ccd/vinum/? & unused drive space

[diablito]

howdy. my perusal of the obsd faq and google search results leave me with a question:

how to incorporate the unused 40+GB on my hard drive into my obsd system? the drive configuration is:

$ fdisk /dev/rsd0c

Disk: /dev/rsd0c	geometry: 60801/255/63 [976773168 Sectors]
Offset: 0	Signature: 0xAA55
            Starting         Ending         LBA Info:
 #: id      C   H    S -      C   H   S    [       start:        size ]
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 0: 83      0   1   1 -     25    136   63 [       63:        410193 ] Linux files*
 1: 83     25 137   1 -     51    18    63 [   410256:        410256 ] Linux files*
*2: A6     51  19   1 -     3314  177   63 [   820512:      52430112 ] OpenBSD     
 3: 05   3314 178   1 -     54945 0     63 [ 53250624:     829440864 ] Extended DOS
Offset: 53250624	Signature: 0xAA55
            Starting         Ending         LBA Info:
 #: id      C    H     S -      C   H   S    [       start:        size ]
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 0: 8E   3314 179   1     -  54944  243   18 [    53250687:   829440000 ] Linux LVM   
 1: 00      0   0   0     -      0    0    0 [           0:           0 ] unused      
 2: 00      0   0   0     -      0    0    0 [           0:           0 ] unused      
 3: 00      0   0   0     -      0    0    0 [           0:           0 ] unused

and the disklabel is:
        size  		offset		fstype	[fsize	bsize	cpg]	mountpoint
a	2079600		820512		4.2BSD	 2048	16384	1	/
b	2079600		2900112		swap
c	976773168	0		unused
d	3310976		4979712	        4.2BSD	 2048	16384	1	/tmp
e	5144816		8290688	        4.2BSD	 2048	16384	1	/var
f	3758960		13435504	4.2BSD	 2048	16384	1	/usr
g	2097152		17194464	4.2BSD	 2048	16384	1	/usr/X11R6
h	6110064		19291616	4.2BSD	 2048	16384	1	/usr/local
i	410193		63		ext2
j	410256		410256		ext2
k	829440000 	53250687        unknown
l	3246608		25401680	4.2BSD	 2048	16384	1	/usr/src
m	3246608		28648288	4.2BSD	 2048	16384	1	/usr/obj
n	21355728	31894896	4.2BSD	 2048	16384	1	/home

fdisk indicates a geometry with 60801 cylinders, the last one used being 54945 which leaves 5856 cylinders unused. i had left this space thinking that i could use it as a pool of drive space to draw from later using lvm (for linux systems) and (g)vinum on the obsd system.

it appears to me that i am out on a limb? open to suggestions.

[jggimi]

Yes, from an MBR partitioning perspective, you are SOL. You did not account for your final But not from an OpenBSD perspective, as long as you are aware that you are about to "go beyond" the MBR partitioning schema.

The -best- option is to repartition, properly. (BTW, your extended partition extends 63 sectors into cylinder 54945. That's a waste.)

Realize that OpenBSD uses MBRs for booting, for finding the OpenBSD partition, and for finding any foreign partitions. But OpenBSD partitions (a-p) are not stored in the MBR, they are stored separately, in the disklabel.

You can create disklabel partitions that reside anywhere on the drive, the disklabel(8) program uses the OpenBSD partition by default. You can change that default. Look at the man page for disklabel, and the "b" command.

If you have the time, it is best to repartition, and clean up your mess.