*BSD News Article 79818


Return to BSD News archive

Path: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au!newshost.carno.net.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!news.cs.su.oz.au!metro!metro!asstdc.scgt.oz.au!nsw.news.telstra.net!act.news.telstra.net!vic.news.telstra.net!news.mira.net.au!inquo!in-news.erinet.com!ddsw1!news.mcs.net!www.nntp.primenet.com!nntp.primenet.com!howland.erols.net!news.mathworks.com!newsfeed.internetmci.com!news.xnet.com!news-admin
From: sonntag@xnet.com (Jon Sonntag)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc
Subject: Re: Basic installation question
Date: 3 Oct 1996 03:35:48 GMT
Organization: Jon's WARPed PC
Lines: 49
Message-ID: <52vcak$f2@flood.xnet.com>
NNTP-Posting-Host: sonntag.xnet.com
X-Newsreader: NeoLogic News for OS/2 [version: 4.2]

In message <52nkak$6d3@listserv.rice.edu> - cobbe@asia.cs.rice.edu (Richard 
Cobbe) writes:
:>I have been told that the default kernel installed as part of the FreeBSD
:>install must be on the first IDE device in order for the system to boot.
:>Is this in fact correct?  Does it necessarily need to be on the first
:>partition of said device?

Nope.  I have it installed on a second drive (D:) on my system.  However, I 
am using OS/2's Boot Manager.  My current setup is:

C: 500 Meg Windows 95
   700 Meg HPFS Data
D: 200 Meg OS/2 Warp 3.0
   1 Gig   FreeBSD 2.1.5

I did have to initially create a small DOS fat partition on D: between the 
end of the OS/2 partition and before the 1024 cylinder boundary leaving 
the rest free.  The I formated the FAT partition, added it to the 
boot manager menu, and made sure I could boot from it.  

Then I loaded FreeBSD (from floppy), deleted the FAT partition I had just 
created, and then created a FreeBSD partition using all of the remaining disk 
space (1 Gig) for FreeBSD. This was done since OS/2's boot manager requires 
all bootable partitions to reside in the first 1024 cylinders, or it won't 
add them to it's menu.

:>
:>I currently have 2 HD's, both on the primary EIDE interface.  The master is
:>a 400M which has a single Win95 partition.  Based on what I've been told
:>about MS operating systems, it pretty much has to *stay* on the primary
:>drive, or it won't boot.
:>

Not necessarily true.  OS/2's boot manager will allow you to 
boot from a second hard disk.  But after you do so, your drive letters are 
totally screwed up.

The question is, if one does not have OS/2, can one find a boot manager 
that will boot from a second drive like Boot Manager?  If not, you might 
persuade someone to sell you an old version of OS/2.  I don't think the boot 
manager has changed in the last three releases... (Sorry, I threw out a 
perfectly good copy of OS/2 v2.1 last week.)


Jon Sonntag
PC Services Manager
ANTEC - Rolling Meadows, IL
sonntag@xnet.com