On Mon, Aug 19, 2002 at 04:28:21PM -0700, Stanley Reynolds wrote:

> "disklabel -i /dev/sd0a"
It should be "disklabel -r -i sd0" (or "disklabel -r -i /dev/rsd0c")
/dev/sd0a is false in two ways: 1. it is the block device. Use block
devices only for mount(8) commands. 2. disklabels must be written to
the whole disk (pseudo partition "c"), not to an other, not jet
existing partition. 

> asks the right questions and lets me see a good table
> but after a W for write and a reboot the label is not
> there. 
You should use the "-r" flag. This forces the write of the disklabel
to the disk. If not given, only the in core (in kernel) disklabel
is altered. This will be lost when you reboot. "-r" makes it permanent.
Maybe disklabel still needs a valid disklabel on the disk to 
work correct with the "-i" flag. If this is the case you may use
disklabel sd0 > dl
disklabel -r -R sd0 dl
disklabel -r -i sd0

> "swapctl -a /dev/sd0a" gets a device not configured message
... because the disklabel was not written to the disk. So you
have no partition table and therefore no partition "a". 
BTW: In BSD land the swap partition is always partition "b". 
"a" is the root partition. (I think modern BSDs have no need for this
layout, but it is a well accepted convention.) 

Keep VAXing! ;-) 
-- 



tschüß,
         Jochen

Homepage: http://www.unixag-kl.fh-kl.de/~jkunz/