FreeBSD Installer not recognizing existing partition tables

[Joel Maxuel]

Oops, I forgot to properly note that I have removed the extra
partitions, and shrunk extended to reveal space for primary partitions.
 So the reply was in the context of no change in the behaviour of the
installer environment.

Now current parted info:

Disk /dev/sda: 537234768s
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: msdos
Disk Flags: 

Number  Start       End         Size        Type      File
system  Flags
 1      2048s       117229567s  117227520s  primary   ext4         boot
 2      117229568s  419311615s  302082048s  extended
 5      117231616s  419311615s  302080000s  logical   ext4

Disk /dev/sdb: 1953525168s
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/4096B
Partition Table: msdos
Disk Flags: 

Number  Start       End          Size         Type      File
system     Flags
 1      2048s       78125055s    78123008s    primary   ext4
 2      78127102s   1827698687s  1749571586s  extended
 5      78127104s   97656831s    19529728s    logical   ext4
 6      97658880s   117188607s   19529728s    logical   ext4
 7      117190656s  128907263s   11716608s    logical   linux-swap(v1)
 8      128909312s  695232511s   566323200s   logical   ext4
 9      695234560s  1827696639s  1132462080s  logical   ext2

On Fri, 2019-01-18 at 16:55 -0400, Joel Maxuel wrote:
> On Fri, 2019-01-18 at 12:11 +0100, Polytropon wrote:
> > On Fri, 18 Jan 2019 01:55:11 -0400, Joel Maxuel wrote:
> > > Looking to set up FreeBSD as part of a dual-boot with Debian
> > > Stretch
> > > (already installed).  The drives I will be using includes an SSD
> > > (ada0/sda) for rootfs and an HDD (ada1/sdb) for swap and /home.
> > 
> > Such kinds of setting are possible.
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > > When I ran the FreeBSD installer, everything went fine until I
> > > got
> > > to
> > > partitioning - I chose the semi-manual option, and only ada0 &
> > > ada1
> > > appeared - no existing partitions below.
> > > 
> > > dmesg revealed:
> > > 
> > > ada0 at ahcich0 bus 0 scbus0 target 0 lun 0
> > > ...
> > > ada0: Command Queueing enabled
> > > ada0: 262321MB (537234768 512 byte sectors)
> > > ada1 at ahcich1 bus 0 scbus1 target 0 lun 0
> > > ...
> > > ada1: Command Queueing enabled
> > > ada1: 953869MB (1953525168 512 byte sectors)
> > > ada1: quirks=0x1<4k>
> > > GEOM_PART: integrity check failed (ada0, BSD)
> > > GEOM_PART: integrity check failed (ada1, BSD)
> > 
> > That is correct so far - two physical devices.
> > 
> 
> So the GEOM_PART fail (with the wrong table type) is normal?
> Double checking that because trouble threads I have looked at have
> come
> up with this error before, but not the mismatched partition table
> identity (from what I have seen).
> 
> > 
> > > The parted details (I had pre-made the partitions for FreeBSD):
> > 
> > You should not pre-make anything for FreeBSD, just supply
> > unused disk space. The installer will create the required
> > partitions on its own. Experience tells us to leave the
> > installation tasks to the installer of the OS we want to
> > install. ;-)
> > 
> 
> FWIW, initially I didn't, but yeah, that "free space" was inside
> extended partition(s) - good point you made nonetheless.
> 
> > 
> > > ~> sudo parted /dev/sda unit s print
> > > Model: ATA Crucial_CT275MX3 (scsi)
> > > Disk /dev/sda: 537234768s
> > > Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
> > > Partition Table: msdos
> > > Disk Flags: 
> > > 
> > > Number  Start       End         Size        Type      File
> > > system  Flags
> > >  1      2048s       117229567s  117227520s  primary   ext4       
> > >   
> > > boot
> > >  2      117229568s  537233407s  420003840s  extended
> > >  5      117231616s  419311615s  302080000s  logical   ext4
> > >  6      419313664s  419315711s  2048s       logical   freebsd-ufs
> > >  7      419317760s  537233407s  117915648s  logical
> > 
> > And this reveals your problem:
> > 
> > Within the MBR partitioning scheme (as opposed to GPT which
> > doesn't require any further discussion here), FreeBSD needs
> > to be installed into a slice. A slice is a DOS primary (!)
> > partition which the installer cannot allocate here - disk
> > space insufficient.
> > 
> > FreeBSD cannot be installed into a logical drive inside a
> > DOS extended partition, which is what you're trying to do.
> > 
> > If you free up disk space, the installer - in "MBR mode" -
> > will create a slice (another DOS primary partition), and
> > inside this slice, will create partitions / labels.
> > 
> > Example:
> > 
> > /dev/ada0s1 -> ext4
> > (extended and logicals omitted)
> > /dev/ada0s2 -> FreeBSD slice
> > 	/dev/ada0s2a -> FreeBSD boot partition (or "everything")
> > 	/dev/ada0s2b -> FreeBSD swap partition
> > 
> > Depending on how you want to set the system up, you will
> > at least need ada0s2 with ada0s2a; everything else is optional
> > or can be located elsewhere.
> > 
> 
> <SNIP>
> 
> > 
> > Same problem here: No free disk space, and only a logical
> > drive within a DOS extended partition which FreeBSD cannot
> > natively use, at least not for booting.
> > 
> > It _might_ be possible to initialize this one with newfs
> > manually, and use it as /home (with "newfs" command and
> > maybe "tunefs" if needed). The corresponding /dev/ada1s<?>
> > will be a mystery for now. :-)
> 
> I suppose here is why I am replying as such - /dev (in the FreeBSD
> installer environment) is not splitting out ada0 and ada1 into their
> partition nodes.  As mentioned before, `gpart list` (my mistake for
> quoting `gpart show` earlier) returns nothing, and with the added `-
> a`
> switch, the only returned data is related to the optical drive.
> 
> > Sorry, I have never been using heavy DOS partitioning in
> > combination with FreeBSD, and even for dual-booting systems,
> > I've only been using primary partitions. I never needed
> > more than 4 "drive letters"... :-)
> > 
> 
> Understood.
> 
> > Sidenote:
> > 
> > For /home, if I understood you correctly, you don't even
> > need to add a label to the slice. Let's say, /dev/ada1s2
> > will be the DOS primary partition on the 2nd disk where
> > you want to place /home. You now _could_ add a 'd' label
> > ('a' reserved for boot partition, 'b' for swap, and 'c'
> > for "the whole thing, whatever it is"), and then run
> > "newfs /dev/ada1s2d" on it. That's not needed, you can
> > "newfs /dev/ada1s2" as well, and then use /dev/ada1s2
> > for the /etc/fstab entry. If you wanted to use the entire
> > disk as "FreeBSD data" (i. e., not to boot from), you
> > could use "newfs /dev/ada1" to initialize it. This approach,
> > not using any partitioning at all, is called "dedicated",
> > because only FreeBSD can use it. The omission of partitioning
> > information will make it unusable for other operating systems,
> > even if they have UFS file system support.
> > 
> > However, if you use the typical FreeBSD partitioning approach,
> > you should get things up and running without further problems.
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > > `gpart show` returns nothing, and because the GEOM error
> > > automatically
> > > assumes the partition tables are BSD when they are really MBR
> > > (msdos),
> > > I don't believe the thread I found will be of assistance:
> > > 
> > > https://www.mail-archive.com/freebsd-geom@freebsd.org/msg01424.ht
> > > ml
> > > 
> > > ...nor would I want to really risk blowing everything away (even
> > > with
> > > backups) for the possibility that my partition tables have gone
> > > weird
> > > over the years.
> > 
> > Try to remove the logical drives you prepared. See if the
> > installer picks up the free disk space. You have sufficient
> > DOS primary partitions left (you only need 1), that should
> > be okay. The installer seems to be a little confused here,
> > don't make it harder for it than it needs to be. :-)
> > 
> 
> To add some detail as to what the partition editor (continues to)
> read
> back (in case this jars an idea for someone):
> 
> ada0	256GB
> ada1	932GB
> 
> IIRC, if the partitioner considered the drives as initialized, a
> third
> column with "MBR" would be present.  Instead, it seems that the
> partitioner considered the drives as uninitialized or corrupt?
> 
> > 
> > > AHCI is turned on in my BIOS, but I am wondering if due to my
> > > other
> > > BIOS settings (noted above; IME disabled as well as it can be) if
> > > that
> > > is making FreeBSD expect something different from the controller
> > > than
> > > what is really happening.  I feel it is going to be something
> > > silly
> > > such as a slightly different process for non-UEFI.
> > 
> > I don't think so. The drives seem to be detected correctly
> > without any errors. It's just the confusing partitioning.
> > With unused disk space, things should work better.
> > 
> 
> I did grep dmesg against GEOM as well, and there are two extra
> GEOM_PART errors for the drive UUID's this time, instead of just the
> /dev nodes.
> 
> I suppose I could check for different kernel modes - there may be an
> option at the cd-loader that covers this.  
> 
> Thanks for the tips thus far.