/boot like linux!

[Jesse Guardiani]

Bob Johnson wrote:

> Jesse Guardiani wrote:
> 
>>On Thursday 03 March 2005 5:41 pm, [someone] wrote:
>>  
>>
>>>
>>>I'm not sure I understand the problem. If you don't want to create more
>>>partitions, then don't. You can make an 80gb (or 300gb, or whatever)
>>>drive into two partitions - a swap partition (2gig) and a / partition
>>>(78 gig) and install FreeBSD just fine.
>>>    
>>>
>>
>>Doesn't the boot partition have to NOT have soft updates though?
>>  
>>
> No, I don't think so.

Then why doesn't sysinstall enable soft updates on the root FS by default?


>>I created the setup you described about a year ago with 5.2.1, and
>>I had serious problems if the system ever hard rebooted after a
>>power failure. Single user manual fsck's and all that.
>>
>>
>>  
>>
> That configuration should not make serious fs corruption more likely, it
> just
> makes it more likely to happen on the / partition (!).

:)


> In general, the 
> FreeBSD
> filesystem is highly tolerant of things like power failures, and should
> be even
> better when softupdates is turned on.  But it can fail, and 5.2.1 was NOT
> considered a production release, so that could have also played a role in
> your problems.  I don't remember if softupdates had problems on 5.2.1 or
> not.

Look, I'm not new to FreeBSD. I know all of this. I just want to know if
it's possible to tell my boot loader which device my root partition is on.


>>>It's *best* to make more
>>>partitions (esp for /var) so that if something goes out of control
>>>logging, or you just neglect your logs, it doesn't go and fill up your
>>>only (ie / ) partition. Like most *nix OS's, it can be as simple or as
>>>complicated as you want it to be.
>>>    
>>>
>>
>>I want / + /boot. It's that simple.
>>
>>  
>>
> 
> What are you really trying to accomplish?

Reliability and efficient use of disk space.


> You want to run softupdates 
> on / ?

No, I want to consolidate all of my mount points while simultaneously
running softupdates on everything BUT the boot partition.


> I believe it is perfectly acceptable to use softupdates on the root
> partition these
> days.

I don't. It hasn't worked well in the past.


> The Handbook recommends turning on softupdates for all filesystems. 
> See
> http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/configtuning-disk.html
> 
> I'm pretty sure my test system at home has only / and swap (because it
> has a small hard drive), and uses softupdates on /.  I'll check when I get
> home.

Yes, please let me know how well it responds to a hard power cycle. A normal
FreeBSD system without softupdates on the root or boot partition should come
right back up without a manual fsck. In my experience, if softupdates are
used on the root partition and the root partition doubles as the boot partition
then you'll have much more difficulty recovering from a power failure.

-- 
Jesse Guardiani, Systems Administrator
WingNET Internet Services,
P.O. Box 2605 // Cleveland, TN 37320-2605
423-559-LINK (v)  423-559-5145 (f)
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