FW: bin/161931: bsdinstall(8): (add sysinstall partition config as option)

[Nathan Whitehorn]

On 10/24/11 21:13, Fbsd8 wrote:
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Nathan Whitehorn [mailto:nwhitehorn at freebsd.org]
>> Sent: Monday, October 24, 2011 9:32 PM
>> To: joeb1
>> Cc: freebsd-sysinstall at FreeBSD.org
>> Subject: Re: bin/161931: bsdinstall(8): (add sysinstall partition 
>> config as
>> option)
>>
>> On 10/23/11 20:30, joeb1 wrote:
>>> The following reply was made to PR bin/161931; it has been noted by 
>>> GNATS.
>>>
>>> From: "fbsd8"<fbsd8 at a1poweruser.com>
>>> To:<bug-followup at FreeBSD.org>,
>>> <fbsd8 at a1poweruser.com>
>>> Cc:
>>> Subject: Re: bin/161931: bsdinstall(8): (add sysinstall partition 
>>> config
>> as option)
>>> Date: Mon, 24 Oct 2011 09:28:42 +0800
>>>
>>>   Yes I mean the mbr+bsdlabel  method as there is no other method
>> available in
>>>   sysinstall. And along with this, help info needs to be added 
>>> explaining
>>>   under what conditions one method or the other is used. Help saying
>> something
>>>   along the lines of older PC bios./hard drives use the mbr+bsdlabel
>>>   sysinstall method and newer PC bios./hard drives (manufactured 2010+)
>> need
>>>   to use the bsdinstall method because pc manufactures and Microsoft 
>>> have
>>>   changed the boot process. Or what ever is the true reason for this
>>>   difference. Installers need to have the correct info so they can make
>> the
>>>   correct decision about what method to select.
>>
>> That's fully supported, if you want to do it, and is even the default if
>> the drive is already MBR partitioned. The difference between the two is
>> that GPT is a lot more flexible than MBR (no 4-partition limit, for
>> instance), and allows nice things like labels. There's no old/new
>> machine difference -- 386s can boot GPT just as well as Core i7s. But
>> it's really a matter of personal preference. The only real difference is
>> that you can't dual-boot Windows with a GPT disk (this is why only the
>> "Entire Disk for FreeBSD" option in the installer sets up GPT). We can
>> extend the online help to this effect.
>> -Nathan
>>
>>
>>
>
> Nathan
>
> I do not understand how you can say
> "That's fully supported, if you want to do it, and is even the default 
> if the drive is already MBR partitioned."
>
> I installed rc1 on a ata hard drive containing ms/xp and a second time 
> on same HD containing FBSD 8.2 and I was not shown any dialog boxes 
> offering mbr/bsdlabel config method. A detailed review of bsdinstall 
> resulted in NO options every being shown to point to a dialog driven 
> mbr/bsdlabel HD config method. So if its there you really need massive 
> corrections to allow the user to fall into it. From the installers 
> view point, if there are no dialog boxes leading the user through the 
> process then that function does not exist.

Even in the autopartitioner, if the disk is MBR already, it uses MBR by 
default in the autopartitioner.

If it's a fresh disk, when you press the "Create" button it asks you 
what partition scheme you want and you choose MBR. If it's an already 
formatted disk (with GPT, say), and you press "Edit", then you choose 
MBR. You can also do other things like straight BSD label ("dangerously 
dedicated") by the same mechanism. It's not that complicated and is well 
documented in the handbook.

> Your description of the differences between the two HD config methods 
> is  a great example of the type of help info that should be displayed 
> in a help dialog box.

It's already in the handbook, and documented very well there. An online 
help file could probably well be extracted from the handbook. I have no 
time at the moment -- if you or someone else could prepare it, that 
would be move things along much more quickly.

> If I use bsdinstall and then want to return to 8.x I get error msg 
> because the secondary GPT table from the end of the HD still exists.

This kind of problem is why we got rid of sysinstall -- it bypasses all 
the normal OS partitioning tools and breaks in strange ways with no 
error handling on disks preformatted in any way it doesn't expect.
-Nathan