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let me state once more that i have the book and am reading it! i brought the 10cd power-pak. i like the manual. it was because of the manual that i brought the power-pak. so much for the guy who said i was lazy for not reading. if i didn't want to read, and didn't think that i should have to, i wouldn't have brought the book. i tried to download the freebsd kernel from the web. but i could make heads or tails of it. i was expecting to find the kernel to be one contiguous unit as it is in linux. now maybe it is. but what i found was kernel modules as they would appear in linux after the kernel and it's components had been compiled. i didn't find any file of the size that i expected the kernel to be (17-21MB's for linux). it was because of this recognition, that i was erroneously applying concepts from one system to another, that i chose to admit that i don't know what i am doing. it is also because of this that i am approaching this (installation) with great trepidation.

Christopher Rued <c.r...@xsb.com> wrote;

thank you. the reason why i did not proceed, was that with linux, if you change the definition of the partition type, after it's initial declaration, you inevitably erase all the data on the partition.

in linux, my system (kernel) is VALHALA, my volume group was `ODIN'. the physical volumes were `THOR'. such that the labels went like this;

/dev/ODIN/THOR01, /THOR02, /THOR03, etc.

that was very simple and straight-forward. it didn't require a math degree to interpret this. it is done at the time of the initial installation. you did not first load (any) data on the partitions and then go back and relabel them, for the very reasons already stated above. if freebsd is different, great! but i have not read where that is the case. and it would not be ligitimate for me to assume so. in fact, i assume the worst, and expect it.