How to create a partition for FreeBSD 9.0?

[Polytropon]

On Sat, 24 Nov 2012 23:14:40 +0100, Ralf Mardorf wrote:
> I use the amd64 install DVD.
> 
> With or without deleting, I can't format a bootable FreeBSD partition to
> ada0s1, aka Linux /dev/sda1.

You mention ada0s1. This is not a partition. It's called
a slice (different term: "DOS primary partition"). You
need to create partitions inside the slice (or one covering
the whole slice, typically not recommended). To _format_
a partition (freebsd-ufs GPT, or MBR slice + partitions),
newfs is the tool.

I know this might sound confusing, taking "DOS primary
partitions", "DOS extended partition" and "logical volume
inside a DOS extended partition" into account. Still it's
helpful to know the proper BSD terminology for those things,
and the understanding of _what_ a partition is (it's a
part of a "DOS primary partition", so to say - it works
like the "logical volume inside a DOS extended partition",
but without requiring the "DOS extended partition").



> FWIW if I reinstall GRUB legacy
> to /dev/sda, the boot flag will be set for the extended
> partition. /dev/sda1 is an empty ext3 partition, size 57.83 GiB.

I think it would be better to delete the partition (not "empty
partition", but then "no partition") and let the installer
allocate the free space to a slice. Then you shouldn't need
to bother with boot flags as you're probably going to chainload
per GRUB.

When you have created the partition, either by using gpart for
the more convenient GPT or MBR approach (gpart supports this
mechanism), or by using fdisk for the traditional MBR approach,
you can create partitions inside this slice, for example a
root partition, a swap partition, and maybe partitions for
functional separation of OS and data components, such as /tmp,
/var, /usr and /home. You can do this as mentioned with
fdisk + bsdlabel (MBR approach) or gpart (GPT approach,
but only if this is supported by the rest of your disk
organisation).



>    Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
> /dev/sda1              63   121274684    60637311   83  Linux

This is the partition you're going to install FreeBSD to?
Good, just delete it and let the installer do the work. :-)

You can also switch to "manual mode" and use the CLI tools to
create a slice and partitions. It's not very complicated and
should be possible from the "Fixit" live system (not tested).

See this document for details on partitioning preparation
and disk initialisation:

http://www.wonkity.com/~wblock/docs/html/disksetup.html



-- 
Polytropon
Magdeburg, Germany
Happy FreeBSD user since 4.0
Andra moi ennepe, Mousa, ...