freebsd-advocacy Digest, Vol 178, Issue 2 -- sysinstall vs BSD Installer

[Darren Pilgrim]

james r relyea wrote:
> i would appreciate a new freebsd loading scheme more than a replacement
> loader.  the main annoyance to me is the requirement that freebsd be
> loaded in a primary partition.  i am not familiar with the structure of
> the freebsd partition or what necessitates use of a primary partition.
> what i would like could require an overhall of freebsd;  however,  the
> few linux variations i have tested allow the linux system to be loaded in
> any partition whether primary or extended.

Why bother with DOS Extended partitions?  The functionality already 
exists in FreeBSD in the form of nested disk labels.  For example:

# gpt show /dev/da0s1h
      start      size  index  contents
...
         34   2097152      1  GPT part - FreeBSD UFS/UFS2
    2097186   8388608      2  GPT part - FreeBSD UFS/UFS2
...

# ls /dev/da0s1h*
/dev/da0s1h    /dev/da0s1hp1  /dev/da0s1hp2

# df
Filesystem    1K-blocks    Used     Avail Capacity  Mounted on
...
/dev/da0s1hp1   1012974  870852     61086    93%    /opt/scratch1
/dev/da0s1hp2   4058062  361276   3372142    10%    /opt/pkg_build