From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Sat Sep 18 04:13:54 2010 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 1DBCC106566B for ; Sat, 18 Sep 2010 04:13:54 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from perryh@pluto.rain.com) Received: from agora.rdrop.com (agora.rdrop.com [IPv6:2607:f678:1010::34]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id D10678FC0C for ; Sat, 18 Sep 2010 04:13:53 +0000 (UTC) Received: from agora.rdrop.com (66@localhost [127.0.0.1]) by agora.rdrop.com (8.13.1/8.12.7) with ESMTP id o8I4DrCc095177 (version=TLSv1/SSLv3 cipher=DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA bits=256 verify=NOT); Fri, 17 Sep 2010 21:13:53 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from perryh@pluto.rain.com) Received: (from uucp@localhost) by agora.rdrop.com (8.13.1/8.12.9/Submit) with UUCP id o8I4DrlP095176; Fri, 17 Sep 2010 21:13:53 -0700 (PDT) Received: from fbsd61 by pluto.rain.com (4.1/SMI-4.1-pluto-M2060407) id AA12795; Fri, 17 Sep 10 21:09:18 PDT Date: Fri, 17 Sep 2010 21:09:13 -0700 From: perryh@pluto.rain.com To: amvandemore@gmail.com Message-Id: <4c943b69.bsyYirMmUuB/1m0g%perryh@pluto.rain.com> References: <4c83190a.SG+LIhPWaGtmaaeL%perryh@pluto.rain.com> <4C835474.7060707@infracaninophile.co.uk> <4c8487cc.Rh42YL91jTIv09e0%perryh@pluto.rain.com> <4c84ce46.sHyLaI+H+UzM+J/y%perryh@pluto.rain.com> <4c8c5260.+COCCpHgloxRSY2/%perryh@pluto.rain.com> <4C8CD2A4.3020203@infracaninophile.co.uk> <4c8da53d.pPK/NzHAHPlQPOfh%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 Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: sysinstall vs gmirror 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: Sat, 18 Sep 2010 04:13:54 -0000 Adam Vande More wrote: > On Sun, Sep 12, 2010 at 11:14 PM, wrote: > > The part I don't know how to do is partitioning gm0 by hand. > > (I suppose it would require some sort of arcane incantations > > involving bsdlabel.) For all its limitations, sysinstall > > seems at least to know how to translate a reasonably human- > > readable representation of the desired slice and partition > > layout into the necessary fdisk and bsdlabel commands. > > I don't know of any exact howto, but the general principles are > laid out here: > > http://wiki.freebsd.org/RootOnZFS/GPTZFSBoot/Mirror I finally had time to (try to) read through that, and I'm having trouble locating a description of how to partition a gmirror. (The page seems oriented almost entirely to ZFS and gpart, the only mention of gmirror being in connection with swap.) I'm quite sure I don't want to attempt ZFS on a machine with only 512MB, and I'm not at all sure that a BIOS of this age would understand gpart. > It shows how to load geom modules from usb stick I had already figured out that part :) Fixit# ln -s /dist/boot/kernel /boot Fixit# gmirror load which is all I think I need until I get the mirror partitioned. > Next fdisk/gpart accordingly (don't forget to make it bootable). This is where I get stuck. I've partitioned the physical drives using sysinstall, but how do I go about partitioning gm0? > If your setup if GPT compatible, I recommend using it. How do I find out whether this setup is GPT compatible? > IMO, it's significantly more straightforward than the old > mbr style. I sure did not get that impression from reading gpart(8) :( For starters there seem to be at least 6 kernel options, of which I guess I may need 3: GEOM_PART_BSD, GEOM_PART_GPT, and GEOM_PART_MBR; there's apparently no "edit" function; and one has to puzzle out what is meant by a "protective MBR" as part of understanding how to make a GPT partition bootable.