freebsd stable - Sep 2009 - 8.0-Beta installation problem -- Unable to find /dev/ad0s1b

Tried to install from both 8.0-BETA{3, 4}-i386-dvd1.iso on a Phenom 9600
system and having
some disk problems.

The system is running 6.x and/or 7.2 FreeBSD (on different drives).

Disconnected rest drives and only left 7.2 drive in.
ad0: 76319MB <Seagate ST3802110A 3.AAJ> at ata0-master UDMA100

Boot 8.0-BETA3-i386-dvd1.iso and sees no partition at all on the 7.2 disk.
Boot back to 7.2 and everything works fine, so system has no hardware
problem.

Boot 8.0-BETA3-i386-dvd1.iso again, still sees no partition, so
reconfigured partition with
autoconfigure - A

512M for / on /dev/ad0s1a
about 4G for swap on /dev/ad0s1b
about 2.2G on /var
512M for /tmp
rest spaces are for /usr

After commit, installation says --

Unable to find device node for /dev/ad0s1b in /dev
The Creation of file system will abort.
OK
[Press enter or space]

Hit CR and see some other errors, then back to installation menu.
Reboot the system, 7.2 is gone.

Download 8.0-BETA4-i386-dvd1.iso and burned another DVD, also did verify
between DVD and ISO for OK.
Run installation from Beta4 DVD, the same problem presents again.

If my memory is correct, either 8.0-Beta1 or one version earlier than it
was working on this machine.

Is anything changed that requires different installation procedure? or
is this a bug introduced recently?

-Jin

Jin Guojun writes:
>  Tried to install from both 8.0-BETA{3, 4}-i386-dvd1.iso on a
>  Phenom 9600 system and having some disk problems.
>  
>  After commit, installation says --
>  
>  Unable to find device node for /dev/ad0s1b in /dev
>  The Creation of file system will abort.
>  OK
>  [Press enter or space]
	Look at the archives of current@ within the last three weeks.
I (and I believe at least one other person) had what seems like the
same problem and found a work-around.


				Robert Huff

Did not find anything from current, but found the same problem has been reported
in earlier releases in those archives, and the latest was May 2009:

    * Rambler: FreeBSD mail archives search
    * MarkMail: FreeBSD mail archives search

Two directly related to 8.0 was on Mar 25, 2009. One failure was due to the
FreeBSD is on the second slice, which sound liek a bug; but the other is not
clear.

In my case, FreeBSD is on the first slice, so it is not the same problem.
>From 8.0-Beta{3, 4} cannot recognize FreeBSD 7.2 partition tables, it looks
like that there is a disklable and/or partition related problem in 8.0-Beta.
--- On Mon, 9/14/09, Robert Huff <roberthuff@rcn.com> wrote:
> From: Robert Huff <roberthuff@rcn.com>
> Subject: 8.0-Beta installation problem -- Unable to find /dev/ad0s1b
> To: "Jin Guojun" <jguojun@sbcglobal.net>
> Cc: questions@freebsd.org, freebsd-stable@freebsd.org
> Date: Monday, September 14, 2009, 2:13 AM
> 
> Jin Guojun writes:
> 
> >  Tried to install from both 8.0-BETA{3, 4}-i386-dvd1.iso on a
> >  Phenom 9600 system and having some disk problems.
The system is running 6.x and/or 7.2 FreeBSD (on different drives).

Disconnected rest drives and only left 7.2 drive in.
ad0: 76319MB <Seagate ST3802110A 3.AAJ> at ata0-master UDMA100

Boot 8.0-BETA3-i386-dvd1.iso and sees no partition at all on the 7.2 disk.
Boot back to 7.2 and everything works fine, so system has no hardware
problem.

Boot 8.0-BETA3-i386-dvd1.iso again, still sees no partition, so
reconfigured partition with
autoconfigure - A

512M for / on /dev/ad0s1a
about 4G for swap on /dev/ad0s1b
about 2.2G on /var
512M for /tmp
rest spaces are for /usr 
> >  After commit, installation says --
> >  
> >  Unable to find device node for /dev/ad0s1b in /dev
> >  The Creation of file system will abort.
> >  OK
> >  [Press enter or space]
> 
>     Look at the archives of current@ within
> the last three weeks.
> I (and I believe at least one other person) had what seems
> like the
> same problem and found a work-around.
> 
> 
>            
>     Robert Huff
>

Jin Guojun writes:
>  Did not find anything from current, but found the same problem
>  has been reported in earlier releases in those archives, and the
>  latest was May 2009:
	Try this (for the fix) :

http://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-current/2009-September/011254.html



					Robert Huff

It seems that disklabel is the problem spot.

Use 8.0 Partition menu to allocate 2 slices (partitions) 20GB for S1 and rest
for S2,
then install 8.0-Beta4 on S1.
W command in slice (Partition) menu succeed with bootloader manager installing
option (Choose FreeBSD),
but W command in Label menu had the same error -- Unable to find device node ...

After quite installationm and restart the system, the bootloader is still show
old
partitions (S1 DOS, S2/S3 7.2).

Boot 8.0-Beta4 DVD again, and Partition menu shows no partition at all (no slice
allocated).
This indicates that disklabel did not correctly write disk partition information
on to the dirve.


--- On Mon, 9/14/09, Robert Huff <roberthuff@rcn.com> wrote:
> From: Robert Huff <roberthuff@rcn.com>
> Subject: Re: 8.0-Beta installation problem -- Unable to find /dev/ad0s1b
> To: "Jin Guojun" <jguojun@sbcglobal.net>
> Cc: "Robert Huff" <roberthuff@rcn.com>,
current@freebsd.org, bugs@freebsd.org, freebsd-stable@freebsd.org
> Date: Monday, September 14, 2009, 3:49 AM
> 
> Jin Guojun writes:
> 
> >  Did not find anything from current, but found
> the same problem
> >  has been reported in earlier releases in those
> archives, and the
> >  latest was May 2009:
> 
>     Try this (for the fix) :
> 
>
http://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-current/2009-September/011254.html
> 
> 
> 
>            
>         Robert Huff
> 
>

Le Lun 14 sep 09 ? 18:56:38 +0200, Jin Guojun <jguojun@sbcglobal.net>
 ?crivait?:
> It seems that disklabel is the problem spot.
Hello,

I encountered such a problem too; was your disk ad0 installed as
"dangerously dedicated"?

Regards,
-- 
Th. Thomas.

I do not enve know how to make "dangerously dedicated" disk, and the
8.0 may do this sliently.

ad0 had three DOS partitions (slices),
S1 for DOS
S2 for FreeBSD 7.2
S3 for another FreeBSD

When boot to 8.0-Beta{3, 4}, 8.0 sees not partition, which means 8.0 looked at a
wrong location for partition table.
After did partition (slices S1 for FreebSD and S2 for nothing) and 
Label (Unix partitions, failed to find device node /dev/ad0s1b in /dev),
content of 7.2 is gone.

But, the original partitions are still in the MBR (S1 for DOS, and S2 and S3 for
FreeBSD).


--- On Mon, 9/14/09, Thierry Thomas <thierry@FreeBSD.org> wrote:
> From: Thierry Thomas <thierry@FreeBSD.org>
> Subject: Re: 8.0-Beta installation problem -- Unable to find /dev/ad0s1b
> To: "Jin Guojun" <jguojun@sbcglobal.net>
> Cc: bugs@freebsd.org, freebsd-stable@freebsd.org, current@freebsd.org
> Date: Monday, September 14, 2009, 6:45 PM
> Le Lun 14 sep 09 ? 18:56:38 +0200,
> Jin Guojun <jguojun@sbcglobal.net>
>  ?crivait :
> > It seems that disklabel is the problem spot.
> 
> Hello,
> 
> I encountered such a problem too; was your disk ad0
> installed as
> "dangerously dedicated"?
> 
> Regards,
> -- 
> Th. Thomas.
>

Jin Guojun writes:
>  I do not enve know how to make "dangerously dedicated" disk, and
>  the 8.0 may do this sliently. 
	I was told in private conversation "dangerously dedicated" mode
is currently broken (at least with regards to installation), and
that it was removed as an option between beta3 and beta4.


					Robert Huff