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This is the Main Slice (``FDISK'' or PC-style Partition) Editor.
Possible commands are printed at the bottom and the Master Boot Record
contents are shown at the top. You can move up and down with the
arrow keys and (C)reate a new slice whenever the highlighted
selection bar is over a slice whose type is marked as "unused."
You are expected to leave this screen with at least one slice
marked "FreeBSD." Note that unlike Linux, you don't need to create
multiple FreeBSD FDISK partition entries for different things like
swap, file systems, etc. The usual convention is to create ONE
FreeBSD slice (FDISK partition) per drive and then subsection this slice
into swap and file systems with the Label editor.
No actual changes will be made to the disk until you (C)ommit from the
Install menu or use the (W)rite option here! You're working with what
is essentially a copy of the disk label(s), both here and in the Label
Editor.
If you want to use the entire disk for FreeBSD, type `A'. You'll be
asked whether or not you wish to keep the disk (potentially) compatible
with other operating systems, i.e. the information in the FDISK table
should be kept valid. If you select the default of `Yes', slices will be
aligned to fictitious cylinder boundaries and space will be reserved
in front of the FreeBSD slice for a [future] possible boot manager.
For the truly dedicated disk case, you can select `No' at the
compatibility prompt. In that case, all BIOS geometry considerations
will no longer be in effect and you can safely ignore any
``The detected geometry is invalid'' warning messages you may later
see. It is also not necessary in this case to set a slice bootable
or install an MBR boot manager as both things are then irrelevant.
The FreeBSD slice will start at absolute sector 0 of the disk (so that
FreeBSD's disk label is identical to the Master Boot Record) and
extend to the very last sector of the disk medium. Needless to say,
such a disk cannot have any sort of a boot manager, `disk manager',
or anything else that has to interact with the BIOS. This option is
therefore only considered safe for SCSI disks and most IDE disks and
is primarily intended for people who are going to set up a dedicated
FreeBSD server or workstation, not a typical `home PC'.
The flags field has the following legend:
'=' -- This slice is properly aligned.
'>' -- This slice doesn't end before cylinder 1024
'R' -- This slice contains the root (/) filesystem
'B' -- Slice employs BAD144 bad-spot handling
'C' -- This is the FreeBSD 2.0-compatibility slice (default)
'A' -- This slice is marked active.
If you select a slice for Bad144 handling, it will be scanned
for bad blocks before any new filesystems are made on it.
If no slice is marked Active, you will need to either install
a Boot Manager (the option for which will be presented later in the
installation) or set one Active before leaving this screen.
To leave the slice editor, type `Q'.
Final Note: If you're absolutely sure you know what you're doing
and you want to use the old "Dangerously Dedicated" mode
which is now deprecated by sysinstall, use the (purposely)
undocumented `F' key.
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