Re: Some notes on RootOnZFS article in wiki

2009/12/21 Mel Flynn
<mel.flynn+fbsd.current_at_mailing.thruhere.net<mel.flynn%2Bfbsd.current_at_mailing.thruhere.net>
>

> On Monday 21 December 2009 07:03:52 krad wrote:
> > 2009/12/21 Mel Flynn
> > <mel.flynn+fbsd.current_at_mailing.thruhere.net<mel.flynn%2Bfbsd.current_at_mailing.thruhere.net>
> <mel.flynn%2Bfbsd.current_at_maili
> > ng.thruhere.net>
> >
> > > Hi,
> > >
> > > yesterday went through the RootOnZFS (gpt mirror version) and here's a
> > > few notes:
> > > 1) You cannot use the install CD. It doesn't have a livefs and so you
> can
> > > never do the actual install in 2.2. The DVD will work and the USB
> image.
> > > I ended up using the livefs CD and the USB image, cause I didn't want
> to
> > > loose
> >
> > Maybe that procedure needs modifying a bit, but you can do its from
> disk1.
> > As i have. Things are a bit clumsy but it does work.
>
> - Using 8.0-RELEASE disc 1 amd64, 2 coasters burnt on two different
> machines
> with two different OS's, the Fixit option from CD/DVD kept asking for the
> livefs CD, so I assume it's not on there or two different coasters had the
> exact same errors.
> - Livefs doesn't have /dist/8.0-RELEASE/*.
> - Ejecting livefs won't work when mounted.
> - umount is on CD.
> - /rescue/umount is too big for space left on md0.
> - libc.so.7+umount is also too big for space left on md0.
>
> You are using option 5 on the fixit menu arent you? As thats what i used.
Its clunky as its not bash and loads of paths are not setup.

 Generally these days I use a usb drive with a full installation of freebsd,
with all the different distos on it it might want to install




So I'm curious how the 'clumsy' method works.
>
> > > 3) By adding the swap partitions on the two mirrored disks to
> /etc/fstab
> > > top
> > > actually shows the sum of these as available swap. My expectation
> is/was
> > > that
> > > the swap would be mirrored and thus I'd have only the size of one swap
> > > partition. If this isn't the case, can I get by with 1 of the two since
> > > they're double the intended size or should one use 2 and thus create
> them
> > > half
> > > the intended size?
> >
> >  No as if you loose a disk you will only have 1/2 the swap you need.
>
> Point taken.
>
> > > 4) The given mount points have sane defaults, however, I use cvs to
> > > checkout
> > > the ports. It would be nice to have one example where data is already
> in
> > > a directory tree and how one can promote it to a zfs filesystem with
> > > special properties.
> >
> > You cant really promote something to a file system. The ideal situation
> is
> > you create the fs before you unpack the ports tar ball (or cvs).
> Otherwise,
> > rename /usr/ports (/usr/ports.old/, create the fs as desired, then rsync
> >  the files there (or cp, or mv). Then delete the old tree.
>
> Right, I was wondering if that would actually work. If I do for example:
> zfs create -o compression=on zroot/usr/local/etc
>
> with files in there, would this result in the files being 'below' the mount
> point or would they be forever lost?
> --
> Mel
>