From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Wed Jan 22 12:35:30 2014 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [8.8.178.115]) (using TLSv1 with cipher ADH-AES256-SHA (256/256 bits)) (No client certificate requested) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id 0B714B56 for ; Wed, 22 Jan 2014 12:35:30 +0000 (UTC) Received: from oneyou.mcmli.com (oneyou.mcmli.com [IPv6:2001:470:1d:8da::100]) (using TLSv1 with cipher ADH-CAMELLIA256-SHA (256/256 bits)) (No client certificate requested) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id C5BC9142B for ; Wed, 22 Jan 2014 12:35:29 +0000 (UTC) Received: from sentry.24cl.com (sentry.24cl.com [IPv6:2001:470:89e9:1:feed::1]) (using TLSv1 with cipher DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA (256/256 bits)) (Client CN "sentry.24cl.com", Issuer "Mike's Certificate Authority" (verified OK)) by oneyou.mcmli.com (Postfix) with ESMTPS id 3f8R0c3mgnz1DP4 for ; Wed, 22 Jan 2014 07:35:28 -0500 (EST) Received: from BigBloat (bigbloat.24cl.home [10.20.1.4]) by sentry.24cl.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id 3f8R0Z4Y2Gz1Bjx for ; Wed, 22 Jan 2014 07:35:26 -0500 (EST) Message-ID: <201401220735230348.009E6644@smtp.24cl.home> In-Reply-To: References: X-Mailer: Courier 3.50.00.09.1098 (http://www.rosecitysoftware.com) (P) Date: Wed, 22 Jan 2014 07:35:23 -0500 From: "Mike." To: "freebsd-questions@freebsd.org" Subject: Re: Am I getting too old Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.17 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Wed, 22 Jan 2014 12:35:30 -0000 On 1/22/2014 at 4:18 PM Olivier Nicole wrote: |Hi, | |in the old times (FreeBSD 8) it took me 5 minutes to partition a disk |for a test machine: create a couple of MS DOS partitions, install the |MBR, create FreeBSD partitions, done. It used to be working easily, |efficiently and reliably. | |Now it had been one day since I tried to reproduce that with FreeBSD |9, not to avail: I always end up with messaged saying things like |invalid partition, or stuff like that. | |What was the rational behind the decision of breaking something that |used to work fine (that had been working fine for over 10 years) and |replace it with something that is ugly, unfriendly (you have to give |some types to the partitions, but nowhere is it written what type is |allowed or not) and that is not working? | |Oh maybe if I choose to go all by default it will work, but I don't |want the default, I want to be allowed to make my own choices easily. | |Best regards | |Olivier ============= I had sentiments similar to yours a couple of months ago, except I had been using FreeBSD since around version 4. Except for a (imo, stupid) design decision that allows metadata conflict between gpart and gmirror in some instances, I learned to like using the gtools suite. I did take the time to install FreeBSD on a spare computer, and use and learn the new way of doing things. I found that step to be important because examples for the gsuite are not as common as examples for the older way of doing things. I also found out that the disk you are working on must be clean of any old metadata that may be lurking on it. That was a big source of frustration for me until I discovered that it was the old metadata that was fighting me. I eventually wrote a script that wipes the first few and the last few sectors of a disk drive, as I found that gpart was not always able to clear all metadata. Why, I do not know. imo, that should be a gpart subcommand - unequivocally and assuredly wipe all metadata. ("gpart destroy -F" does not seem to always work). In summary, I now prefer gpart and the gsuite of tools, but they are still rough around the edges in the documentation, ease of use and examples areas.