This page contains some notes about the steps the BSDInstaller takes to prepare disks before installing FreeBSD.
Current Version
Steps:
Select the disk to install to
Format the disk
Check the disk geomentry
Runs Storage.Disk.cmds_format:
fdisk -I <raw_device_name>
echo “g c<cylinders> h<heads> s<sectors>” > format.fdisk
echo “p 1 <sysid> <sectors> <size>” » format.disk (size = disksize - sectors)
echo “p 2 0 0 0” » format.disk
echo “p 3 0 0 0” » format.disk
echo “p 4 0 0 0” » format.disk
echo “a 1” » format.disk
fdisk -v -f format.disk <device_name>
fdisk <device_name>
yes | fdisk -B <devide name>
Slice the disk
Foreach slice add it to the table of slices to create
Runs Storage.Disk.cmds_partition:
echo “g c<cylinders> h<heads> s<sectors>” > new.fdisk
Foreach slice (up to 4)
echo “p <number> <sysid> <start> <size>” » new.disk
echo “a <active_part>” » new.fdisk
fdisk -v -f newfdisk <device_name>
fdisk <device_name>
Install Bootblocks
Select the slice to install to
Select Partitions to create
Additional Filesystems