unable to write data to disk ad0

[László Nagy]

>First of all, lets get the terminology straightened out.
>I think you mean to say that you want to add a partition to
>your FreeBSD slice.   
>
Yes.

>Second, I presume you are booted to that drive.   The system does
>not allow you to modify the label on the boot drive.   If it is the
>only FreeBSD bootable drive you have, then you will need to boot
>from the 'fixit' CD and run from that to modify the label and 
>add the additional partition.    
>  
>
Well, finally I read the disklabel manual over again (about 3 times) and 
I COULD add a new
partition on my boot drive!

>By the way, this is in either the handbook, FAQs or the archive.
>  
>
This is typical. You know what, after googling for serveral hours, I 
found out that
it did not let me write on the disk because the kernel had 
SECURELEVEL=2. This is
something that should be in the manual. I appreciate that you wanted to 
help me, but
actually you pointed me to the wrong direction two times.

I suggest to change the documentation of the disklabel/bsdlabel and 
fdisk programs.
We should add this warning:

"Warning: you need to disable your kernel securelevel in /etc/rc.conf. 
The kernel does not
allow to modify disk label information above securelevel=N."

(I'm still not sure about the value of N).

I'm not sure where can I add this request to change the documentation.
But it would save hundreds of hours for newbies and supporters too.

Best,

   Les