On 01/20/11 16:44, Doug Barton wrote:
On 01/20/2011 14:15, Chuck Swiger wrote:
On Jan 20, 2011, at 1:37 PM, David Demelier wrote:
[ ... ]
Why does the installer use GPT partition by default? Do you know that GPT is not supported on every (even modern) computer ?

Sure. Legacy PC/BIOS platforms can work with a hybrid GPT which includes the legacy or "protective" MBR used by pre-EFI systems; FreeBSD 7 and later, recent Linux, MacOS X 10.4 and later should be able to boot from disks with that hybrid format.

If you need to dual-boot into Windows, however, and your hardware doesn't provide EFI then you're likely stuck using MBR + PC/BIOS only.

We should not do anything by default that damages the ability to dual-boot windows (and by windows I really mean "xp or later" since we'll have xp around through 2014). If there are significant advantages to gpt as a default when possible then it will be necessary to ask the user some intelligent questions such as "Will this system be multi-booted?" and if yes, "Will ${lowest_common_denominator:-windows} be installed?"

It does do exactly what you suggest. It only uses GPT by default if you have a totally unformatted disk or indicate you intend to run only FreeBSD on the machine. Otherwise, you get MBR+bsdlabel just like now.
-Nathan
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