Return to BSD News archive
Path: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au!newshost.anu.edu.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!news.rmit.EDU.AU!news.unimelb.EDU.AU!munnari.OZ.AU!news.ecn.uoknor.edu!qns3.qns.com!imci4!newsfeed.internetmci.com!in1.uu.net!news.artisoft.com!usenet
From: Terry Lambert <terry@lambert.org>
Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc
Subject: Re: FreeBsd in the press (Inforworld article)
Date: Tue, 16 Apr 1996 13:58:28 -0700
Organization: Me
Lines: 88
Message-ID: <317409F4.3F36998F@lambert.org>
References: <4krhog$2ooq@news-s01.ny.us.ibm.net> <4ks3nq$9ll@uriah.heep.sax.de> <4kvfic$1c5e@news-s01.ny.us.ibm.net>
NNTP-Posting-Host: hecate.artisoft.com
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
X-Mailer: Mozilla 2.01 (X11; I; Linux 1.1.76 i486)
javier5@ibm.net wrote:
]
] In <4ks3nq$9ll@uriah.heep.sax.de>, j@uriah.heep.sax.de (J Wunsch)
writes:
] >javier5@ibm.net writes:
] >>I was very pleased to see this reference to FreeBsd.
] >>I do still think that the FreeBsd installation can be
] >>improved specially the Dialup configuration for us
] >>non Unix-gurus. :)
] >
] >.....as well as the disksetup configuration, as well as...
]
] I have not tried, but from what I hear it is extremely difficult
] to setup a second drive with FreeBSD. Is this part of what
] disksetup does?
No. The "disk setup" in this quote refers to controller
configuration in the "visual" configurator when "-c" is used
at the FreeBSD boot prompt.
Adding a second disk is not difficult, it is simply arcane.
If you have used Ultrix or SunOS systems for years, it's not
even arcane.
If you install the second disk at install time, it's easy.
The arcania issue is only an issue if you add a disk after
the initial install; this is not a very frequent occurance.
It requires knowledge of logical device layering in BSD (which
is available from nearly any Sun manual or from the manuals
in the DOC directory on a full install or CDROM, or printed
by O'Reilly and available from most computer bookstores), and
how that layering mapps onto DOS partitioning (information
which is available from the handbook).
This is exacerbated by the fact that BSD has traditionally
called divisions of a disk "partitions", and that BSD "partitions"
are *not* the same as DOS partitions, and further that BSD calls
DOS partitions "slices" so that there isn't a name conflict.
If you understand that a file system is just data on a logically
contiguous logical device in a BSD "partition" that is the result
of the device driver seeing a "disklabel", and that a "disklabel"
can be on a disk by itself ("dangerously dedicated") or on a
device which is a logical device in a DOS "partition" ("slice")
that is the result of a device driver seeing a DOS partition table
entry, then you have no problem.
Basically, you have to be able to visualize a two dimensional
container hierarchy, and know that it exists, then find out
the tools needed to put one container in another (fdisk, disklabel,
newfs) and the options that apply to any given stacking of
containers you make.
This is inherently complex because there should just be *one*
tool for doing this, but there isn't because the foundation
work is missing.
With the foundation work there, a tool could be written to
let you stack things only in allowable ways, without all the
name confusion. At the worst, it would make BSD "partitions"
look like just another method of getting DOS extended partitions
onto a disk (which sucks under DOS as well, but at least people
are used to it and familiar with the tool).
Ideally, you want slider bars, as in the "Partition Magic" GUI,
so people don't have to be familiar with DOS first.
Part of knowing what to allow for DOS partitioning is knowing
what the disk geometry DOS thinks you are using so you can
make the right C/H/S entries in the DOS partition table -- and
this information is not available from protected mode without
seriously complex boot code (ie: won't fit in the 8k available)
or VM86 support in the OS (to allow the complexity to live in
the protected mode code in the kernel). Without this information,
you can't make "safe" DOS paritions on a new drive, and you end
up missing the keystone in your foundation. Which is the current
situation.
Terry Lambert
terry@lambert.org
---
Any opinions in this posting are my own and not those of my present
or previous employers.