On Sat, Jun 12, 2004 at 04:42:46AM -0400, Chris Ross wrote:
Re: sysinst wiping out compaq system configuration

> I told it [sysinst] I wanted to define partitions, because thinking
> that it meant BSD partitions (not fdisk partitions), I did want to do
> to.                                               

>   Did I just give it the wrong answer, or should it've gone through
> some other step where it asked me about the fdisk configuration of the
> drive?  I would've expected the latter, but it never brought it up.

the term "partitions" is heavily diluted on the i386 port.  I think
that's why FreeBSD calls the BSD-specific partitions slices or stripes
or something along those lines.

>   Can anyone help me understand this?  Thanks much...

the partitioning method for i386 is two-staged: there's a four-partition
fdisk-compatible partition table, and then a NetBSD-specific partition.
on the i386 platform the NetBSD partition information typically goes
inside one of the four fdisk partition entries; however, if the disk
isn't going to be used for anything other than NetBSD, you can skip the
fdisk-compatible partition, and write only the NetBSD paritition table.

I agree that it's confusing.  maybe somebody here can explain the
history or technical reasons why disklabel on i386 can't deal with the
fdisk partitions directly, and why an adjunct program (fdisk) is
necessary.

-- 
  Aaron J. Grier | "Not your ordinary poofy goof." | agrier@poofygoof.com
  "someday the industry will have throbbing frontal lobes and will be able
  to write provably correct software.  also, I want a pony." -- Zach Brown