can't make an 'a' slice except with auto-defaults

[Jerry McAllister]

On Tue, Feb 02, 2010 at 07:59:15PM -0700, Steve Franks wrote:

> On a running system.  I mean, I know I should quit being a &%^#& and
> read the manpage for bsdlabel, but sysintall really does have a nice
> tui.    'C'reate slice goes straight to 'd', even on a 'fresh' disk.
> I see in the handbook, this is alluded to, but some intermediate level
> between begginer and expert (bsdlabel just strikes me as way too easy
> to trash the disk I'm running off of while trying to make a backup),
> would be nice...512M just won't fit the kernel+symbols.
> 
> <fuming, reading man bsdlabel ;) >

Well, Create slice would be an fdisk(8) thing, not bsdlabel.
bsdlabel creates partitions within a slice.

But, generally you cannot run fdisk on a disk that is in use on a 
running system - which generally means that it is the boot device, 
has filesystems mounted or has part of the currently designated swap 
space.  You will need to plug in a boot cd or bring up the fixit system
for that.   The fixit system runs from memory - creates filesystems
and mount points in memory rather than on disk, so it can talk to
any disk.

New, if you are working on a non-used (extra) disk, eg one that is not
the boot device nor has any mounted filesystems or swap space
on it, then you should be able to fdisk and bsdlabel that from
a running system.

I have no idea what you mean by "'C'reate slice goes straight to 'd'"
It does not match anything I remember being possible.  I don't happen
to have any system handy at the moment that I can muck with disks on.

////jerry


> 
> Steve
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