[rescue] NetBSD disktab entry

[Jochen Kunz]

On 2002.07.24 22:56 Tim H. wrote:

> is there a place I can find a /etc/disktab entry, 
You don't have to care about /etc/disktab with NetBSD. Usually I do:
disklabel sd1 > dl
to get a (default) prototype file. Then
disklabel -r -R sd1 
to write it back to the disk. This ensures that there is a valid
disklabel on the disk. The next step needs a valid label on the disk:
dusklabel -i sd1
This is the interactive disklabel editor. "P" prints the label, "W"
writes it and "Q" quits (all upper case). You can edit the individual
partitions be typing the partition letter (in lower case).
With newer versions of NetBSD you may be able to use a single 
disklabel -i -I sd1
to do all the work even with an invalid on disk label. 
Put partition boundarys on cylinder boundarys to make newfs happy. 

> or if not, is there a better reference for NetBSD than the man page? 
No. Unfortunately disklabel(8) is not that informative. e.g. no real doc
about the interactive disklabel editor.

> I am not clear on how to handle variable sector per track, and
> it seems to want some numbers I don't see on the seagate spec page.
NetBSD detects the geometry of disks automaticly or uses a default fake
geometry when it can't read it from the disk. If in doubt dd /dev/zero
to the disk to ensure that any old disklabel with geometry information
is erased. Reboot und put a new label on the disk. 
-- 



tsch,
         Jochen

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