# FreeBSD 8.1 Install failing - error mounting /mnt/dev/X



## rektem (Dec 11, 2010)

I am new to FreeBSD, but not new to computing.  I have 8 years administering Windows servers and 3 years dealing with Ubuntu so I should be able to follow a FreeBSD pro's recommendations well.

I can't seem to finish the install!  Here is my configuration.. I am installing from CD.

This is a personal server.  I plan on using it for OpenVPN, Apache, MySQL.

System
----------------------
Asus M2NE-SLI
AMD Athlon 64 X2 6000+
1 x 2GB DDR2 667
2 x Samsung SATA 500GB
IDE LG DVD-Drive


FreeBSD registers my two HDD's as ad10 and ad8.
I have chosen to install on ad8.
The geometry of ad8 is 969021/16/53 - I ran a CHS calculator and appears to be correct (500GB).

My Slices(MB)
----------------------

```
ad8s1a    /      511
ad8s2b    swap   1023
ad8s3d    /tmp   1023
ad8s4d    /var   8191
X         /usr   15359       (is this too much?)
X         /home  450828
```

My last two slices are X.  Is this normal? 
I've formated the drive and recreated the slices, but the X slices keep coming back.

I'm using the FreeBSD Boot Manager (BootMgr)
Selected the 'User' install package - because I don't know any better.

After choosing to install from CD/DVD I get my first message:


```
Error mounting /mnt/dev/X on /mnt/home :  No such file or directory"
Press enter or space

Error mounting /mnt/dev/X on mnt/usr  :  No such file or directory"
Press enter or space
```

Any suggestions?


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## wblock@ (Dec 11, 2010)

rektem said:
			
		

> My Slices(MB)
> ----------------------
> ad8s1a    /      511
> ad8s2b    swap   1023
> ...



sysinstall doesn't like extended partitions.  But your slice/partition setup is weird.  A "slice" is what most other systems call a partition, up to four normal ones per disk: ad8s1 through s4.

Resist the temptation to set it up like Linux, because FreeBSD is not Linux(tm).  Putting /home separate from /usr may not work out like you expect, since all your installed applications end up in /usr.  I'd suggest using the standard four filesystems as shown below.

FreeBSD usually subdivides slices into what it calls partitions.  For example, *ad8s1a* is /.  That's drive *ad8*, slice *1*, partition *a*.

On a standard install, FreeBSD will use a single slice.


```
ad8s1a   /
ad8s1b   swap
ad8s1d   /var
ad8s1e   /tmp
ad8s1f   /usr
```

As far as sizes, it's a mistake to make / less than 1G; the default for systinstall will go up to that for the next release.  2G or 4G for swap can come in handy.  /var depends on what you keep there, but 8G should be plenty.  I like to make /tmp big enough to hold several .iso files.  Give the rest to /usr.

If you really want to do the separate /home, you can make it another filesystem on another (FreeBSD) partition.  Until you've run FreeBSD for a while and know how it works, that's kind of a premature optimization.


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## Beastie (Dec 11, 2010)

rektem said:
			
		

> The geometry of ad8 is 969021/16/53 - I ran a CHS calculator and appears to be correct (500GB).


C/H/S is irrelevant on modern operating systems running on modern computers. It's only there for "backward compatibility".



			
				rektem said:
			
		

> My Slices(MB)
> ----------------------
> ad8s1a    /      511
> ad8s2b    swap   1023
> ...


Double the size of the root partition. 15 GB for /usr should be good, but you may need more space on /var for databases. 440 GB for users' home directories may be too much for a server.

The problem with the "X" is probably that you already made 4 slices and the MBR partitioning scheme doesn't support more by design. You should only create 1 slice and subdivide it into as many partitions as you need. Something like

```
ad8s1a /
ad8s1b swap
ad8s1d /tmp
ad8s1e /var
ad8s1f /usr
ad8s1g /home
```


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## rektem (Dec 12, 2010)

wblock said:
			
		

> sysinstall doesn't like extended partitions.  But your slice/partition setup is weird.  A "slice" is what most other systems call a partition, up to four normal ones per disk: ad8s1 through s4.
> 
> FreeBSD usually subdivides slices into what it calls partitions.  For example, *ad8s1a* is /.  That's drive *ad8*, slice *1*, partition *a*.



Thank you for clearing that up.  I am using sysinstall's FDISK Partition Editor and see how to Creat a Slice, but do not know how to partition a slice.  Is it possible with sysinstall?

I'll also be using the suggestion about making /tmp larger.  Makes sense to have extra work space. 


440GB is a large home, but I forgot to mention I also want this to become a Samba/CIFS server.  Would I be better off leaving /usr alone and creating a new filesystem on my second drive for file storage?


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## wblock@ (Dec 12, 2010)

rektem said:
			
		

> Thank you for clearing that up.  I am using sysinstall's FDISK Partition Editor and see how to Creat a Slice, but do not know how to partition a slice.  Is it possible with sysinstall?



Yes.  sysinstall(8) first sets up slices then sets up partitions.



> 440GB is a large home, but I forgot to mention I also want this to become a Samba/CIFS server.  Would I be better off leaving /usr alone and creating a new filesystem on my second drive for file storage?



There are advantages and disadvantages either way.  Set it up the way it makes the most sense to you.  If it turns out you need to change, you can always copy the filesystem into a directory elsewhere, or vice versa.


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