FreeBSD 9 and Windows XP

[leeolives...@surewest.net]

Good afternoon, FreeBSD enthusiasts. Can FreeBSD 9.1 be installed on a computer on which Windows XP currently resides? If so, how can this installation be done? In particular, is there a way to install 9.1 so that it can be booted from the traditional master boot record? It is important that, when I am done, I can still boot to Windows XP, as I must run some applications not available on FreeBSD. If the idea I am proposing is not feasible with version 9.1, will it work with 8.3? Any comments are appreciated. If this question has already been asked many times before, please just let me know where to look to find the answer. Thanks. Newbie502

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[Zane C. B-H.]

On Sat, 9 Mar 2013 12:07:41 -0800 (PST)
<leeolives...@surewest.net> wrote:

> Good afternoon, FreeBSD enthusiasts. Can FreeBSD 9.1 be installed
> on a computer on which Windows XP currently resides? If so, how
> can this installation be done? In particular, is there a way to
> install 9.1 so that it can be booted from the traditional master
> boot record? It is important that, when I am done, I can still
> boot to Windows XP, as I must run some applications not available
> on FreeBSD. If the idea I am proposing is not feasible with
> version 9.1, will it work with 8.3? Any comments are appreciated.
> If this question has already been asked many times before, please
> just let me know where to look to find the answer. Thanks.
> Newbie502

When I did it, I shrunk the Windows partition and installed FreeBSD
to the a new partition created on the free space of the drive. The
multiboot version of the MBR stuff for FreeBSD should be able to
handle it for you with out issue. I've not done it with 9.1, but when
I did it with 6 way back when, it worked nicely.

[Polytropon]

On Sat, 9 Mar 2013 12:07:41 -0800 (PST), leeolives...@surewest.net wrote:
> Good afternoon, FreeBSD enthusiasts. Can FreeBSD 9.1 be
> installed on a computer on which Windows XP currently
> resides?

Yes.

> If so, how can this installation be done?

First of all, you need a tool to make disk space available;
you can do this by adding an additional hard disk, or by
resizing the "Windows" partition. As "Windows" does not
seem to provide native tools to do this, you will have to
download a live system CD that contains a partition
management tool such as GParted; the UBCD live system
CD contains such a tool, if I remember correctly. There
are also dedicated boot CDs for this task, I think
"Partition Magic" is one of them. (Sorry I can't be more
specific, I have only limited experience with dual-booting
and the need to use such tools.)

> In particular, is there a way to install 9.1 so that it
> can be booted from the traditional master boot record?

In the installer, install the boot manager. This will
allow you to select if to boot FreeBSD or "Windows" when
the system has started.

> It is important that, when I am done, I can still boot to
> Windows XP, as I must run some applications not available
> on FreeBSD.

That's the purpose of such a tool. :-)

> If the idea I am proposing is not feasible with version 9.1,
> will it work with 8.3?

If I remember correctly, it has already been working in much
older versions (such as 5.0). The old installer (sysinstall)
had three options for dealing with the MBR: write a standard
MBR (will boot FreeBSD, typically used on a system that runs
this OS dedicatedly), install the boot manager (allows to select
what to boot), or leave the MBR untouched (will require booting
by a different means). The new installer (bsdinstall) offers
similar options.

> If this question has already been asked many times before,
> please just let me know where to look to find the answer.

Check The FreeBSD Handbook for detailed instructions about
the new installer. This will also cover dual-booting.

http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en/books/handbook/index.html

http://www.freebsd.org/doc/faq/disks.html

--
Polytropon
Magdeburg, Germany
Happy FreeBSD user since 4.0
Andra moi ennepe, Mousa, ...

[Alejandro Imass]

On Sat, Mar 9, 2013 at 3:07 PM, <leeolives...@surewest.net> wrote:
> Good afternoon, FreeBSD enthusiasts. Can FreeBSD 9.1 be installed on a computer on which Windows XP currently resides?

As others have already answered, yes. The risks are minimal if you are
careful but you will always have the risk of breaking something so
make a backup of your XP before doing _anything_. Also, even before
doing that, run a de-fragmenter.

--
Alejandro Imass

[Ralf Mardorf]

On Sat, 2013-03-09 at 21:27 +0100, Polytropon wrote:
> "Partition Magic"

I would avoid to use proprietary software, ntfs, fat16 and fat32 are
full supported by Linux gparted, available for free as in beer at
http://partedmagic.com as a live media. Perhaps you need to defragment
the Windows partitions first.

You need to add a primary partition for FreeBSD, an extended partition
with logical partitions can't be used to install FreeBSD. I've got
FreeBSD and tons of Linux installed, no Windows. However, my partition
table is MBR based, as yours.

Gparted can't create the FreeBSD slice, you need to do this with e.g.
the FreeBSD installer. I had to use 8.3 and than to update to 9.1, I
tested 9.0 first, but I couldn't create the slice, resp. the partitions
in that slice.

Hth,
Ralf

--
http://sacom.hk/mission

[Polytropon]

On Sat, 09 Mar 2013 21:49:29 +0100, Ralf Mardorf wrote:
> On Sat, 2013-03-09 at 21:27 +0100, Polytropon wrote:
> > "Partition Magic"
>
> I would avoid to use proprietary software, ntfs, fat16 and fat32 are
> full supported by Linux gparted, available for free as in beer at
> http://partedmagic.com as a live media.

Thanks for mentioning it - "Parted Magic" was the project I was
actually refering to. :-)

--
Polytropon
Magdeburg, Germany
Happy FreeBSD user since 4.0
Andra moi ennepe, Mousa, ...

[Michael Ross]

On Sat, 09 Mar 2013 21:27:45 +0100, Polytropon <fre...@edvax.de> wrote:

> On Sat, 9 Mar 2013 12:07:41 -0800 (PST),
> leeolives...@surewest.net wrote:
>> Good afternoon, FreeBSD enthusiasts. Can FreeBSD 9.1 be
>> installed on a computer on which Windows XP currently
>> resides?
>
> Yes.
>
>
>
>> If so, how can this installation be done?
>
> First of all, you need a tool to make disk space available;
> you can do this by adding an additional hard disk, or by
> resizing the "Windows" partition. As "Windows" does not
> seem to provide native tools to do this

I may misremember, but Win7 does have a functional "shrink drive" in the
drive administration console,
and I do think that was there in XP already.


Michael

[Eduardo Morras]

On Sat, 9 Mar 2013 12:07:41 -0800 (PST)

<leeolives...@surewest.net> wrote:

> Good afternoon, FreeBSD enthusiasts. Can FreeBSD 9.1 be installed on a computer on which Windows XP currently resides? If so, how can this installation be >done? In particular, is there a way to install 9.1 so that it can be booted from the traditional master boot record? It is important that, when I am done, I can >still boot to Windows XP, as I must run some applications not available on FreeBSD. If the idea I am proposing is not feasible with version 9.1, will it work with >8.3? Any comments are appreciated. If this question has already been asked many times before, please just let me know where to look to find the answer. Thanks. >Newbie502

As an addon to other answers, you can install VirtualBox, create a minimal hard disk with MBR boot menu that points to the WindowsXP partition. This way you don't need to restart in WinXP. The same can be done from WinXP side, a minimal hd with MBR boot menu to startup the FreeBSD.


--- ---
Eduardo Morras <emor...@yahoo.es>

[Ralf Mardorf]

On Mon, 2013-03-11 at 13:51 +0100, Eduardo Morras wrote:
> As an addon to other answers, you can install VirtualBox, create a
> minimal hard disk with MBR boot menu that points to the WindowsXP
> partition. This way you don't need to restart in WinXP. The same can
> be done from WinXP side, a minimal hd with MBR boot menu to startup
> the FreeBSD.

This does work?

I've got XP as VBox's vdi and just a folder to share content with *nix.
It would be possible to install XP bootable without VBox to a ntfs
partition, to boot it directly and if wanted, to use it also as guest in
VBox?

I only use VBox to get applications for an iPad and to copy PDFs to an
iPad, since ad-hoc networks until now never worked for me, but I also
would like to test hardware sometimes, impossible with VBox, so
sometimes it would be nice to have a real Windows install.

If this should work, will it become impossible to use snapshots made by
VBox? Will there be no confusion regarding to different drivers for the
XP booted as VBox guest and booted directly?

Regards,
Ralf

[Eduardo Morras]

On Mon, 11 Mar 2013 14:14:05 +0100
Ralf Mardorf <ralf.m...@rocketmail.com> wrote:

> On Mon, 2013-03-11 at 13:51 +0100, Eduardo Morras wrote:
> > As an addon to other answers, you can install VirtualBox, create a
> > minimal hard disk with MBR boot menu that points to the WindowsXP
> > partition. This way you don't need to restart in WinXP. The same can
> > be done from WinXP side, a minimal hd with MBR boot menu to startup
> > the FreeBSD.
>
> This does work?

I followed the instructions (only once) from this page http://geekery.amhill.net/2010/01/27/virtualbox-with-existing-windows-partition/ and it works under FreeBSD 8.3 and WinXP.

> I've got XP as VBox's vdi and just a folder to share content with *nix.
> It would be possible to install XP bootable without VBox to a ntfs
> partition, to boot it directly and if wanted, to use it also as guest in
> VBox?

I use it that way, my set up is 2 primary mbr partitions, one with XP ntfs, the other with FreeBSD ufs2+su. VBox installed on both.

>
> I only use VBox to get applications for an iPad and to copy PDFs to an
> iPad, since ad-hoc networks until now never worked for me, but I also
> would like to test hardware sometimes, impossible with VBox, so
> sometimes it would be nice to have a real Windows install.
>
> If this should work, will it become impossible to use snapshots made by
> VBox? Will there be no confusion regarding to different drivers for the
> XP booted as VBox guest and booted directly?

Don't know if VBox snapshots are usable, never tried.

There's no confusion, WinXP access directly to the XP partition and FreeBSD to FreeBSD partition. If you don't play with VBox internal commands you are safe. I got a dirty fs on FreeBSD when WinXP crashed once.

HTH

> Regards,
> Ralf

--- ---
Eduardo Morras <emor...@yahoo.es>

[Ralf Mardorf]

Thank you :)

I'll flag your reply as "useful information", perhaps I come back to
that later.

Regards,
Ralf

[Carl Johnson]

Eduardo Morras <emor...@yahoo.es> writes:

> On Sat, 9 Mar 2013 12:07:41 -0800 (PST)
> <leeolives...@surewest.net> wrote:
>
>> Good afternoon, FreeBSD enthusiasts. Can FreeBSD 9.1 be installed on
>> a computer on which Windows XP currently resides? If so, how can
>> this installation be >done? In particular, is there a way to install
>> 9.1 so that it can be booted from the traditional master boot record?
>> It is important that, when I am done, I can >still boot to Windows
>> XP, as I must run some applications not available on FreeBSD. If the
>> idea I am proposing is not feasible with version 9.1, will it work
>> with >8.3? Any comments are appreciated. If this question has
>> already been asked many times before, please just let me know where
>> to look to find the answer. Thanks. >Newbie502
>
>
> As an addon to other answers, you can install VirtualBox, create a
> minimal hard disk with MBR boot menu that points to the WindowsXP
> partition. This way you don't need to restart in WinXP. The same can
> be done from WinXP side, a minimal hd with MBR boot menu to startup
> the FreeBSD.

It is my understanding that FreeBSD doesn't allow using part of a disk,
but grabs the entire disk. That means that VirtualBox can't use
partitions on a disk that any other partitions are being used by
anything else, including FreeBSD itself. Am I wrong about this? I use
VirtualBox using vdmk for an entire disk, but I have never been able to
share with anything else.
--
Carl Johnson ca...@peak.org

[Ralf Mardorf]

On Mon, 2013-03-11 at 09:05 -0700, Carl Johnson wrote:
> It is my understanding that FreeBSD doesn't allow using part of a disk,
> but grabs the entire disk. That means that VirtualBox can't use
> partitions on a disk that any other partitions are being used by
> anything else, including FreeBSD itself. Am I wrong about this? I use
> VirtualBox using vdmk for an entire disk, but I have never been able to
> share with anything else.

No, this is a misunderstanding. The primary below [1] is the ufs
including my FreeBSD, it's just that Linux's parted doesn't show it
(gparted does show) and I can't access BSD by my Linux installs. And no,
the ntfs isn't Windows.

FWIW my old drives have only one primary and a extended + tons of
logical partitions, but I started to partition new drives with 3 primary
and one extended including as much logical partitions as needed [2].

To have one partition that can be accessed by the BIOS I format one with
fat32, since it can't access ntfs partitions. Most Linux use ext4 by
default, I've got ext3 and ext4, because FreeBSD can share ext3
partitions without issues with Linux.

I'm using GRUB2 from Linux to boot FreeBSD [3], it's sharing a drive
with several Linux installs, more installs anybody does need ;). I'm not
maintaining all installs.

Regards,
Ralf

[1]
[rocketmouse@archlinux ~]$ sudo parted /dev/sda print
Model: ATA SAMSUNG HD321KJ (scsi)
Disk /dev/sda: 320GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: msdos
Disk Flags:

Number Start End Size Type File system Flags
1 32.3kB 62.1GB 62.1GB primary boot
2 62.1GB 320GB 258GB extended
5 62.1GB 94.1GB 32.0GB logical ntfs
6 94.1GB 126GB 32.1GB logical ext3
7 126GB 158GB 32.2GB logical ext3
8 158GB 185GB 27.0GB logical ext3
9 185GB 223GB 37.7GB logical ext3
10 223GB 225GB 2328MB logical linux-swap(v1)
11 225GB 288GB 62.3GB logical ext3
12 288GB 291GB 3759MB logical ext3
13 291GB 315GB 23.7GB logical ext3
14 315GB 320GB 4927MB logical ext3

[2]
[rocketmouse@archlinux ~]$ sudo parted /dev/sdc print
Model: WD Ext HDD 1021 (scsi)
Disk /dev/sdc: 2000GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: msdos
Disk Flags:

Number Start End Size Type File system Flags
1 1049kB 68.0GB 68.0GB primary ext3
2 68.0GB 138GB 69.6GB primary ext4
3 138GB 413GB 276GB primary ext4
4 413GB 2000GB 1587GB extended
[snip]

[3]
[rocketmouse@archlinux ~]$
cat /run/media/rocketmouse/q/boot/grub/grub.cfg
set timeout=8
set default='0'; if [ x"$default" = xsaved ]; then load_env; set
default="$saved_entry"; fi
set color_normal='light-blue/black'; set
color_highlight='light-cyan/blue'

menuentry "FreeBSD"{
set root=(hd0,msdos1)
chainloader +1
}

menuentry 'Ubuntu Quantal, kernel 3.6.5-rt14' {
set root='(hd1,9)'; set legacy_hdbias='0'
legacy_kernel '/boot/vmlinuz-3.6.5-rt14' '/boot/vmlinuz-3.6.5-rt14'
'root=/dev/sdb9' 'ro' 'quiet' ''
legacy_initrd '/boot/initrd.img-3.6.5-rt14'
'/boot/initrd.img-3.6.5-rt14'

}

menuentry 'Ubuntu Quantal, kernel 3.5.0-18-lowlatency
threadirqs' {
set root='(hd1,9)'; set legacy_hdbias='0'
legacy_kernel '/boot/vmlinuz-3.5.0-18-lowlatency'
'/boot/vmlinuz-3.5.0-18-lowlatency' 'root=/dev/sdb9' 'ro' 'quiet'
'threadirqs'
legacy_initrd '/boot/initrd.img-3.5.0-18-lowlatency'
'/boot/initrd.img-3.5.0-18-lowlatency'

}

menuentry 'Ubuntu Quantal, kernel 3.5.0-18-lowlatency (recovery
mode)' {
set root='(hd1,9)'; set legacy_hdbias='0'
legacy_kernel '/boot/vmlinuz-3.5.0-18-lowlatency'
'/boot/vmlinuz-3.5.0-18-lowlatency' 'root=/dev/sdb9' 'ro' 'single'
legacy_initrd '/boot/initrd.img-3.5.0-18-lowlatency'
'/boot/initrd.img-3.5.0-18-lowlatency'

}

menuentry 'Ubuntu Studio Quantal, Kernel 3.6.5-rt14' {
set root='(hd1,13)'; set legacy_hdbias='0'
legacy_kernel '/boot/vmlinuz-3.6.5-rt14' '/boot/vmlinuz-3.6.5-rt14'
'root=/dev/sdb13' 'ro' 'quiet'
legacy_initrd '/boot/initrd.img-3.6.5-rt14'
'/boot/initrd.img-3.6.5-rt14'

}

menuentry 'Ubuntu Studio Quantal, Kernel 3.5.0-18-lowlatency
threadirqs' {
set root='(hd1,13)'; set legacy_hdbias='0'
legacy_kernel '/boot/vmlinuz-3.5.0-18-lowlatency'
'/boot/vmlinuz-3.5.0-18-lowlatency' 'root=/dev/sdb13' 'ro' 'quiet'
'threadirqs'
legacy_initrd '/boot/initrd.img-3.5.0-18-lowlatency'
'/boot/initrd.img-3.5.0-18-lowlatency'

}

menuentry 'Ubuntu Studio Precise, Kernel 3.0.30 threadirqs' {
set root='(hd1,1)'; set legacy_hdbias='0'
legacy_kernel '/boot/vmlinuz-3.0.30' '/boot/vmlinuz-3.0.30'
'root=UUID=338316fb-364e-4a43-8deb-738127f878ce' 'ro' 'quiet'
'threadirqs'
legacy_initrd '/boot/initrd.img-3.0.30' '/boot/initrd.img-3.0.30'

}

menuentry 'Ubuntu Studio Precise, Kernel 3.2.0-23-lowlatency
threadirqs' {
set root='(hd1,1)'; set legacy_hdbias='0'
legacy_kernel '/boot/vmlinuz-3.2.0-23-lowlatency'
'/boot/vmlinuz-3.2.0-23-lowlatency'
'root=UUID=338316fb-364e-4a43-8deb-738127f878ce' 'ro' 'quiet'
'threadirqs'
legacy_initrd '/boot/initrd.img-3.2.0-23-lowlatency'
'/boot/initrd.img-3.2.0-23-lowlatency'

}

menuentry 'AVlinux 5.0.3, Kernel 3.0.23-rt40' {
set root='(hd1,11)'; set legacy_hdbias='0'
legacy_kernel '/boot/vmlinuz-3.0.23-rt40'
'/boot/vmlinuz-3.0.23-rt40' 'root=/dev/sdb11' 'ro' 'quiet'
legacy_initrd '/boot/initrd.img-3.0.23-rt40'
'/boot/initrd.img-3.0.23-rt40'

}

menuentry 'AVlinux 5.0.3, Kernel 3.0.23-avl-7-pae threadirqs' {
set root='(hd1,11)'; set legacy_hdbias='0'
legacy_kernel '/boot/vmlinuz-3.0.23-avl-7-pae'
'/boot/vmlinuz-3.0.23-avl-7-pae' 'root=/dev/sdb11' 'ro' 'threadirqs'
'quiet'
legacy_initrd '/boot/initrd.img-3.0.23-avl-7-pae'
'/boot/initrd.img-3.0.23-avl-7-pae'

}

menuentry 'Edubuntu 10.10, Kernel 2.6.33.9-rt31' {
set root='(hd1,8)'; set legacy_hdbias='0'
legacy_kernel '/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.33.9-rt31'
'/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.33.9-rt31'
'root=UUID=ded93dfb-37ae-48cf-a3a3-b613aa5704fd' 'ro'
legacy_initrd '/boot/initrd.img-2.6.33.9-rt31'
'/boot/initrd.img-2.6.33.9-rt31'

}

menuentry 'Ubuntu Studio Oz, Kernel 3.0.0-17-generic' {
set root='(hd1,6)'; set legacy_hdbias='0'
legacy_kernel '/boot/vmlinuz-3.0.0-17-generic'
'/boot/vmlinuz-3.0.0-17-generic'
'root=UUID=0241b2ac-a0ab-44de-8d73-0ed084e152e6'
legacy_initrd '/boot/initrd.img-3.0.0-17-generic'
'/boot/initrd.img-3.0.0-17-generic'

}

menuentry 'Ubuntu Studio Oz, Kernel 3.0.0-20-generic' {
set root='(hd1,6)'; set legacy_hdbias='0'
legacy_kernel '/boot/vmlinuz-3.0.0-20-generic'
'/boot/vmlinuz-3.0.0-20-generic'
'root=UUID=0241b2ac-a0ab-44de-8d73-0ed084e152e6'
legacy_initrd '/boot/initrd.img-3.0.0-20-generic'
'/boot/initrd.img-3.0.0-20-generic'

}

menuentry 'Arch Linux Rt' {
set root='(hd0,9)'; set legacy_hdbias='0'
legacy_kernel '/boot/vmlinuz-linux-rt' '/boot/vmlinuz-linux-rt'
'root=/dev/sda9' 'ro'
legacy_initrd '/boot/initramfs-linux-rt.img'
'/boot/initramfs-linux-rt.img'

}

menuentry 'Arch Linux' {
set root='(hd0,9)'; set legacy_hdbias='0'
legacy_kernel '/boot/vmlinuz-linux' '/boot/vmlinuz-linux'
'root=/dev/sda9' 'ro'
legacy_initrd '/boot/initramfs-linux.img' '/boot/initramfs-linux.img'

}

menuentry 'Arch Linux Fallback' {
set root='(hd0,9)'; set legacy_hdbias='0'
legacy_kernel '/boot/vmlinuz-linux' '/boot/vmlinuz-linux'
'root=/dev/sda9' 'ro'
legacy_initrd '/boot/initramfs-linux-fallback.img'
'/boot/initramfs-linux-fallback.img'

}

menuentry 'openSUSE 11.2, Kernel 2.6.31.6-rt19' {
set root='(hd0,7)'; set legacy_hdbias='0'
legacy_kernel '/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.31.6-rt19'
'/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.31.6-rt19' 'root=/dev/sda7'
legacy_initrd '/boot/initrd-2.6.31.6-rt19'
'/boot/initrd-2.6.31.6-rt19'

[Warren Block]

It's very hard to tell what situation is being described here. If the
VMDK is a pointer to a whole physical disk, that would probably make the
disk only usable by one VM. It should be possible to make the VMDK
point to just one partition on the disk. Then other VMs or a physical
machine could use those other partitions while the FreeBSD VM was
running.

Booting the same Windows install alternately in a VM and then on real
hardware may trigger the "Genuine Advantage" annoyance.

[Ralf Mardorf]

On Mon, 2013-03-11 at 12:25 -0600, Warren Block wrote:
> Booting the same Windows install alternately in a VM and then on real
> hardware may trigger the "Genuine Advantage" annoyance.

This is true, but for some exceptional cases perhaps untrue.

I wasn't aware about this possibility, but it does sound interesting to
me.

I run Windows in VBox only to use an iPad I won and to transfer
documents from my *nix to the iPad.

So my exceptional cases is, that I've got something useful I didn't buy
myself. This thing, the iPad, has a lot of disadvantages, I don't pay
for apps etc., but it's useful as a reader and for some other tasks. I
don't need and I don't use Windows, with this exception (to use the
"reader"/iPad). It's a XP without admin account and service pack 2 only,
I don't give a damn about the state of this Windows or the state of the
"reader". Ok, I made some snapshots, I use this advantage, but I could
live without snapshots.

I'm a *nix only user, the iPad and regarding to this, Windows XP too,
fall into my lap. iPad and Windows aren't important for me, I don't need
the security advantages of the virtual machine. I chose it, to avoid
issues with installing Windows to a real partition, no primary was free
and fixing the boot loader is work and I wish to access iTunes from my
*nix ... however, since *nix tend to be problematic regarding to
hardware, it can't harm to have a Windows to test hardware that does
cause issues with *nix, to ensure that the hardware isn't broken.

In my very exceptional, individual case it might be really interesting
to share a "real" Windows install, directly booted and booted as guest
in VBox. I'm thinking of making a backup of the virtual partition and to
restore it on a real, primary ntfs partition or something similar,
perhaps I can copy just the iTunes data and make a new Windows
install ... OTOH I didn't use a Windows install before, disk space isn't
expensive, so I'm uncertain, if I really want a real Windows install and
if I should wish to have one, it's not to share it with VBox, but keep a
separated version in VBox. I'm not sure that it's really easy to test
hardware when booting it directly and to have completely different
_virtual_ hardware by VBox. What would happen, if for the _virtual_ boot
of XP, the professional audio card is missing? The setups might be that
different, that it perhaps can't switch between a _real_ and a _virtual_
boot without much editing.

[Carl Johnson]

Warren Block <wbl...@wonkity.com> writes:

> On Mon, 11 Mar 2013, Carl Johnson wrote:
>
>> It is my understanding that FreeBSD doesn't allow using part of a disk,
>> but grabs the entire disk. That means that VirtualBox can't use
>> partitions on a disk that any other partitions are being used by
>> anything else, including FreeBSD itself. Am I wrong about this? I use
>> VirtualBox using vdmk for an entire disk, but I have never been able to
>> share with anything else.
>
> It's very hard to tell what situation is being described here. If the
> VMDK is a pointer to a whole physical disk, that would probably make
> the disk only usable by one VM. It should be possible to make the
> VMDK point to just one partition on the disk. Then other VMs or a
> physical machine could use those other partitions while the FreeBSD VM
> was running.

I was thinking of the case where I tried to allow direct access by a
virtual machine to a slice on the same disk that I was running FreeBSD
off of. I just looked further into that and discovered that it is
possible, but not allowed by geom by default. It can be done by setting
'sysctl kern.geom.debugflags=0x10'. I am sure that you are aware of the
dangers, but for anybody else reading this check out the warning in the
geom(4) manpage. They refer to this option as 'allow foot shooting' for
a reason.

--
Carl Johnson ca...@peak.org

[Warren Block]

On Mon, 11 Mar 2013, Carl Johnson wrote:

> Warren Block <wbl...@wonkity.com> writes:
>
>> On Mon, 11 Mar 2013, Carl Johnson wrote:
>>
>>> It is my understanding that FreeBSD doesn't allow using part of a disk,
>>> but grabs the entire disk. That means that VirtualBox can't use
>>> partitions on a disk that any other partitions are being used by
>>> anything else, including FreeBSD itself. Am I wrong about this? I use
>>> VirtualBox using vdmk for an entire disk, but I have never been able to
>>> share with anything else.
>>
>> It's very hard to tell what situation is being described here. If the
>> VMDK is a pointer to a whole physical disk, that would probably make
>> the disk only usable by one VM. It should be possible to make the
>> VMDK point to just one partition on the disk. Then other VMs or a
>> physical machine could use those other partitions while the FreeBSD VM
>> was running.
>
> I was thinking of the case where I tried to allow direct access by a
> virtual machine to a slice on the same disk that I was running FreeBSD
> off of. I just looked further into that and discovered that it is
> possible, but not allowed by geom by default. It can be done by setting
> 'sysctl kern.geom.debugflags=0x10'. I am sure that you are aware of the
> dangers, but for anybody else reading this check out the warning in the
> geom(4) manpage. They refer to this option as 'allow foot shooting' for
> a reason.

That's kind of what I was saying. If you can get the VMDK to refer to
just the one slice/partition that the VM needs, it won't lock the whole
disk. For example, ada0s2a rather than ada0s2. Of course, it would be
bad to share the same partition between more than one VM or physical
machine at the same time unless it is mounted read-only by all of them.