From owner-freebsd-current@FreeBSD.ORG Fri Oct 9 02:21:06 2009 Return-Path: Delivered-To: FreeBSD-current@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id D13BA1065672 for ; Fri, 9 Oct 2009 02:21:06 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from ehrmann@gmail.com) Received: from mxout-07.mxes.net (mxout-07.mxes.net [216.86.168.182]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id A82F88FC29 for ; Fri, 9 Oct 2009 02:21:05 +0000 (UTC) Received: from [10.0.0.171] (unknown [64.9.236.71]) (using TLSv1 with cipher DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA (256/256 bits)) (No client certificate requested) by smtp.mxes.net (Postfix) with ESMTPSA id 4ADBC22E1F1; Thu, 8 Oct 2009 22:21:01 -0400 (EDT) Message-ID: <4ACE9DFD.3010207@gmail.com> Date: Thu, 08 Oct 2009 19:20:45 -0700 From: David Ehrmann User-Agent: Thunderbird 2.0.0.23 (Windows/20090812) MIME-Version: 1.0 To: Tom Uffner References: <4ACE6D84.3000209@gmail.com> <4ACE833A.3030506@uffner.com> In-Reply-To: <4ACE833A.3030506@uffner.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Mailman-Approved-At: Fri, 09 Oct 2009 04:57:38 +0000 Cc: FreeBSD-current@freebsd.org Subject: Re: 8.0rc1 not recognizing partitions on EPIA SN X-BeenThere: freebsd-current@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Discussions about the use of FreeBSD-current List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Fri, 09 Oct 2009 02:21:06 -0000 Tom Uffner wrote: > David Ehrmann wrote: >> First, I tried to upgrade the normal way. I built my own kernel and >> installed it, but when I tried to boot it, I got a mountroot> >> prompt. When I printed the devices, instead of seeing ad0s1a and >> friends, I saw ad0a and ad0d (just those two for ad0). I was still >> able to use the old (7.1) kernel fine. Thinking it was something to >> do with the upgrade, I tried to do a reinstall. I chose the default >> options, but once it got to the "last chance..." screen, this happened: >> >> Unable to find device node for /dev/ad0s1b in /dev! >> The creation of filesystems will be aborted. > > this is becoming an FAQ for 8.0 > > the short answer is "dangerously dedicated" partitions are not supported > by the 8.0 installer. back up your data. zero the MBR & partition table > with dd, and re-slice & partition your disk. after the install, restore > from your backups. > > search the freebsd-current archives for full details. dd did the trick. I understand why this was done, but at the same time, upgrading is now impractical for some users, and what looks like a fresh installation (repartitioned, resliced) can even fail. Is there a change that could be made to the partitioning process that would fix this?