i386/121124: FreeBSD 6.3 installation deletes MBR partition

[Mark Linimon]

The following reply was made to PR i386/121124; it has been noted by GNATS.

From: linimon at lonesome.com (Mark Linimon)
To: bug-followup at FreeBSD.org
Cc:  
Subject: Re: i386/121124: FreeBSD 6.3 installation deletes MBR partition
Date: Thu, 28 Feb 2008 20:26:23 -0600

 ----- Forwarded message from Dan Strick <dan_strick at sbcglobal.net> -----
 
 My best guess is that sysinstall checked the MBR partition table for
 sanity and decided to "fix" an overlap by arbitrarily deleting one of
 the overlapping partitions.  That was the wrong thing to do since none
 of the overlapping partitions was involved in the FreeBSD installation.
 What other operating systems do with their slices is their business.
 Generating a warning message was plausible.  Making gratuitous changes
 to the partition table was not.
 
 I believe it is common sense for an MBR partition table editor to change
 only those partitions that it is explicitly told to modify.  Sysinstall
 was not told to modify either of the overlapping slices and should have
 left them strictly alone.
 
 Dan Strick
 
 ----- End forwarded message -----