format slice

[Freek Nossin]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Jerry McAllister [mailto:jerrymc at clunix.cl.msu.edu]
> Sent: vrijdag 11 maart 2005 21:00
> To: Freek Nossin
> Cc: freebsd-questions at freebsd.org; alejandro at varnet.biz
> Subject: Re: format slice
> 
> >
> > Thank you for your suggestions, I followed them and this is what
> happened:
> >
> > pcwin451# fdisk -s
> > /dev/ad0: 39704 cyl 16 hd 63 sec
> > Part        Start        Size Type Flags
> >    1:          63    20820177 0x07 0x00
> >    2:    20820240    19201392 0xa5 0x80
> >
> > Part 1 is the one I want to convert to a freebsd slice.
> >
> > Now I used fdisk -f <file> with the input
> >
> > p 1 0 0 0
> >
> > the operation succeeded. I did again:
> >
> > pcwin451# fdisk -s
> > /dev/ad0: 39704 cyl 16 hd 63 sec
> > Part        Start        Size Type Flags
> >    2:    20820240    19201392 0xa5 0x80
> >
> > And this was indeed the output I expected. So I thought lets see what
> > sysinstall thinks of all this. Selecting fdisk in the menu showed me a
> disk
> > layout where the NTFS partition still was on the disk.
> >
> > Disk name:      ad0                                    FDISK Partition
> > Editor
> > DISK Geometry:  39704 cyls/16 heads/63 sectors = 40021632 sectors
> (19541MB)
> >
> > Offset       Size(ST)        End     Name  PType       Desc  Subtype
> > Flags
> >
> >          0         63         62        -     12     unused        0
> >
> >         63   20820177   20820239    ad0s1      4 NTFS/HPFS/QNX        7
> >   20820240   19201392   40021631    ad0s2      8    freebsd      165
> >
> >
> > How can this be? I've always assumed that sysinstall uses the fdisk
> tool?
> > And which one is "correct"? Is it wise to try creating a new slice with
> > fdisk?
> 
> Well, is one of them reading only the in-memory label and the other
> reading the label on the disk?    When you did the fdisk, did you
> make sure it changed on disk.  Then, did the in-memory label get
> updated?
> 
> ////jerry


/stand/sysinstall would be the one that read the in-memory label. The other
way around seems impossible to me. But then how can these two be different?
I did close /stand/sysinstall and restarted. The in memory one *should* be
updated right? If this wasn't the case than it seems to me like bug in
sysinstall, or more likely, freebsd itself. 
Normally I should simply try rebooting the system and all ambiguities should
be solved. The problem is I'm working remote and rebooting is kind of a
risk.