New BSD Installer

[Warren Block]

On Thu, 16 Feb 2012, Jeremy Chadwick wrote:
> On Fri, Feb 17, 2012 at 01:08:28AM +0100, Miroslav Lachman wrote:
>>
>> Please don't mix two things together. gpart can replace fdisk and
>> bsdlabel, but GPT vs. MBR is a different thing. GPT doesn't play
>> nice with GEOM classes which store their metadata on last sector.
>> For example, you can't use gmirror of a whole drives and use GPT on
>> top of this mirror. (and gmirror is not the only one)
>
> This is quite possibly the most concise, clearest definition of a major
> (borderline catastrophic) situation pertaining to GPT + GEOM
> combinations.
>
> I'm going to be more bold than usual: who is fixing this, and when is it
> going to be MFC'd to 9, 8, and probably 7 would be a good idea?  If
> nobody is fixing this, someone had better light a fire under someone's
> ass to fix it.  I'm absolutely amazed this is still a problem.

How can it be fixed?  GPT only has two points of reference, the start 
and end of the disk.  To do more it would have to be aware of a lot of 
possible disk formats.

On the other hand, GEOM stuff works inside GPT partitions.  And if 
that's not acceptable, MBR partitions will be around for a long time.