>Number:         7574
>Category:       install
>Synopsis:       sysinst should use an additional handling for the disk geometry
>Confidential:   no
>Severity:       non-critical
>Priority:       medium
>Responsible:    gnats-admin (GNATS administrator)
>State:          open
>Class:          sw-bug
>Submitter-Id:   net
>Arrival-Date:   Thu May 13 12:35:00 1999
>Last-Modified:
>Originator:     Bernd Ernesti
>Organization:
	
>Release:        NetBSD-current 13-May-1999
>Environment:
	
System: NetBSD arresum.inka.de 1.4B NetBSD 1.4B (ARRESUM) #348: Tue May 11 16:26:15 MEST 1999 bernd@arresum.inka.de:/home/work/obj_i386/src.i386/sys/arch/i386/compile/ARRESUM i386


>Description:
	1.) Try to boot a floppy on an allready installed system where you
	    want to keep the existing partion layout but want to use the
	    'Install NetBSD to hard disk' option. You have no chance to
    	    keep the old layout.
	    This is needed when you update an old system where you want
	    to keep the layout because of unknown filesystems like suspend
	    partitons or msdos partition and the old layout is good enough.

	2.) Use a different geometry then the one NetBSD wants to use,
	    e.g. the BIOS one.
	    You have to stop sysinst, edit the disklabel, write it
	    and notice that there is no way to use the different
	    geometry under sysinst.

	3.) The fdisk layout uses always the NetBSD geometry which makes
	    it harder to check the MSDOS partition or other partitons
	    which uses the BIOS geometry.

	4.) Say yes to install a bootblock on the new system and type
	    some chars while you selected an empty partition.
	    There is no way to remove that entry from the bootselector
	    other by stopping the install session and start again.

>How-To-Repeat:
>Fix:
	1.) Add an option to create a new fstab from the existing layout and
	    skip the disklabel part.
	2.) Make it possible to use a different layout for the geometry
            so you can use the 'cylinder' units with a non NetBSD
	    geometry, e.g. the BIOS geometry (otherwise you have to
	    use sectors which makes it harder to do that).
	3.) See 2), maybe add a switch in the fdisk menu to select a
	    geometry. So you can change an entry, select a different geometry
	    and edit another partition.
	4.) Add a menu entry to clean an entry after you insert a name for it.

>Audit-Trail:
>Unformatted: