I hate to bitch but bitch I must

[Manolis Kiagias]

PJ wrote:
> Manolis Kiagias wrote:
>   
>> PJ wrote:
>>   
>>     
>>> Manolis, my state of mind is quite clear... and I'm coping with
>>> everything quite allright... I'm not about to get mad at anyone or
>>> anything...
>>> but tell me, honestly, when you see the stuff I have described above?
>>> Woldn't that confuse anyone in their right mind?
>>>
>>>   
>>>     
>>>       
>> I am sorry, but there is something here, either some mistake on your
>> part or some other weird problem on your system I can not think of.
>>
>> I don't seem to remember glabel ever failing to store metadata, unless
>> 1) The device is non-existing 2) The device is mounted.
>> As a matter of fact, I did the glabel stuff on a machine a few hours
>> ago. This was already fully installed, I rebooted single user and was
>> done in less than 2 minutes.
>> And yes, if you get a metadata error, it means nothing was done so you
>> are *not* to go and change fstab!
>>
>> Could you  please send us /etc/fstab and the results of ls /dev/ad*
>>   
>>     
> Here are the outputs:
>
> fstab:
> # Device        Mountpoint    FStype    Options        Dump    Pass#
> /dev/ad12s1b        none        swap    sw        0    0
> /dev/ad12s1a        /        ufs    rw        1    1
> /dev/ad12s1h        /backups    ufs    rw        2    2
> /dev/ad12s1g        /home        ufs    rw        2    2
> /dev/ad12s1d        /tmp        ufs    rw        2    2
> /dev/ad12s1f        /usr        ufs    rw        2    2
> /dev/ad12s1e        /var        ufs    rw        2    2
> /dev/acd0        /cdrom        cd9660    ro,noauto    0    0
> linproc  /usr/compat/linux/proc linprocfs rw 0 0
>
> df:
> Filesystem   1K-blocks    Used    Avail Capacity  Mounted on
> /dev/ad12s1a   2026030  319112  1544836    17%    /
> devfs                1       1        0   100%    /dev
> /dev/ad12s1h  50777034       4 46714868     0%    /backups
> /dev/ad12s1g  50777034 6276538 40438334    13%    /home
> /dev/ad12s1d   4058062      36  3733382     0%    /tmp
> /dev/ad12s1f  50777034 5729324 40985548    12%    /usr
> /dev/ad12s1e   2026030  176070  1687878     9%    /var
> linprocfs            4       4        0   100%    /usr/compat/linux/proc
>
> # ls /dev/ad*
> crw-r-----  1 root  operator    0,  97 Oct 17 16:36 /dev/ad0
> crw-r-----  1 root  operator    0, 103 Oct 17 16:36 /dev/ad0s1
> crw-r-----  1 root  operator    0, 101 Oct 17 16:36 /dev/ad10
> crw-r-----  1 root  operator    0, 106 Oct 17 16:36 /dev/ad10s1
> crw-r-----  1 root  operator    0, 121 Oct 17 16:36 /dev/ad10s1a
> crw-r-----  1 root  operator    0, 122 Oct 17 16:36 /dev/ad10s1b
> crw-r-----  1 root  operator    0, 123 Oct 17 16:36 /dev/ad10s1c
> crw-r-----  1 root  operator    0, 124 Oct 17 16:36 /dev/ad10s1d
> crw-r-----  1 root  operator    0, 125 Oct 17 16:36 /dev/ad10s1e
> crw-r-----  1 root  operator    0, 126 Oct 17 16:36 /dev/ad10s1f
> crw-r-----  1 root  operator    0, 127 Oct 17 16:36 /dev/ad10s1g
> crw-r-----  1 root  operator    0, 102 Oct 17 16:36 /dev/ad12
> crw-r-----  1 root  operator    0, 107 Oct 17 16:36 /dev/ad12s1
> crw-r-----  1 root  operator    0, 128 Oct 17 16:36 /dev/ad12s1a
> crw-r-----  1 root  operator    0, 129 Oct 17 16:36 /dev/ad12s1b
> crw-r-----  1 root  operator    0, 130 Oct 17 16:36 /dev/ad12s1c
> crw-r-----  1 root  operator    0, 131 Oct 17 16:36 /dev/ad12s1d
> crw-r-----  1 root  operator    0, 132 Oct 17 16:36 /dev/ad12s1e
> crw-r-----  1 root  operator    0, 133 Oct 17 16:36 /dev/ad12s1f
> crw-r-----  1 root  operator    0, 134 Oct 17 16:36 /dev/ad12s1g
> crw-r-----  1 root  operator    0, 135 Oct 17 16:36 /dev/ad12s1h
> crw-r-----  1 root  operator    0,  99 Oct 17 16:36 /dev/ad4
> crw-r-----  1 root  operator    0, 104 Oct 17 16:36 /dev/ad4s1
> crw-r-----  1 root  operator    0, 108 Oct 17 16:36 /dev/ad4s1a
> crw-r-----  1 root  operator    0, 109 Oct 17 16:36 /dev/ad4s1b
> crw-r-----  1 root  operator    0, 110 Oct 17 16:36 /dev/ad4s1c
> crw-r-----  1 root  operator    0, 111 Oct 17 16:36 /dev/ad4s1d
> crw-r-----  1 root  operator    0, 112 Oct 17 16:36 /dev/ad4s1e
> crw-r-----  1 root  operator    0, 113 Oct 17 16:36 /dev/ad4s1f
> crw-r-----  1 root  operator    0, 114 Oct 17 16:36 /dev/ad4s1g
> crw-r-----  1 root  operator    0, 100 Oct 17 16:36 /dev/ad6
> crw-r-----  1 root  operator    0, 105 Oct 17 16:36 /dev/ad6s1
> crw-r-----  1 root  operator    0, 115 Oct 17 16:36 /dev/ad6s1a
> crw-r-----  1 root  operator    0, 116 Oct 17 16:36 /dev/ad6s1b
> crw-r-----  1 root  operator    0, 117 Oct 17 16:36 /dev/ad6s1c
> crw-r-----  1 root  operator    0, 118 Oct 17 16:36 /dev/ad6s1d
> crw-r-----  1 root  operator    0, 119 Oct 17 16:36 /dev/ad6s1e
> crw-r-----  1 root  operator    0, 120 Oct 17 16:36 /dev/ad6s1f
>
> Sorry, but I don't see what this is going to tell you... ad0 is XP; ad10
> is minimal FreeBSD 7.2; ad12 is 7.2 on 500gb; ad4 is 7.2 on 80gb; and
> ad6 is messed up FBSD I'm cheking & setting up with clone of ad12
> (dump/restore)
> Now I will try the glabel again...
> # shutdown now
> # glabel label rootfs /dev/ad12s1a
> glabel: Can't store metadata on /dev/ad0s1a
>
>   

shutdown now will get you into single user mode, but / is still mounted
read-write.
Do a shutdown -r now and press 4 on the loader to get into single user mode.
When the single user mode finishes booting and you get to the # prompt,
'/' will be mounted read only
and glabel will succeed

> manual: "it is assumed that a single ATA disk is used, which is
> currently recognized by the system as ad0. It is also assumed that the
> standard FreeBSD partition scheme is used, with /, /var, /usr and /tmp
> file systems, as well as a swap partition."
>
> Now, does that mean that glabel does not work if there are several disks
> on the system... it certainly does not say so nor does it adv ertise
> that this would not work if there are several ATA disks present..
> Previously I had also tried a reboot press 4 with exactly the same
> results....
>
>   

Aha, as I said above then.
If you've done this and you are still getting the can't store metadata
message,
I am really out of ideas.