disklabel - 8th partition shows "X" as Partition name

[Siegbert Baude]

Hi Eric,

>> The partitions within a FreeBSD slice are numberd from a to h, where c 
>> is always reserved for the complete disk.
>> So you will need two (or more) slices. Then create up to 7 (abdefgh) 
>> partitions within each slice.
> 
> 
> Thanks Siegbert.. Do you have any idea why this limit would be placed? 
> It seems like this is possibly a "backwards compatibility" limit.  It 
> would be nice if I could force it to use more partitions.

I remember a discussion about this issue. IIRC some other BSD allow 16 
partitions per slice, but for FreeBSD 8 partitions is a kernel limit, 
which would take a significant amount of work to change. Nobody did 
this until now, so the restriction is still valid.

With a maximum of four slices on PCs you can create up to 28 
partitions, which should be sufficient for a disk.

I once tried to use (in DOS-terms) logical partitions within an 
extended partition. This is possible, if you do the math and creation 
of partition tables by hand, but is not supported by the FreBSD tools. 
So you can even have more FreeBSD partitions than 28, if you really 
need so.

Ciao
Siegbert