Aw: Re: Aw: Re: Partitioning on a MBR table disk fails (and destroys my data...)

> Rick Macklem <rmacklem_at_uoguelph.ca> wrote:
> 
> > I don`t use it, but gpart is the preferred FreeBSD command. You might try
> > that instead.
>
> Does it work with MBR or only GPT? Anyway, I'll try it.
>
It does handle MBR. However, since you are already comfortable with the OpenBSD/NetBSD
fdisk, maybe firing up one of those and using their fdisk to clear out the slice
you want to use for FreeBSD would be easier. Especially since you mention below
that you don't want to "touch with FreeBSD anymore".
If you have problems doing this, maybe posting with exactly what error(s) you
get from fdisk might get some specific suggestions w.r.t. fixing it?

If you do choose to use a <Shell> from the FreeBSD installer, either fdisk (I don't
think you need to specify a disk, but if you do, try "/dev/ada0") or "gpart list"
should show you what FreeBSD thinks the partition table looks like.
(I don't use gpart, so I don't know its commands beyond that. The man page is
 rather long, so if you choose to use it, you've got some reading to do.)
--> If there is anything under the "freebsd" slice, you need to delete those
    before creating new ones.
--> If you do "Manual...MBR" from the installer, it should show you the slices
    and anything within each slice. If it shows you anything inside the "freebsd"
    slice, delete those before trying to create any new ones.
The "Manual...MBR" is a front-end to either gpart of fdisk (I don't work on the
installer, so I don't know which) and has always worked fine for me.
(I recently installed using this on the space left over from a Windows install,
 so it understood the MBR the Windows install put on the drive. I did create the
 freebsd slice with this, followed by the partitions within the slice.)
The only "trick" I've noticed is that I needed to know the names for the types of
partitions:
freebsd-ufs for a UFS partition
freebsd-swap for a swap partition
freebsd-zfs for a ZFS partition
- because the installer seems to expect you to know these for the "Manual...MBR"
  case.

> > Well, although installing is always a bit scary, if you don`t touch the
> > other
> > slices, I`d delete and create the freebsd one. It gets to a certain point
> > when
> > doing the `Manual MBR` before it asks you if you want to save it on disk.
>
> At least creating by the (curses) GUI installer is not possible. It does create
> somewhere instead of asking me and it doesn't even tell me where it
> has created it. And there are numeric bugs in the tool. The numbers it
> displayed changed without reason and became even negative ...
> So the MBR I don't touch with FreeBSD anymore ...
> A simple task for the installer developer: Please let me use an existing
> empty slice. This is no rocket sience.
>
> Carsten
Once you have cleared out the FreeBSD partition with OpenBSD/NetBSD, then
I'd encourage you to use "Manual ..MBR" and avoid the Auto option when you
get to that point in the FreeBSD install.

Good luck with it, rick
ps: I'm not an installer guy. I just use it from time to time.