using swap on a separate slice

[walt]

Joerg Sonnenberger wrote:
> On Tue, Dec 19, 2006 at 11:45:22AM +0300, Ja'far Railton wrote:
>> I would like to make use of a swap slice left over from a Linux install
>> (in order to free up the current DFly swap partition for other use).
>> It is therefore an extended partion. I have googled this but need some
>> pointers. Can anyone help me with this?

> Extended partitions end up as ad?sX with X>=4. It should be the same
> order as Linux otherwise.

I seem to recall that I've needed to create extended partitions in the
/dev directory.

If the existing swap partition in linux was e.g. /dev/hda7, then in
DragonFly you would do this:

# cd /dev
# ./MAKEDEV ad0s7

(If the desired extended partition already exists on your machine, of
course you don't need to do this :o)

Whenever the subject of extended partitions comes up, I like to point
out that DragonFly is perfectly happy to live and run in an extended
partition -- if you can get it there in the first place.

I have two DF installations, in two different extended partitions on
the same machine, but I used a commercial Windows application (Disk
Director from Acronis) to copy my original DF installation from its
primary partition.  (I think 'dd' could also be used.)

If our DF installer could be modified to allow installation to an
extended partition then such extra steps could be avoided.  (This
would be of interest only to people who just want to try DF, not
to serious users -- but I think it might make life easier for such
testers to take the first step.)

Oh, and the other thing is that AFAIK the standard *BSD boot program
does not recognize extended partitions, but GRUB works just fine as
a replacement -- that's what I use on all my machines.