From owner-freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Wed Sep 7 06:12:14 2016 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@mailman.ysv.freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:1900:2254:206a::19:1]) by mailman.ysv.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 3641BAC40C8 for ; Wed, 7 Sep 2016 06:12:14 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from perryh@pluto.rain.com) Received: from agora.rdrop.com (agora.rdrop.com [IPv6:2607:f678:1010::34]) (using TLSv1 with cipher DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA (256/256 bits)) (Client did not present a certificate) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id 05D34A4 for ; Wed, 7 Sep 2016 06:12:13 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from perryh@pluto.rain.com) Received: from agora.rdrop.com (66@localhost [127.0.0.1]) by agora.rdrop.com (8.13.1/8.12.7) with ESMTP id u876C70j072632 (version=TLSv1/SSLv3 cipher=DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA bits=256 verify=NOT); Tue, 6 Sep 2016 23:12:09 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from perryh@pluto.rain.com) Received: (from uucp@localhost) by agora.rdrop.com (8.13.1/8.14.2/Submit) with UUCP id u876C6Li072631; Tue, 6 Sep 2016 23:12:06 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from perryh@pluto.rain.com) Received: from fbsd81 by pluto.rain.com (4.1/SMI-4.1-pluto-M2060407) id AA20156; Tue, 6 Sep 16 21:46:01 PDT Date: Tue, 06 Sep 2016 21:46:13 -0700 From: perryh@pluto.rain.com (Perry Hutchison) To: wblock@wonkity.com Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: "gpart add" falsely claiming "No space left on device" Message-Id: <57cf9b95.Zj/JGHeshaKL6Zr5%perryh@pluto.rain.com> References: <57ce6e64.EITkODjuwy6pZ4L+%perryh@pluto.rain.com> In-Reply-To: User-Agent: nail 11.25 7/29/05 Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.23 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Wed, 07 Sep 2016 06:12:14 -0000 Warren Block wrote: > On Tue, 6 Sep 2016, Perry Hutchison wrote: > > I copied the 10.3-RELEASE memstick.img to a 4GB flash drive, then > > used "gpart recover" to resize the partition table to the media. > > After that "gpart show" reports: > > > > # gpart show da2 > > => 3 7811067 da2 GPT (3.7G) > > 3 32 1 freebsd-boot (16K) > > 35 1348832 2 freebsd-ufs (659M) > > 1348867 2048 3 freebsd-swap (1.0M) > > 1350915 6460155 - free - (3.1G) > > > > but "gpart add" refuses to add a second freebsd-ufs partition in > > that supposedly-free space: > > > > # gpart add -t freebsd-ufs -l pkgs -f x da2 > > gpart: index '4': No space left on device > > > > # gpart add -t freebsd-ufs -l pkgs -f x -b 1350915 -s 6460155 da2 > > gpart: index '4': No space left on device > > The second one makes more sense, as the first '-f x' would/should > have allocated that space (in an uncommitted operation). Don't know > about the first one, unless you have tried it before. It gave that result the very first time, and a subsequent "gpart show" produced the same output as before. I tried the second in case the reason for the first failing was that (absent -b and -s) it defaulted to trying to define a partition covering the whole device, failing because the device was not empty. > Why bother with '-f x'? Why not just do the operation immediately? Paranoia. IIUC, uncommitted operations work for all purposes except surviving a reboot, in particular a subsequent "gpart show", but without writing anything to the stick in the (likely) event that I did something wrong that would corrupt the stick if committed. (I do not pretend to understand gpart, and I've been finding its manpage horribly terse.)