Running the LiveCD option of the "bootonly" iso on an Atom 330 1.6GHz with 4G of RAM (I am assuming disklabel(8) executable on "bootonly" media is same as release) Alter "8 partitions" to reflect "10 partitions", as desired. Only fully specify 9 of them -- a-i. Exiting disklabel complains about j -- which I had not specified (uninitialized structure member, perhaps?). Reedit to specify j. Disklabel(8) complains of stack overflow and abends. Return to "8 partitions" and delete the 'i' entry. Installer complains that 'h' (the 8th entry) has an invalid type -- dspite being the same (4.2BSD) as the other non-swap partitions. Note that resorting to manual partitioning was an expedient as the installer is really clunky when it comes to this. (but, while NetBSD's is much friendlier, it still leaves a lot to be desired!) I've not pursued this as it is likely easier for me to port the package I'm interested in to NetBSD than to try to ferret out all the differences in FreeBSD since I left the camp (decades? ago). [Shout-out to Joerg Wunsch -- if he's still kicking about!]
Can you please provide detailed reproduction steps - it is not clear to me if you are using the partition editor built into the installer, or attempting to partition the target disk from the command line. Note that BSD diskabels support a maximum of 8 entries, and the 'c' partition has a predefined purpose and isn't available for use.
(In reply to Ed Maste from comment #1) Note my actions are the result of NOT being able to get the installer to "do what I wanted". Drop to shell. Invoke disklabel(8) from command line. s/8 partitions/10 partitions/ Append "i: blah blah 4.2BSD blah blah" Exit (note result returning to bsdinstall) Reinvoke disklabel from CLI. Append "j: blah blah 4.2BSD blah blah" Exit (note result returning to bsdinstall) From shell, invoke disklabel. Remove all but first 8 partitions. Exit Let installer try to use label. 'h' complains of bad type. I am aware of the special significance of the 'c' partition (In NetBSD, 'b', c' and 'd' have had similar treatment over the years) I was NOT aware of the 8 partition limit (I have 16 partitions on that disk with the machine now running NetBSD). This appears to be a limitation of FreeBSD's disklabel, not "BSD". As such, you should just verify the '8' limit is enforced properly even if s/8/10/. I.e., I would have expected a complaint when I altered the "8" and the 'i' line to have been elided.
Actually it seems I am mistaken - GEOM_PART_BSD supports disklabels with between 8 and 20 partitions, although disklabel(8) states "The partition table can have up to 8 entries."
Yes bsdlabel is just broken when there are more than 8 partitions. Note this, from sys/sys/disk/bsd.h: #define BSD_NPARTS_MIN 8 #define BSD_NPARTS_MAX 20 struct disklabel { ... struct partition { /* the partition table */ ... } d_partitions[BSD_NPARTS_MIN]; /* actually may be more */ };
A commit in branch main references this bug: URL: https://cgit.FreeBSD.org/src/commit/?id=3f4f82c0d7791bddf2d6f2c29d9f2f8c48c712e2 commit 3f4f82c0d7791bddf2d6f2c29d9f2f8c48c712e2 Author: Ed Maste <emaste@FreeBSD.org> AuthorDate: 2024-01-23 02:05:58 +0000 Commit: Ed Maste <emaste@FreeBSD.org> CommitDate: 2024-01-23 02:17:23 +0000 bsdlabel: limit to 8 partitions bsdlabel is intended to support up to 20 partitions, but the disklabel struct has a d_partitions array with only BSD_NPARTS_MIN (8) entries. Previously, an attempt to operate on a bsdlabel with more than eight partitions resulted in a buffer overflow. As a stopgap limit bsdlabel to 8 partitions until this is fixed properly. PR: 276517 sbin/bsdlabel/bsdlabel.c | 2 +- 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-)
A commit in branch stable/14 references this bug: URL: https://cgit.FreeBSD.org/src/commit/?id=a323dd42bcacdcd6b710fb90ba6691c6ce60cd3d commit a323dd42bcacdcd6b710fb90ba6691c6ce60cd3d Author: Ed Maste <emaste@FreeBSD.org> AuthorDate: 2024-01-23 02:05:58 +0000 Commit: Ed Maste <emaste@FreeBSD.org> CommitDate: 2024-03-22 18:42:59 +0000 bsdlabel: limit to 8 partitions bsdlabel is intended to support up to 20 partitions, but the disklabel struct has a d_partitions array with only BSD_NPARTS_MIN (8) entries. Previously, an attempt to operate on a bsdlabel with more than eight partitions resulted in a buffer overflow. As a stopgap limit bsdlabel to 8 partitions until this is fixed properly. PR: 276517 (cherry picked from commit 3f4f82c0d7791bddf2d6f2c29d9f2f8c48c712e2) sbin/bsdlabel/bsdlabel.c | 2 +- 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-)
A commit in branch stable/13 references this bug: URL: https://cgit.FreeBSD.org/src/commit/?id=a59eba2caacf82f741e8bbc334b2382c615744df commit a59eba2caacf82f741e8bbc334b2382c615744df Author: Ed Maste <emaste@FreeBSD.org> AuthorDate: 2024-01-23 02:05:58 +0000 Commit: Ed Maste <emaste@FreeBSD.org> CommitDate: 2024-03-22 18:45:13 +0000 bsdlabel: limit to 8 partitions bsdlabel is intended to support up to 20 partitions, but the disklabel struct has a d_partitions array with only BSD_NPARTS_MIN (8) entries. Previously, an attempt to operate on a bsdlabel with more than eight partitions resulted in a buffer overflow. As a stopgap limit bsdlabel to 8 partitions until this is fixed properly. PR: 276517 (cherry picked from commit 3f4f82c0d7791bddf2d6f2c29d9f2f8c48c712e2) (cherry picked from commit a323dd42bcacdcd6b710fb90ba6691c6ce60cd3d) sbin/bsdlabel/bsdlabel.c | 2 +- 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-)
A commit in branch main references this bug: URL: https://cgit.FreeBSD.org/src/commit/?id=7dc5c6c4120ee6d5a028a1e01cdc1bfbe9499634 commit 7dc5c6c4120ee6d5a028a1e01cdc1bfbe9499634 Author: Ed Maste <emaste@FreeBSD.org> AuthorDate: 2024-03-25 22:25:05 +0000 Commit: Ed Maste <emaste@FreeBSD.org> CommitDate: 2024-03-25 22:26:29 +0000 bsdlabel: add BUGS section documenting 8 partition limit PR: 276517 sbin/bsdlabel/bsdlabel.8 | 5 +++++ 1 file changed, 5 insertions(+)
A commit in branch stable/14 references this bug: URL: https://cgit.FreeBSD.org/src/commit/?id=9f9289901c86e88c7eb357ecfe3334369356b1b0 commit 9f9289901c86e88c7eb357ecfe3334369356b1b0 Author: Ed Maste <emaste@FreeBSD.org> AuthorDate: 2024-03-25 22:25:05 +0000 Commit: Ed Maste <emaste@FreeBSD.org> CommitDate: 2024-04-02 13:56:28 +0000 bsdlabel: add BUGS section documenting 8 partition limit PR: 276517 (cherry picked from commit 7dc5c6c4120ee6d5a028a1e01cdc1bfbe9499634) sbin/bsdlabel/bsdlabel.8 | 5 +++++ 1 file changed, 5 insertions(+)
A commit in branch stable/13 references this bug: URL: https://cgit.FreeBSD.org/src/commit/?id=51b2556ee60a503f89064152a897722a2daaa199 commit 51b2556ee60a503f89064152a897722a2daaa199 Author: Ed Maste <emaste@FreeBSD.org> AuthorDate: 2024-03-25 22:25:05 +0000 Commit: Ed Maste <emaste@FreeBSD.org> CommitDate: 2024-04-02 13:58:37 +0000 bsdlabel: add BUGS section documenting 8 partition limit PR: 276517 (cherry picked from commit 7dc5c6c4120ee6d5a028a1e01cdc1bfbe9499634) (cherry picked from commit 9f9289901c86e88c7eb357ecfe3334369356b1b0) sbin/bsdlabel/bsdlabel.8 | 5 +++++ 1 file changed, 5 insertions(+)