FDISK(8) OpenBSD System Manager's Manual FDISK(8)NAMEfdisk - MBR partition maintenance program
SYNOPSISfdisk [-eiuy] [-c cylinders -h heads -s sectors] [-f mbrfile] disk
DESCRIPTION
On the i386 and other architectures, sector 0 of a bootable hard disk
must contain MBR bootcode, the MBR partition table containing 4 slots,
and a specific magic number (0xAA55). The 4 slots in the MBR partition
table allow a disk drive to be divided into chunks known as MBR
partitions.
On the i386, the BIOS loads sector 0 of the boot disk into memory,
verifies the magic number, and begins executing the MBR bootcode at the
first byte. The MBR bootcode then searches the MBR partition table for
an ``active'' MBR partition (indicated by a `*' in the first column), and
if one is found, the boot block from that MBR partition is loaded and
executed in place of the original (MBR) boot block.
Some other architectures (like the zaurus), consider sector 0 of the disk
to contain the MBR partition table, but do not use the MBR bootcode at
all.
Upon first access to a disk, the partition information is retrieved,
typically in disklabel(5) format. The location of the disklabel can vary
from architecture to architecture, but if one is not found the existence
of an MBR partition table will create a spoofed prototypical disklabel
which can be viewed using disklabel(8). This spoofing mechanism is
useful for permitting partition access for devices which would not
normally have a disklabel(5) sector.
The options are as follows:
-c cylinders -h heads -s sectors
Specifies an alternate BIOS geometry for fdisk to use. By
default, an automatic calculation of disk size will be built
using heuristics. These figures are taken from the in-core
disklabel (see disklabel(8)), or values that /boot has passed to
the kernel.
-e Use the fdisk interactive editor to modify an MBR partition
table. The editor permits configuration of the MBR partition, as
well as extended MBR partitions. See COMMAND MODE, below, for
more information.
-f mbrfile
Specifies an alternate MBR template file. The default file is
/usr/mdec/mbr.
-i Requests that the MBR partition data be re-initialized. In this
mode, fdisk will completely overwrite the primary MBR bootcode
and MBR partition table using the default MBR template
/usr/mdec/mbr (or the one optionally specified by the -f flag).
In the default template, MBR partition number 3 will be
configured as an OpenBSD MBR partition spanning the entire disk,
except for a zone left at the start for booting. This mode is
designed to initialize the MBR the very first time.
-u Update MBR bootcode, preserving existing MBR partition table.
The MBR bootcode extends from offset 0x000 to the start of the
MBR partition table at offset 0x1BE. It is similar to the -i
flag, except the existing MBR partition table is preserved. This
is useful for writing new MBR bootcode onto an existing drive,
and is equivalent to the DOS command ``FDISK /MBR''. Note that
this option will overwrite the NT disk signature, if present.
-y Avoid asking yes/no questions when not desirable.
disk Specify the disk to operate on. It can be specified either by
its full pathname or an abbreviated disk form. In its
abbreviated form, the path to the device, the `r' denoting "raw
device", and the partition letter, can all be omitted. For
example, the first IDE disk can be specified as either
/dev/rwd0c, /dev/wd0c, or wd0.
TYPICAL LAYOUT
When called with no special flags, fdisk prints the MBR partition table
of the specified disk:
# fdisk sd0
Disk: sd0 geometry: 121601/255/63 [1953525168 Sectors]
Offset: 0 Signature: 0xAA55
Starting Ending LBA Info:
#: id C H S - C H S [ start: size ]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
0: 0B 0 1 1 - 26108 0 63 [ 63: 419425020 ] Win95 FAT-32
1: 00 0 0 0 - 0 0 0 [ 0: 0 ] unused
2: 00 0 0 0 - 0 0 0 [ 0: 0 ] unused
*3: A6 26108 1 1 - 121600 254 63 [ 419425083: 1534094982 ] OpenBSD
This 1953525168 sector (931GB) disk drive is divided into two MBR
partitions that span the whole disk. The first MBR partition is a 200GB
FAT-32 partition, the second is a 731GB OpenBSD MBR partition using the
remainder of the disk. The fields of the output are:
# Number identifying each MBR partition table entry. There are
a total of four slots. `*' denotes the MBR partition which
is declared bootable.
id MBR partition type identifier. OpenBSD reserves the magic
number hexadecimal A6 (166 decimal).
C/H/S These fields provide the starting and ending address of the
MBR partition in BIOS geometry.
start/size These fields provide the starting sector and size in sectors
of the MBR partition in linear block addresses.
NOTE: The BIOS geometry sectors field (C/H/S) is ``1 based'', but the LBA
"start" field is ``0 based''.
The CHS values will need to be in the BIOS's geometry for the system to
be able to boot and use the drive correctly. These values must be kept
correctly synchronized or a variety of problems develop which are very
difficult to diagnose.
The OpenBSD MBR partition shown above is subdivided further using the
functionality provided by disklabel(8), which provides OpenBSD
partitions.
# /dev/rsd0c:
type: SCSI
disk: SCSI disk
label: WDC WD10EADS-65L
duid: 085ef8d68623f5b3
flags:
bytes/sector: 512
sectors/track: 63
tracks/cylinder: 255
sectors/cylinder: 16065
cylinders: 121601
total sectors: 1953525168
boundstart: 419425083
boundend: 1953520065
drivedata: 0
16 partitions:
# size offset fstype [fsize bsize cpg]
a: 2097125 419425083 4.2BSD 2048 16384 1
b: 4715520 421522208 swap
c: 1953525168 0 unused
d: 8388608 426237728 4.2BSD 2048 16384 1
e: 16771072 434626336 4.2BSD 2048 16384 1
f: 4194304 451397408 4.2BSD 2048 16384 1
g: 2097152 455591712 4.2BSD 2048 16384 1
h: 20971520 457688864 4.2BSD 2048 16384 1
i: 419425020 63 MSDOS
j: 4194304 478660384 4.2BSD 2048 16384 1
k: 4194304 482854688 4.2BSD 2048 16384 1
l: 629145536 487049024 4.2BSD 4096 32768 1
These OpenBSD partitions are then mounted as follows using /etc/fstab:
/dev/sd0a / ffs rw,softdep 1 1
/dev/sd0d /tmp ffs rw,softdep,nodev,nosuid 1 2
/dev/sd0e /var ffs rw,softdep,nodev,nosuid 1 2
/dev/sd0f /usr ffs rw,softdep,nodev 1 2
/dev/sd0g /usr/X11R6 ffs rw,softdep,nodev 1 2
/dev/sd0h /usr/local ffs rw,softdep,nodev 1 2
/dev/sd0i /mnt/example msdos rw,nodev,nosuid 1 2
/dev/sd0j /usr/src ffs rw,softdep,nodev,nosuid 1 2
/dev/sd0k /usr/obj ffs rw,softdep,nodev,nosuid 1 2
/dev/sd0l /home ffs rw,softdep,nodev,nosuid 1 2
COMMAND MODE
The -e flag causes fdisk to enter an interactive command mode. The
prompt contains information about the state of the edit process.
fdisk:*1>
`*' means that the in-memory copy of the boot block has been modified,
but not yet written to disk.
1 is the disk offset of the currently selected boot block being edited.
This number will be 2 when editing an extended MBR partition, 3 when
editing an extended MBR partition within an extended MBR partition, and
so on.
The list of commands and their explanations are given below. Commands
may be abbreviated provided enough characters are given to ensure
unambiguity.
? A synonym for help.
help Display a list of commands that fdisk understands in the
interactive edit mode.
manual Display this manual page.
reinit Initialize the currently selected, in-memory copy of the boot
block.
disk Display the current drive geometry that fdisk probed using kernel
provided information and various heuristics. The disk geometry
may be changed at this point.
edit # Edit a given table entry in the memory copy of the current boot
block. Sizes may be adjusted in BIOS geometry mode or using
sector offsets and sizes. A unit `b', `k', `m', or `g' may be
appended to indicate bytes, kilobytes, megabytes, or gigabytes.
The special size value `*' will cause the partition to be sized
to use the remainder of the disk.
flag # [value]
Make the given MBR partition table entry bootable and mark all
others as not bootable (only one entry can be marked bootable).
If a value of 0 is given, the MBR partition is marked as not
bootable, but no other MBR partitions are touched.
update Update the machine MBR bootcode and 0xAA55 signature in the
memory copy of the currently selected boot block. Note that this
option will overwrite an NT disk signature, if present.
select #
Select and load into memory the boot block pointed to by the
extended MBR partition table entry in the current boot block.
setpid #
Change the MBR partition identifier of the given MBR partition
table entry. This command is particularly useful for reassigning
an existing MBR partition to OpenBSD.
swap # #
Swap two MBR entries.
print [unit]
Print the currently selected in-memory copy of the boot block and
its MBR table to the terminal. A unit `b', `k', `m', or `g' may
be appended to indicate bytes, kilobytes, megabytes, or
gigabytes. Otherwise the number of sectors is printed.
write Write the in-memory copy of the boot block to disk.
exit Exit the current level of fdisk, either returning to the
previously selected in-memory copy of a boot block, or exiting
the program if there is none.
quit Exit the current level of fdisk, either returning to the
previously selected in-memory copy of a boot block, or exiting
the program if there is none. Unlike exit it does write the
modified block out.
abort Quit program without saving current changes.
FILES
/usr/mdec/mbr default MBR template
SEE ALSOfstab(5), boot_amd64(8), boot_armish(8), boot_i386(8), boot_landisk(8),
boot_macppc(8), boot_zaurus(8), disklabel(8)CAVEATS
Hand crafted disk layouts are highly error prone. It is common practice,
though by no means required, that MBR partitions start on a cylinder
boundary (generally head 0, sector 1, but head 1, sector 1 for track 0),
and that MBR partitions also end at cylinder boundaries.
OpenBSD 4.9 December 3, 2010 OpenBSD 4.9
