Can't *write* to a hard disk, not even a slice using fdisk(8).

[Julien Gabel]

>> Here is my problem. I had a hard disk for one year now, working together
>> with an other identical disk in a _hard_ mirror.

> What's a '_hard_ mirror'? How did you set it up?

I want to say that it is a mirror created with a hardware HighPoint HPT374
(channel 2+3) UDMA133 controller ; not created using software, like vinum
for example.

>> - But when I tried to create a slice on it, I get:
>>   # fdisk -BI ad10
>>   ******* Working on device /dev/ad10 *******
>>   fdisk: can't write fdisk partition table: Operation not permitted

> GEOM doesn't let you touch the disk if some partition is mounted off it.
> Try setting kern.geom.debugflags to 1

There is no partition mounted on it because the miror is actually breack,
so this disk is totally not used at this time.

Before that, a /home was mounted on the device corresponding to the mirror,
i.e. /dev/ar1 (which was made from /dev/ad8 + /dev/ad10). Actually, and
because I had some activity on this machine, I made the /home partition
available under the /dev/ad8 device alone, which is the other identical
disk which previously formed the mirror and works like a charm.

I changed the sysctl's flag :
 # sysctl kern.geom.debugflags=1
 kern.geom.debugflags: 0 -> 1

But when I try :
 # fdisk -BI ad10
 ******* Working on device /dev/ad10 *******
 fdisk: can't write fdisk partition table: Operation not permitted

I just get these messages via syslog :
 # tail -8 /var/log/messages
 Apr 10 23:39:04 bento kernel: g_slice_config(ad10, 0, 0)
 Apr 10 23:39:04 bento kernel: g_slice_config(ad10, 1, 0)
 Apr 10 23:39:04 bento kernel: g_slice_config(ad10, 2, 0)
 Apr 10 23:39:04 bento kernel: g_slice_config(ad10, 3, 0)
 Apr 10 23:39:04 bento kernel: g_slice_config(ad10, 0, 1)
 Apr 10 23:39:04 bento kernel: g_slice_config(ad10, 1, 1)
 Apr 10 23:39:04 bento kernel: g_slice_config(ad10, 2, 1)
 Apr 10 23:39:04 bento kernel: g_slice_config(ad10, 3, 1)

>> 3/ Anything else to say to diagnose my problem?

> Please show us /etc/fstab and the output of mount

 # grep /home /etc/fstab
 #/dev/ar1s1d   /home   ufs   rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,userquota   2   2
 /dev/ad8s1d    /home   ufs   rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,userquota   2   2

 # mount
 /dev/ar0s1a on / (ufs, local)
 devfs on /dev (devfs, local)
 /dev/ad8s1d on /home (ufs, local, nodev, noexec, nosuid, with quotas,
soft-updates)
 /dev/ar0s1e on /tmp (ufs, local, nodev, nosuid, soft-updates)
 /dev/ar0s1f on /usr (ufs, local, soft-updates)
 /dev/ar0s1d on /var (ufs, local, noexec, soft-updates)

Because the problematic disk is not actually used, I can try some commands
on it if someone think it may be interesting.

Thanks for your help,
--
-jpeg.