Mistake in the FreeBSD Handbook on geom

[Tom Rhodes]

On Fri, 23 May 2008 13:42:30 +0300
Manolis Kiagias <sonicy at otenet.gr> wrote:

> Lasse Brandt wrote:
> > Hi there,
> >
> > I think I might have found a mistake in the handbook - first off this
> > is the first time I try to setup geom, so there is a good chance that
> > I might miss something :)
> >
> > I was following instructions on this page:
> > http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/geom-mirror.html
> >
> > About half-way down it says:
> > "Now edit the replicated /mnt/etc/fstab file and remove or comment out
> > the swap file [1]. Change the other file system information to use the
> > new disk as shown in the following example:"
> >
> > A little later you should reboot into single user mode and "At the
> > console, ensure that the system booted from the gm0s1a."
> >
> > But I doubt that will ever happen - the handbook only tells me to
> > change /mnt/etc/fstab (which is the secondary disk) so when booting,
> > it will still use /etc/fstab (which hasn't changed).
> >
> > After I changed /etc/fstab as well - everything worked fine :)
> >
> >   
> 
> I have not read this part of the handbook carefully (yet) but it seems 
> to suggest a way of using two disks, where you transfer everything to 
> the second disk (after you create a gm device on it) and then you reboot 
> from this second disk. In this case, the instructions are correct: 
> /mnt/etc/fstab will become /etc/fstab when you effectively boot from the 
> second disk. One possible caveat is that you would have to possibly 
> adjust your BIOS (or disk jumpers) so it actually boots from the second 
> disk the second time. It seems your rebooted using the first disk.
> 
> If what you are actually looking for is a simple way to create a RAID1 
> for a new installation, this is an absolutely excellent and quite simple 
> article:
> 
> http://www.onlamp.com/pub/a/bsd/2005/11/10/FreeBSD_Basics.html?page=1
> 
> I have used this concept on several installs, and was always successful.

I need to re-write this section anyway.  Actually, it's been on my
TODO list for some time to add more sections here too.

-- 
Tom Rhodes