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Date: Thu, 26 Nov 2009 14:35:32 GMT
From: Kostas Kanavidis <kostas_q3a@yahoo.com>
To: freebsd-gnats-submit@FreeBSD.org
Subject: sysinstall problems
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>Number:         140900
>Category:       bin
>Synopsis:       [geom_part] sysinstall(8) problems: "unable to make device node"
>Confidential:   no
>Severity:       non-critical
>Priority:       low
>Responsible:    gavin
>State:          feedback
>Quarter:        
>Keywords:       
>Date-Required:  
>Class:          sw-bug
>Submitter-Id:   current-users
>Arrival-Date:   Thu Nov 26 14:40:10 UTC 2009
>Closed-Date:    
>Last-Modified:  Fri Dec 25 21:10:00 UTC 2009
>Originator:     Kostas Kanavidis
>Release:        8.0 all beta, all RC and release
>Organization:
>Environment:
>Description:
Sometimes while attemting to install from FreeBSD CD I get the following error:

"Unable to make device node for /dev/da0s1a in /dev!
The creation of filesystems will be aborted."

I haven't been able to understand under which conditions the error
occurs, but it occurs more often when using dedicate mode.  It definetely
does not occur on 7.2-RELEASE.

Please excuse me if this information is not sufficient, this is my
first bug report. Do not hesitate to contact me for more details.

Thank you
Kostas Kanavidis

>How-To-Repeat:
Sysinstall steps to reproduce the error (does not happen always, it
appears to have some relationship with previous install attempts on
the same disk):

Standard install
a (Use Entire Disk)
q
Standard (install a standard MBR)
c (Create partition)
[ENTER] default size (all disk)
FS (A file system)
/ (Mount point)
q
Minimal Distribution
CD/DVD
YES (User Confirmation)
YES (Swap file warning)

>Fix:


>Release-Note:
>Audit-Trail:
State-Changed-From-To: open->feedback 
State-Changed-By: gavin 
State-Changed-When: Sat Nov 28 23:04:35 UTC 2009 
State-Changed-Why:  
To submitter:  This is caused because in some cases, in the past 
sysinstall created faulty partition tables.  Under 7.x and before 
these were not an issue, but now under 8.x these break things. 

The following workaround should fix things where you have disks 
showing this problem (either from the existing OS install, or 
using the LiveFS CD): 

dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/ad0 oseek=1 bs=512 count=1 

(replacing /dev/ad0 with whichever disk has the problem). 

Can you confirm that this fixes things for you please? 


Responsible-Changed-From-To: freebsd-bugs->gavin 
Responsible-Changed-By: gavin 
Responsible-Changed-When: Sat Nov 28 23:04:35 UTC 2009 
Responsible-Changed-Why:  
Track 

http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/query-pr.cgi?pr=140900 
State-Changed-From-To: feedback->feedback  
State-Changed-By: gavin 
State-Changed-When: Sat Nov 28 23:12:26 UTC 2009 
State-Changed-Why:  
Oh, and please make sure you have a back up of any data you care 
about before attempting that workaround! 

http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/query-pr.cgi?pr=140900 

From: "Kostas K." <kostas_q3a@yahoo.com>
To: gavin@FreeBSD.org
Cc:  
Subject: Re: bin/140900: [geom_part] sysinstall(8) problems: "unable to make device node"
Date: Thu, 3 Dec 2009 09:35:38 -0800 (PST)

 Yes, dd-ing or using any partition utility fixes the disk, but the problem still exists, it is not possible to use dedicate mode.
 
 I believe dedicate mode can be useful under some conditions, e.g. properly aligning a partition for an SSD disk.
 
 Is there any fix for this?
 
 --- On Sun, 11/29/09, gavin@FreeBSD.org <gavin@FreeBSD.org> wrote:
 
 > From: gavin@FreeBSD.org <gavin@FreeBSD.org>
 > Subject: Re: bin/140900: [geom_part] sysinstall(8) problems: "unable to make device node"
 > To: kostas_q3a@yahoo.com, gavin@FreeBSD.org, gavin@FreeBSD.org
 > Date: Sunday, November 29, 2009, 1:13 AM
 > Synopsis: [geom_part] sysinstall(8)
 > problems: "unable to make device node"
 > 
 > State-Changed-From-To: feedback->feedback 
 > State-Changed-By: gavin
 > State-Changed-When: Sat Nov 28 23:12:26 UTC 2009
 > State-Changed-Why: 
 > Oh, and please make sure you have a back up of any data you
 > care
 > about before attempting that workaround!
 > 
 > http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/query-pr.cgi?pr=140900
 > 
 
 
       
 
>Unformatted:
