i386/563: bug report: bugs/interface problems within fdisk

[abyss@abyss.imaji.net]

>Number:         563
>Category:       i386
>Synopsis:       bugs/interface problems within fdisk
>Confidential:   no
>Severity:       non-critical
>Priority:       low
>Responsible:    bugs
>State:          open
>Class:          sw-bug
>Submitter-Id:   net
>Arrival-Date:   Tue Aug  4 12:00:01 MDT 1998
>Last-Modified:
>Originator:     Abyss
>Organization:
Translucent Truths
net
>Release:        2.3 official (non-current)
>Environment:
	System      : OpenBSD 2.3
	Architecture: OpenBSD.i386
	Machine     : i386
>Description:
	Recently I re-installed OpenBSD after a very short lived effort to try
	and dual-boot win95 with it (not that such would be all that difficult,
	it happens that I became re-aqainted with my origional reasons for
	ridding myself of win95) and in fdisk was trying to get as much as I
	could into a single partition. (This is neat too, you can't delete the
	'c' partition, and the 'a' partition must be root, but you can modify
	the 'c' partition to take up 0 space ;) And noticed that after managing
	the 'free space' into a 0, writing, quiting, aborting, and trying
	again, that free space was suddenly no longer zero! I could with this
	new space modify the 'a' partition to use it all, which happened to
	extend beyond my actuall hd space. After repeating this process a few
	times, and having what I felt to be an absolutely wonderful number of
	gigabytes, I wrote it and quit. When fdisk attempted to actually
	-create- the partitions, it failed. ;) 

	This isn't the only problem
	in fdisk though, as in some cases it will display the space available
	when modifying/creating a partition, while using this number would
	result in a "extends beyond OpenBSD..", etc mem errors. And sometimes
	the * number is bigger than the displayed number -- note, I am not
	referring to cases where, upon modifying a partition, the current
	size of the partition is displayed as the default to size setting.

	Beyond the bugs which are themselves quite easily circumvented,
	fdisk is a hassle. The "you cannot delete the 'c' partition" thing
	is silly, especially on my hd which is too small to be divided
	easily, and that the error message is a lie.
>How-To-Repeat:
	For the free space bug, try putting all into existing partitions,
	until the free space is 0 (which is itself annoying, as the numbers
	fib on some parts), and then write/quit. Abort install and come back
	to fdisk, 'free space' should be greater than 0, increase the
	partitions to use this free space, write/quit, and try to make the
	partitions.
	
	For the 'you cannot delete the c partition' thing, try and d elete
	it. Then m odify it to take up 0 space.

	The error dealing with OpenBSD-allocated space isn't really a bug,
	except that it's apparent resizing of itself based on the resizing
	of partitions involves undue usages of the 'b' command. On a machine
	with only OpenBSD in disklabel, delete all the partitions and create
	one taking up all the space.
>Fix:
	Unsure, removing the disallowance of deleting c might be helpful, and
	the 'b' command should not be needed at all as in fdisk -everything-
	displayed should be of the OpenBSD type. Even if you have other OSes,
	fdisk should operate only in the OpenBSD disklabel, unless fdisk is
	used specifically to alter another. Making OpenBSD the only os should 
	be restricted disklabel. This could be solved by having fdisk think
	that whatever device it was displaying was the hd itself. (If this
	isn't already so, the 'b' command's existence and need to use would
	seem somewhat confusing)

>Audit-Trail:
>Unformatted: