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#1 2007-02-14 18:09:15

MillTek
Member
Registered: 2005-01-30
Posts: 442

Access FreeBSD partition???

Hi,
Is there a way to be able to access (read & write) a freebsd partition from Arch64?  They're on the same machine.  I think the freebsd is  UFS.


Appreciate any help.

Jim

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#2 2007-02-15 00:06:46

tomk
Forum Fellow
From: Ireland
Registered: 2004-07-21
Posts: 9,839

Re: Access FreeBSD partition???

The kernel devs describe linux support for UFS write as "DANGEROUS", so we don't include it in the Arch kernel packages. If you want to try it, build a custom kernel.

UFS read is safe, and therefore included.

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#3 2007-02-15 03:53:22

MillTek
Member
Registered: 2005-01-30
Posts: 442

Re: Access FreeBSD partition???

Thanks TOMK

Where do I get the 'progs' to enable my system to read the UFS drive?

Jim

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#4 2007-02-15 05:22:04

colnago
Member
From: Victoria, BC
Registered: 2004-03-25
Posts: 438

Re: Access FreeBSD partition???

Hi,

No tools neeed, just mount it like any other partition. 

mount -t ufs -o ufstype=xxx  /dev/hdax /mnt/bsd

You need to specify an "-o ufstype=" and the partition number.   I found a ufstype list on the web if you don't know.  Check the man page too.

ufstype=44bsd
ufstype=old,ro
ufstype=ufs2,ro
ufstype=sunx86
ufstype=sun
ufstype=hp,ro
ufstype=nextstep-cd,ro
ufstype=nextstep,ro
ufstype=openstep,ro

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#5 2007-02-15 07:44:46

dr_te_z
Member
From: Zoetermeer, the Netherlands
Registered: 2006-12-06
Posts: 154

Re: Access FreeBSD partition???

I've done this (http://tldp.org/HOWTO/Linux+FreeBSD.html) in the past. It works. Linux can use the bsd"swap-slice" so you can add your linux-swap partition to you data-storage.


Somewhere between "too small" and "too large" lies the size that is just right.
- Scott Hayes

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#6 2007-10-01 10:22:12

Trac3R
Member
From: Lübeck - Germany
Registered: 2007-01-26
Posts: 30
Website

Re: Access FreeBSD partition???

colnago wrote:

Hi,

No tools neeed, just mount it like any other partition. 

mount -t ufs -o ufstype=xxx  /dev/hdax /mnt/bsd

You need to specify an "-o ufstype=" and the partition number.   I found a ufstype list on the web if you don't know.  Check the man page too.

ufstype=44bsd
ufstype=old,ro
ufstype=ufs2,ro
ufstype=sunx86
ufstype=sun
ufstype=hp,ro
ufstype=nextstep-cd,ro
ufstype=nextstep,ro
ufstype=openstep,ro

Great that it can be found here. smile
But why is UFS2 not listed in the mount manpage? http://ufs-linux.sourceforge.net/ says, that it is supported (readonly) since kernel 2.6.5. I think it should have made it into the manpage during the last 3 years.

BTW: UFS2 is standard filesystem in FreeBSD since 5.1.

Last edited by Trac3R (2007-10-01 10:53:17)

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#7 2007-10-01 12:20:32

iphitus
Forum Fellow
From: Melbourne, Australia
Registered: 2004-10-09
Posts: 4,927

Re: Access FreeBSD partition???

Trac3R wrote:
colnago wrote:

Hi,

No tools neeed, just mount it like any other partition. 

mount -t ufs -o ufstype=xxx  /dev/hdax /mnt/bsd

You need to specify an "-o ufstype=" and the partition number.   I found a ufstype list on the web if you don't know.  Check the man page too.

Great that it can be found here. smile
But why is UFS2 not listed in the mount manpage? http://ufs-linux.sourceforge.net/ says, that it is supported (readonly) since kernel 2.6.5. I think it should have made it into the manpage during the last 3 years.

BTW: UFS2 is standard filesystem in FreeBSD since 5.1.

Probably an out-dated list, he said he found it somewhere on the web. Have a look in the manual for the ufs tools.

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#8 2007-10-01 14:07:03

Trac3R
Member
From: Lübeck - Germany
Registered: 2007-01-26
Posts: 30
Website

Re: Access FreeBSD partition???

Well, maybe I don't understand what you're trying to say because of my poor English. So sorry if I missinterpret something.

What colnago wrote is absolutely correct. To mount a newer *BSD (that actually uses UFS2), you just do

 mount -r -t ufs -o ufstype=ufs2 <device> <mount_dir>

which works pretty good here. (found in the ufs tools readme)

What I mean is that the information about UFS2 is not listed in the mount man page, even though the filesystem is supported in the main kernel line since 2.6.6-rc1. Thats all.

Maybe someone who subscribed the kernel mailing list could write a mail to the maintainers of util-linux-ng or who else is in charge of the man page to add this? Than users don't have to search the net for information that should exist locally. I did. I think that it's no fun, while you don't know what you are searching for. And since 44bsd is an option in the man page and the mount error message is not of that kind that helps you in this case, my search was mislead for some time.

See the option list for ufs for your self, there is no UFS2. So what is outdated here is the man page.

Thanks!

Last edited by Trac3R (2007-10-01 14:11:40)

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#9 2007-10-01 17:31:46

Ramses de Norre
Member
From: Leuven - Belgium
Registered: 2007-03-27
Posts: 1,289

Re: Access FreeBSD partition???

tomk wrote:

The kernel devs describe linux support for UFS write as "DANGEROUS", (...)

Isn't the filesystem open and free? And if so, then why aren't there drivers for it??? Is it because of licensing trouble?

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#10 2007-10-01 18:34:32

Trac3R
Member
From: Lübeck - Germany
Registered: 2007-01-26
Posts: 30
Website

Re: Access FreeBSD partition???

Licensing trouble with BSD-licensed Software? Well, I don't think so.

Actually there are drivers ported, otherwise you could not even read all these UFS. You can't generalise all Unix file systems, some (Sun, HP) may have proprietary extensions (like ext3), so of course write support for these may be dangerous and in this case you might be right with licensing. I don't know.
I guess it is because it's no standard under Linux and they don't want to support it, because if they do, it has to work absolutely reliable in every Kernel version. I wouldn't do that either, that may cause a lot of work. Same with Reiser4. So if you want to have write support, you have it on your own risk. I don't see a problem here.

Nevertheless it should appear in the man page that it is supported (though readonly).

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#11 2007-10-01 22:48:02

Ramses de Norre
Member
From: Leuven - Belgium
Registered: 2007-03-27
Posts: 1,289

Re: Access FreeBSD partition???

There is a lot of work going to writing drivers for ntfs by reverse engineering and such but people never get to writing drivers for a FOSS filesystem used in that other big FOSS operating system? That's kind of weird...
I don't need the driver or such but this surprises me a lot.

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#12 2007-10-02 00:23:35

Trac3R
Member
From: Lübeck - Germany
Registered: 2007-01-26
Posts: 30
Website

Re: Access FreeBSD partition???

I don't know what you are talking about. As I told you, the drivers are available and into mainline kernel. They are just readonly, so what? No one said, that there are no drivers written. hmm If you want to have reliable write access implemented in these drivers, too, you have to maintain them. I guess the driver guys will welcome you to do this. wink

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