Solved How to manually write out a disk for 8.4 system, or install?

Chris_H

Chris_H

Greetings,
No matter how hard I try, I am unable to write out a standard table for a FreeBSD 8.4 install. All attempts through the FreeBSD install. The one issue I can't get past, no matter how I arrange the drive, or drives, is the following error:
Code: 
unable to find device node for /dev/ad4s1b
or
Code: 
unable to find device node for /dev/ad0s1b
... The swap device, of cource.
depending which platter I choose.
The ad0 platter is an IDE drive, hung off the first, and only IDE port.
The ad4 platter, is a SATA platter, hung off of port1, in the STATA block.
FWIW, I got frustrated, and found a PC-BSD install disk, I had laying around, and spun it up. It not only preformed the install w/o issue, it created a GPT table, too!
Anyway, the STATA drive was pulled only yesterday, from an 8.4 server, and had worked fine there, since 8 first came out.
So I know the hardware (platters) are just fine. The MB/RAM/CPU are brand new (out of the box).
So, at this point. I'm guessing my only option, is to manually slice up the platter(s), and given, my preferred scheme is GPT; I'll need to unpack the pieces of install I want, into the newly written/formatted slices (minimal install, w/subversion).
While I'm fairly comfortable slicing, and dicing the platters. Given all the trouble I've had, I'm going to beg for assistance this time.
My chosen layout (2 platters):
Code: 
# IDE (only platter on IDE port(s)
/var
and
Code: 
# SATA (only platter on SATA block)
/     (9G)
<swap>     (4608M)
/usr     (remainder of platter)
Any tips/pointers/assistance, greatly appreciated. I'm at your mercy. Thanks.

--Chris
 
Re: How to manually write out a disk for 8.4 system, or inst

OK. Update on the status. In an effort to get through this quickly, I attempted to follow the instructions @wblock@ provides at:
http://www.wonkity.com/~wblock/docs/html/disksetup.html
MBR, not GPT. Anyway. Now I'm stuck at:
Code: 
gpart create -s bsd ad0s1
which returns:
Code: 
gpart: geom 'ad0s1' : File exists
I followed the instructions verbatim:
Code: 
gpart create -s mbr ad0

gpart bootcode -b /boot/mbr ad0

gpart add -t freebsd ad0

gpart set -a active -i 1 ad0

gpart create -s bsd ad0s1
ERROR:
gpart: geom 'ad0s1' : File exists
geom() was perfectly happy, up until that step. What to do?

NOTE: I deleted all the slices that were on it, individually, prior to issuing:
Code: 
gpart destroy -F ad0

Thank you for all your time, and consideration.

--Chris
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Re: How to manually write out a disk for 8.4 system, or inst

Didn't we just talk about this last night? There is still an old BSDlabel partitioning on the disk inside the first partition. That must be destroyed before you can recreate it.
 
Re: How to manually write out a disk for 8.4 system, or inst

wblock@ said:
Didn't we just talk about this last night? There is still an old BSDlabel partitioning on the disk inside the first partition. That must be destroyed before you can recreate it.
Click to expand...
Sigh... Yes. we did.
If I'm not mistaken, I already deleted all the partitions... Ahem, I deleted all the slices within the partition.
I thought I mentioned that earlier in the post. Or perhaps I'm just completely off my nut.
I don't get it. I've never had so much trouble slicing out mount points, ot partitioning a platter with FreeBSD -- ever.
After issuing gpart delete -i 1 ad0, followed by -i 2, and so on. Remove all the slices? After all the slices are gone. I issue a gpart destroy -F ad0. A gpart show ad0, or gpart list ad0 returns gpart: No such geom: ad0.
Doesn't that get it? What am I missing?

Thank you for all your time, and trouble.

--Chris

EDIT:
I forgot to mention; I tried desperately to use GPT, following your instructions. But can't do it from an 8.4 DVD. Because /boot/pmbr doesn't exist. only /boot/mbr :(
 
Re: How to manually write out a disk for 8.4 system, or inst

Well, I've since found that Linux ext2-3 is supported, as well as Fat(32), and hfs+. In fact, I can partition the platters with anything but *BSD. :(
Well, that's not entirely true; PC-BSD's GPT is supported. So I guess it's just FreeBSD, that's not supported.

--Chris
 
Re: How to manually write out a disk for 8.4 system, or inst

OK. So if I should download the 9.0-boot-only image, and boot to it, and write the GPT partitioning scheme on the platters, following the doc at : http://www.wonkity.com/~wblock/docs/html/disksetup.html. Will I then be able to boot the 8.4-STABLE DVD, and unpack base && kernel to /, and be able to use 8.4? Or will the 8.4 DVD simply not recognize the GPT well enough to allow unpacking the dist correctly?

Thank you for all your time, and consideration.

Sincerely,
Frustrated
 
Re: How to manually write out a disk for 8.4 system, or inst

Chris_H said:
wblock@ said:
Didn't we just talk about this last night? There is still an old BSDlabel partitioning on the disk inside the first partition. That must be destroyed before you can recreate it.
Click to expand...
Sigh... Yes. we did.
If I'm not mistaken, I already deleted all the partitions... Ahem, I deleted all the slices within the partition.
Click to expand...

Deleting the slices is not the cure. Deleting all the partitions listed by an MBR does not delete the MBR. Likewise, deleting the slices does not delete the BSDlabel hiding inside them.

I thought I mentioned that earlier in the post. Or perhaps I'm just completely off my nut.
I don't get it. I've never had so much trouble slicing out mount points, ot partitioning a platter with FreeBSD -- ever.
After issuing gpart delete -i 1 ad0, followed by -i 2, and so on. Remove all the slices? After all the slices are gone. I issue a gpart destroy -F ad0. A gpart show ad0, or gpart list ad0 returns gpart: No such geom: ad0.
Doesn't that get it? What am I missing?
Click to expand...

The word is metadata. Forget about partitions for a minute, and think about partition tables. A partition table is a small block of data that describes how a disk is split up.
An MBR/BSDlabel disk has two partition tables.
The MBR partition table is at the start of the disk.
The BSDlabel partition table is just inside the first slice of the disk.

Partition tables are erased with gpart destroy. You can delete partitions all you want, but it does not erase the tables.
Destroy the BSDlabel partition table:
gpart destroy -F ada0s1

Then, destroy the MBR:
gpart destroy -F ada0
 
Re: How to manually write out a disk for 8.4 system, or inst

I'm on it!
Thanks a million!, @wblock@.

--Chris
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Re: How to manually write out a disk for 8.4 system, or inst

OK. My listings of gpart show, and ls /dev were different than those you indicated.
But I issued the following:
Code: 
ls /dev
...
ad0
ad0s1a
ad0s1b
ad4
Code: 
gpart destroy -F ad0s1a
... destroyed
ls /dev
...
ad0
ad0s1
ad4
Code: 
gpart destroy -F ad0s1
gpart: geom 'ad0s1': Invalid argument
gpart destroy -F ad0
ad0 destroyed
Code: 
ls /dev
ad0
ad4

gpart destroy -F ad4
ad4 destroyed
Code: 
ls /dev
ad0
ad4

spart show
OK. Looks like everything's now gone. I'm in Fixit now. I'm going to issue a shutdown -p now.
Then try again, to create everything with (bsd|sys)install. Here's hoping...

Thanks.

--Chris
 
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