From pepper@reppep.com  Mon Jan 19 18:31:43 2004
Return-Path: <pepper@reppep.com>
Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125])
	by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 382AC16A4CE
	for <FreeBSD-gnats-submit@freebsd.org>; Mon, 19 Jan 2004 18:31:43 -0800 (PST)
Received: from www.reppep.com (www.reppep.com [66.92.104.200])
	by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id EDF7443D1D
	for <FreeBSD-gnats-submit@freebsd.org>; Mon, 19 Jan 2004 18:31:39 -0800 (PST)
	(envelope-from pepper@reppep.com)
Received: by www.reppep.com (Postfix, from userid 501)
	id 088F3FE2D; Mon, 19 Jan 2004 21:32:35 -0500 (EST)
Message-Id: <20040120023235.088F3FE2D@www.reppep.com>
Date: Mon, 19 Jan 2004 21:32:35 -0500 (EST)
From: Chris Pepper <pepper@reppep.com>
Reply-To: Chris Pepper <pepper@reppep.com>
To: FreeBSD-gnats-submit@freebsd.org
Cc:
Subject: Improve documentation for i386 disk geometry
X-Send-Pr-Version: 3.113
X-GNATS-Notify:

>Number:         61605
>Category:       docs
>Synopsis:       [request] Improve documentation for i386 disk geometry
>Confidential:   no
>Severity:       serious
>Priority:       medium
>Responsible:    freebsd-doc
>State:          closed
>Quarter:        
>Keywords:       handbook
>Date-Required:  
>Class:          doc-bug
>Submitter-Id:   current-users
>Arrival-Date:   Mon Jan 19 18:40:16 PST 2004
>Closed-Date:    Tue Dec 11 18:20:59 UTC 2012
>Last-Modified:  Tue Dec 11 18:20:59 UTC 2012
>Originator:     Chris Pepper
>Release:        FreeBSD 4.9-STABLE i386
>Organization:
>Environment:
System: FreeBSD www.reppep.com 4.9-STABLE FreeBSD 4.9-STABLE #13: Thu Nov 13 23:50:39 EST 2003 root@www.reppep.com:/usr/obj/usr/src/sys/REPPEP i386


	
>Description:
Documentation for disk geometry (i386) is lacking.

As described in i386/61603, sysinstall doesn't always come up with a
usable disk geometry.

The Handbook documentation on sysinstall is a bit sparse. It should
mention that geometry may be guessed wrong, \\tools\\pfdisk.exe on the
CD-ROM can be used to pick up workable geometry numbers from within a
working DOS environment (but not a normally-running Windows XP, which
won't allow the necessary device access -- boot floppy created in XP
works, though).

http://www.freebsd.org/relnotes/4-STABLE/installation/i386/trouble.html #4.2.2
claims sysinstall will figure out geometry from a preexisting DOS partition,
but this didn't work for me -- perhaps because my DOS partition started at
sector #63??

I was able to boot FreeBSD from the 5.2 CD-ROM, after installing with
sysinstall's bad geometry values. It seems it should be possible to install
FreeBSD boot blocks at this point, without running through the whole
sysinstall process, but I was unable to find any pointers to how to do
so. I checked the FAQ (which says to reinstall from scratch), and the
manual pages for fdisk, sysinstall, boot0cfg, and disklabel (4.9) -- is
"bsdlabel -B ad0s2" the right way to go??

>How-To-Repeat:
Search www.freebsd.org for "sysinstall geometry" seeking information on
getting a 5.2 system to bootstrap correctly. Bang head -- do not damage desk.

>Fix:
Mention sysinstall's good but imperfect geometry guessing in Handbook
(http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/install-pre.html 2.2.3) &
FAQ (http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/faq/install.html#GEOMETRY).

Suggest disklabel/bsdlabel in Handbook & FAQ &
http://www.freebsd.org/relnotes/4-STABLE/installation/i386/trouble.html (4.2.2)
for fixing non-bootable systems installed with incorrect geometry.

Add bsdlabel/disklabel to SEE ALSO under boot0cfg.
>Release-Note:
>Audit-Trail:
State-Changed-From-To: open->closed 
State-Changed-By: eadler 
State-Changed-When: Tue Dec 11 18:20:58 UTC 2012 
State-Changed-Why:  
this was solved by not solving it :) - disk geometry is now an outdated 
concept so I removed the question 

http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/query-pr.cgi?pr=61605 
>Unformatted:
