fdisk vs. BSD disklabels and slices

fdisk vs. BSD disklabels and slices

[Bob Tracy]

Has anyone reading this used a recent version of "fdisk" to create a BSD
disklabel and disk slices from scratch on an Alpha?  If so, would you
please describe the procedure in enough detail that relevant Linux
installation documentation could be updated?  It would seem to be anything
*but* intuitive :-(.

If "fdisk" is the wrong utility, I need a pointer to the correct one(s).
At this point, I'm seriously considering digging out my old Debian 4.0
CDs and harvesting the essential pieces.

As always, thanks in advance.

For what it's worth, the new Gentoo "install-alpha-minimal" image fixed
the "qla1280" firmware loading issue for the most part (a module reload
is required to get the firmware to load).

--Bob

Re: fdisk vs. BSD disklabels and slices

[Matt Turner]

On Sun, Jan 6, 2019 at 2:31 PM Bob Tracy <rct@gherkin.frus.com> wrote:
>
> Has anyone reading this used a recent version of "fdisk" to create a BSD
> disklabel and disk slices from scratch on an Alpha?  If so, would you
> please describe the procedure in enough detail that relevant Linux
> installation documentation could be updated?  It would seem to be anything
> *but* intuitive :-(.

fdisk's BSD disklabel support has been unusable raw disks, as far as I
understand, since v2.23. See
https://www.spinics.net/lists/util-linux-ng/msg11869.html

> If "fdisk" is the wrong utility, I need a pointer to the correct one(s).
> At this point, I'm seriously considering digging out my old Debian 4.0
> CDs and harvesting the essential pieces.
>
> As always, thanks in advance.

Use 'parted' instead. It works well. Reminds me that I need to change
the Gentoo handbook to reference parted instead of fdisk.

> For what it's worth, the new Gentoo "install-alpha-minimal" image fixed
> the "qla1280" firmware loading issue for the most part (a module reload
> is required to get the firmware to load).

Good to hear. I suspect the module is in the initramfs but the
firmware is on the root file system. Hmm..

Re: fdisk vs. BSD disklabels and slices

[Bob Tracy]

On Sun, Jan 06, 2019 at 02:46:54PM -0800, Matt Turner wrote:
> On Sun, Jan 6, 2019 at 2:31 PM Bob Tracy <rct@gherkin.frus.com> wrote:
> >
> > Has anyone reading this used a recent version of "fdisk" to create a BSD
> > disklabel and disk slices from scratch on an Alpha?  If so, would you
> > please describe the procedure in enough detail that relevant Linux
> > installation documentation could be updated?  It would seem to be anything
> > *but* intuitive :-(.
> 
> fdisk's BSD disklabel support has been unusable raw disks, as far as I
> understand, since v2.23. See
> https://www.spinics.net/lists/util-linux-ng/msg11869.html
> 
> > If "fdisk" is the wrong utility, I need a pointer to the correct one(s).
> > At this point, I'm seriously considering digging out my old Debian 4.0
> > CDs and harvesting the essential pieces.
> >
> > As always, thanks in advance.
> 
> Use 'parted' instead. It works well. Reminds me that I need to change
> the Gentoo handbook to reference parted instead of fdisk.
> 
> > For what it's worth, the new Gentoo "install-alpha-minimal" image fixed
> > the "qla1280" firmware loading issue for the most part (a module reload
> > is required to get the firmware to load).
> 
> Good to hear. I suspect the module is in the initramfs but the
> firmware is on the root file system. Hmm..

Re: parted.  Thanks.  Presumably included in the i-a-m image: count on
me to say something if not :-).  Appreciate the steer.

--Bob