On 10/9/24 17:06, Thomas wrote:
Hello all,
I have attempted to upgrade from 7.5 to 7.6 on a VPS with encryption. As /usr
was too small (< 1G left), I chose to re-install and re-partition. I downloaded
bsd.rd, checked it, etc. and rebooted it.
Following the install steps, I was not offered the choice to encrypt, only to
choose sd0 or sd1. With hindsight, I should probably have chosen sd1,
re partitioned and called it a day.
What I did is tried to follow the OpenBSD FAQ 14 for softraid + this guide:
https://www.tumfatig.net/2020/fde-on-openbsd.amsterdam-opinionated-vm
I could not detach sd1 (bioctl -d sd1) with the following error: softraid0:
refusing to delete boot volume. So, I tried to erase entirely the drive,
thinking that since bsd.rd was in RAM, it would forget about the previous
volumes / partitions. It did not work, after using dd if=/dev/urandom
of=/dev/rsd0c bs=1m, using disklabel to create sd0a showed: disklabel:
DIOCWDINFO: Device busy when trying to write.
I have given up (and I think that's my last question of the series) and asked
for the VM to be reimaged but I wonder where that went wrong in trying to
re-install with bsd.rd.
Yes, bsd.rd runs from RAM, but you loaded it by unlocking the encrypted drive
that became sd1. The system boots, sd1 is seen by the OS, so it can't be
casually deleted, as the kernel has already become aware of it. Because of
that, you can't detach the drive (I think? I haven't tried this, but I
recognize the rest of your problem :) )
your dd'ing trash over sd0 worked, but the disklabels are stored in RAM, so
the system wouldn't know until you rebooted. (personally, I'd suggest
zeros over random data if you are just trying to free up the disk. OpenBSD
won't have a problem, but I've seen lesser OSs freak out if the disk has
magic bytes in magic places in the early part of the disk)
For what you trying to do, after zeroing the drive, you needed to reboot
using other media for bsd.rd (netboot, usb, CD, etc). Now you would have
no partition tables on sd0, and thus, no sd1.
For your goal -- repartitioning an established system, boot bsd.rd, then
just delete and create partitions on sd1. No reason to delete sd1 itself,
your encrypted drive was just fine, it was just the disklabel partitions
within it you wanted to rework.
Nick.
