-Anti-Spam-Result: AgABAG812kc+Hwq1/2dsb2JhbAAIqVs X-IronPort-AV: E=McAfee;i="5200,2160,5251"; a="28266595" X-IP-Direction: OUT Received: from 62-31-10-181.cable.ubr05.edin.blueyonder.co.uk (HELO [192.168.23.2]) ([62.31.10.181]) by smtp.pipex.tiscali.co.uk with ESMTP; 14 Mar 2008 15:25:17 +0000 Message-ID: <47DA98D1.6050907@dial.pipex.com> Date: Fri, 14 Mar 2008 15:25:05 +0000 From: Alex Zbyslaw User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; FreeBSD i386; en-GB; rv:1.7.13) Gecko/20061205 X-Accept-Language: en MIME-Version: 1.0 To: Tim Daneliuk References: <47D9AA86.2040105@tundraware.com> <20080314151802.GB19851@gizmo.acns.msu.edu> In-Reply-To: <20080314151802.GB19851@gizmo.acns.msu.edu> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Cc: FreeBSD Mailing List Subject: Re: Using Install CD To Prepare Hard Disk 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: Fri, 14 Mar 2008 15:25:19 -0000 On Thu, Mar 13, 2008 at 05:28:22PM -0500, Tim Daneliuk wrote: >I would like to use the CD install menus to only prepare the hard >disk (Partition, Label, Format) without actually installing anything on >the drive. Can this be done? There seems to be no "None" option for >Distributions, and I cannot find the right magic to make the installer >go ahead and prepare the drive w/o resorting to at least a minimal install. > Does the "Post install configuration" not give you all the menus you want? It doesn't matter whether you have anything installed or not - you can fdisk, bsdlabel and newfs from the sysinstall interfaces you know and love. And you won't be prompted to install any packages because you're not on a scripted install pathway. If you have bsdlabel and fdisk files which you are trying to replicate then the live filesystem and native tools may be easier, but if you want to play around with sizes etc. without resorting to a calculator then sysinstall has always done the business for me, --Alex