*BSD News Article 4672


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From: goran@astro.uu.se (Goran Hammarback)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd
Subject: Re: how do I put 386bsd on drive 2
Message-ID: <1992Sep8.135124.947@corax.udac.uu.se>
Date: 8 Sep 92 13:51:24 GMT
References: <92252.033510MHS108@psuvm.psu.edu>
Sender: goran@solaris.astro.uu.se (Goran Hammarback)
Organization: UDAC, Uppsala, Sweden
Lines: 50

In article <92252.033510MHS108@psuvm.psu.edu>, Mark Solsman <MHS108@psuvm.psu.edu> writes:

|> I have two esdi drives, I would like to make the first drive msdos, and
|> the second drive 386bsd.  Can I do this, and how?  I am not sure, because
|> 386bsd install only seems to look at drive one, and doesn't notice the big
|> vacient sign on the partition table for drive two...

There are two possibilites:

* Open your PC and change cables and settings so the second disk
  is the first disk, boot from the tinyBSD disk and let install do
  it's stuff (or use the fixit disk and makeo a custom disklabel and
  install so you get a decently sized swap partition).

* Get a kernel that supports two disks, strip it and replace the kernel
  on the fixit disk, boot from fixit, disklabel the second disk, mount
  it and custom install.

Either way, you now have a DOS disk, and a 386BSD disk.  The problem is
that the PC ROM only allows you to boot from the first (DOS) disk, so to
boot from the other disk you have to physically make it that disk the first
one.
This is not very practical (although I use that myself now, but that's
because my stupid diskcontroller won't realize I have two disks on it 8-(.
I bought a new one today, I hope that one works 8-) ).

To have a workable system you have to have both systems on the first
disk.  Either have a small DOS partition + all BSD on the first, with
the rest of your DOS stuff on the second disk, or all of DOS + a small
(5-10MB depending on how you treat /tmp) BSD root partition + some swap
for BSD on the first, with /usr and more swap for BSD on the second.

In either case you need to handle the BSD installation yourself,
in the first case to get a decent swap area, and in the second case
to install /usr (and swap) on the second disk.

Which to choose depends on the size of your disks, and how much space
you need for the two systems.  The main factor is how much DOS space
you need, BSD (and you) will be happier the more diskspace it gets.

-- 

Goran

------------------------------+---------------------------------
Goran Hammarback              |     goran@astro.uu.se
Astronomiska Observatoriet    |
Uppsala Universitet           |
S-751 20 SWEDEN               |
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