Re: Have the device names for hard discs been changed?

Gavin Atkinson <gavin.atkinson@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> · Sun, 29 Jan 2006 19:12:39 +0000 (GMT)

On Sun, 29 Jan 2006, Christian Baer wrote:
When I installed new drives (ad0, which is the boot drive and ad8 which
is the new one), I created a new slice (dd-mode[1]) and new partition(s)
without any problems. I did notice that the letter for a single
partition changed from 'e' to 'd'. So a drive containing only a single
file system now is /dev/adxs1d[2].

I'm not sure it was ever 'e'.  I'm also confused by what you mean by 
"dd-mode" - the footnote suggests you're talking about "dangerously 
dedicated" mode, but the fact you created a slice and have "s1" in all of 
your device names suggests that you are in fact not running in dangerously 
dedicated mode.
After that I started sysinstall and created a new slice and a new
partition which sysinstall called /dev/ad6s1d - which I expected. But
after creating the partition, the mount failed, because "no such file or
directory". And sure enough, ad6s1d did not exist in /dev/:
 jon# ls -l /dev/ad6*
 crw-r-----  1 root  operator    0,  76 Jan 22 15:23 /dev/ad6
 crw-r-----  1 root  operator    0,  93 Jan 22 15:00 /dev/ad6c
 crw-r-----  1 root  operator    0,  96 Jan 22 15:00 /dev/ad6cs1
 crw-r-----  1 root  operator    0,  92 Jan 22 15:00 /dev/ad6s1
 crw-r-----  1 root  operator    0,  94 Jan 22 15:00 /dev/ad6s1c

What's the output of:
 - fdisk /dev/ad6
 - fdisk /dev/ad6s1
 - disklabel /dev/ad6
 - disklabel /dev/ad6c
 - disklabel /dev/ad6s1
?
I wonder if somehow GEOM is getting confused and seeing it both as a 
dd-mode disk, and as a normal disk?
These devices look a bit like those of a drive with a "true"
partition-table (so Wintendo can read it). I can't really check that now
because I have no computer with such an installation. However, even if
this *were* so, I have checked and rechecked, the drive is definately
dangerously dedicated - or at least, it should be. None of the other
drives show these devices:
 crw-r-----  1 root  operator    0,  73 Jan 22 16:20 /dev/ad0
 crw-r-----  1 root  operator    0,  79 Jan 22 16:20 /dev/ad0s1
 crw-r-----  1 root  operator    0, 100 Jan 22 16:20 /dev/ad0s1a
 crw-r-----  1 root  operator    0, 101 Jan 22 16:20 /dev/ad0s1b
 crw-r-----  1 root  operator    0, 102 Jan 22 16:20 /dev/ad0s1c
 crw-r-----  1 root  operator    0, 103 Jan 22 16:20 /dev/ad0s1d
 crw-r-----  1 root  operator    0, 104 Jan 22 16:20 /dev/ad0s1e
 crw-r-----  1 root  operator    0, 105 Jan 22 16:20 /dev/ad0s1f
 crw-r-----  1 root  operator    0, 106 Jan 22 16:20 /dev/ad0s1g
 crw-r-----  1 root  operator    0,  78 Jan 22 16:20 /dev/ad12
 crw-r-----  1 root  operator    0,  97 Jan 22 16:20 /dev/ad12s1
 crw-r-----  1 root  operator    0, 121 Jan 22 16:20 /dev/ad12s1c
 crw-r-----  1 root  operator    0, 122 Jan 22 16:20 /dev/ad12s1e
 crw-r-----  1 root  operator    0,  74 Jan 22 16:20 /dev/ad2
 crw-r-----  1 root  operator    0,  87 Jan 22 16:20 /dev/ad2s1
 crw-r-----  1 root  operator    0, 109 Jan 22 16:20 /dev/ad2s1c
 crw-r-----  1 root  operator    0, 110 Jan 22 16:20 /dev/ad2s1e
 crw-r-----  1 root  operator    0,  75 Jan 22 16:20 /dev/ad4
 crw-r-----  1 root  operator    0,  90 Jan 22 16:20 /dev/ad4s1
 crw-r-----  1 root  operator    0, 113 Jan 22 16:20 /dev/ad4s1c
 crw-r-----  1 root  operator    0, 114 Jan 22 16:20 /dev/ad4s1d
 crw-r-----  1 root  operator    0,  77 Jan 22 16:20 /dev/ad8
 crw-r-----  1 root  operator    0,  94 Jan 22 16:20 /dev/ad8s1
 crw-r-----  1 root  operator    0, 117 Jan 22 16:20 /dev/ad8s1c
 crw-r-----  1 root  operator    0, 118 Jan 22 16:20 /dev/ad8s1d

... none of these other disks look like they are being used in dd-mode.
[2] Is there some text out there explaining these last letters? What are
   the first three letters (a-c) reserved for? The handbook seems to be
   a little out of date.

Traditionally, 'a' is root, 'b' is swap, and 'c' is the whole disk.  As 
far as I know, they no longer have any special/implied meaning in FreeBSD 
(other than 'a' on the boot disk), but the tradition of reserving a-c has 
been retained for compatibility with other OS's.
Gavin
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Re: Have the device names for hard discs been changed?

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