8.0rc1 not recognizing partitions on EPIA SN

[David Ehrmann]

Tom Uffner wrote:
> David Ehrmann wrote:
>> First, I tried to upgrade the normal way.  I built my own kernel and 
>> installed it, but when I tried to boot it, I got a mountroot> 
>> prompt.  When I printed the devices, instead of seeing ad0s1a and 
>> friends, I saw ad0a and ad0d (just those two for ad0).  I was still 
>> able to use the old (7.1) kernel fine.  Thinking it was something to 
>> do with the upgrade, I tried to do a reinstall.  I chose the default 
>> options, but once it got to the "last chance..." screen, this happened:
>>
>> Unable to find device node for /dev/ad0s1b in /dev!
>> The creation of filesystems will be aborted.
>
> this is becoming an FAQ for 8.0
>
> the short answer is "dangerously dedicated" partitions are not supported
> by the 8.0 installer. back up your data. zero the MBR & partition table
> with dd, and re-slice & partition your disk. after the install, restore
> from your backups.
>
> search the freebsd-current archives for full details.
dd did the trick.

I understand why this was done, but at the same time, upgrading is now 
impractical for some users, and what looks like a fresh installation 
(repartitioned, resliced) can even fail.  Is there a change that could 
be made to the partitioning process that would fix this?