From owner-freebsd-newbies Thu Oct 14 5:53:57 1999 Delivered-To: freebsd-newbies@freebsd.org Received: from guppy.pond.net (guppy.pond.net [205.240.25.2]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 7E9DB14D9D for ; Thu, 14 Oct 1999 05:53:52 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from gryph@mindless.com) Received: from mindless.com (snapuser2-89.pacificcrest.net [216.36.34.89]) by guppy.pond.net (8.9.3/8.9.3) with ESMTP id FAA05247; Thu, 14 Oct 1999 05:47:15 -0700 (PDT) Message-ID: <3805D25C.DC8AC6FA@mindless.com> Date: Thu, 14 Oct 1999 05:53:48 -0700 From: "D.M.P." Organization: dmp@aracnet.com X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.6 [en] (Win98; U) X-Accept-Language: en MIME-Version: 1.0 To: Michael Rothenberg Cc: freebsd-newbies@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Confusion of terms [Was: Re: Disks...?] References: <3.0.3.32.19991013111434.0071b580@slider> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: owner-freebsd-newbies@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.org Michael Rothenberg wrote: > > I was reading in the complete free bsd about how fbsd organises a disk. I > got confused. All I want is a dedicated fbsd pc with one physical drive. On > that drive it seems that it will be divided up into 4 slices(which come > after the MBR and partition table)? Cant I just have 1 slice be the whole > drive? So my root, swap, and /usr will be on the same big slice. > > Or do these slices become transparent to all? Or is it required that I have > a different slice for each..?? > > I didnt bring the book to work or I would list page nums };) You have to be careful with the terminology. There's slices and there is partitions. What FreeBSD calls a slice, Windows and DOS call a partition. /, /usr, and /var are all partitions, usually within the same slice. So normally, you'd give FreeBSD one slice, then partition it into swap, /, /usr, and so on. I'll use a DOS/Window analogy: In DOS fdisk, you can make a "DOS Extended Parition". This partition would be called a slice in FreeBSD parlance. Within that DOS Extended Partition, you have to make "Logical DOS Drives" so DOS/Windows can use the space. In FreeBSD, these Logical DOS Drives would be called partitions, and like with DOS, FreeBSD has to have partitions within the slice to use that space. You could look at the first Logical DOS Drive as FreeBSD's / partition, the second as the /usr partition, the third as the swap partition, and so on. With this in mind: To make a dedicated FreeBSD computer, use fdisk to make a single slice that takes up the entire disk, then use disklabel to make the /, swap, and other partitions within that slice. -- "Nothing is more noble, nothing more venerable than fidelity. Truth and faithfulness are the most sacred excellences and endowments of the human mind." -- Cicero To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-newbies" in the body of the message