One or Four?

[Jerry McAllister]

On Fri, Feb 17, 2012 at 02:05:23PM -0800, Robison, Dave wrote:

> Hiya,
> 
> A question has arisen with the implementation of bsdinstall in 9.x as 
> opposed to sysinstall in 8.x and previous versions of FreeBSD.
> 
> It has always been FreeBSD's default to create four partitions and swap 
> as such:
> 
> /
> /tmp
> /var
> /usr
> swap
> 
> The recent changes in 9.x with bsdinstall use a default behavior which 
> creates only one partition and swap, with everything living under a 
> single "/" partition as such:
> 
> /
> swap
> 
> We'd like a show of hands to see if folks prefer the "old" style default 
> with 4 partitions and swap, or the newer iteration with 1 partition and 
> swap.



I much prefer to have the choice to create partitions as I need.
My typical default is:

  / 
  /tmp
  /usr
  /var
  /home    or some other name such as /work
  swap

That looks like 5 plus swap to me.

I also want to decide the size of partitions.
I have never found the default sizes to be servicable or adequate.


Having said this, I occasionally have created servers with 
just root and swap.   It depends on circumstances and need
and I hope not to lose the option to choose or to have that 
option require some complicated and arcane/hidden procedure 
to choose other than the default.

I have never had problems with getting disks built, newfs-ed 
and mounted using the Sysinstall controlled stuff.  There are 
other things that Sysinstall needed, but choosing/creating 
partitions was not a problem.

I understand that going to GPT means some changes, but I am
sure that it should be able to create partitions of any size 
with probably a larger range of identifiers.  Since my new 
machines have not arrived yet (expecting soon), I haven't
explored the magic of GPT and am still rather foggy on where
it fits in the overall picture.  I am looking forward to get it
insinuated in to my thick head soon.

BSDinstall control of partitioning should just be adding features 
and capacity and not removing any options (except if there are 
some that are actually obsolete).  Having said that, upgrading 
the language and the way options and sizes are specified is fine 
with me as long as it is all there, available and clearly labeled 
and documented.

Thanks for asking,

////jerry


> 
> This is not a discussion of MBR vs GPT. The default moving forward from 
> 9.x will be to use GPT.
> 
> We realize that one can use bsdinstall to create as many partitions as 
> one wants. However, the new default is for one partition and swap. We 
> want to know if people would prefer the older style default with four 
> partitions and swap when selecting "Guided Partitioning" and "Use Entire 
> Disk".
> 
> Let the majority decide which layout is preferred for the default.
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> Dave
> 
> -- 
> Dave Robison
> Sales Solution Architect II
> FIS Banking Solutions
> 510/621-2089 (w)
> 530/518-5194 (c)
> 510/621-2020 (f)
> daver at vicor.com
> david.robison at fisglobal.com
> 
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