Boot Manager
Eddy
Just did a fresh install of FreeBSD 4.4. During installation I left enough
space on the drive for an XP installation. (I know...wasn't my
choice..so...)
I know when I install XP it's gonna overwrite the MBR so what's the BEST way
to:
1: Boot back into FreeBSD after I install XP
2: Reinstall the FreeBSD Boot Manager
3: Configure the Boot Manager such that XP is listed as well.
Thanks for any help/tips you can provide!
Happy New Years as well....
Eddy
Sam Black
-Sam Black
"Eddy" <no...@none.com> wrote in message
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Eddy
Newbie I am not :)
Chow
"Sam Black" <ateran6...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
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Adrian Urquhart
I did an install of XP over an existing Win98 installation, on a triple-boot box
(Windoze, FreeBSD, Linux) and the MBR was left untouched by XP, much to my
surprise. So maybe you have nothing to worry about...
-Adrian
Sam Black
to pick up on the "FreeBSD" part of "Reinstall the FreeBSD Boot Manager"
:-p.
Sorry 'bout that.
"Eddy" <no...@none.com> wrote in message
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Sam Black
slightly more helpful...
This (hopefully) answers at least question 2 (from the FreeBSD FAQ):
4 Special Considerations
Most operating systems are very picky about where and how they are placed on
the hard disk. Windows 95 and DOS need to be on the first primary partition
on the first hard disk. OS/2 is the exception. It can be installed on the
first or second disk in a primary or extended partition. If you are not
sure, keep the beginning of the bootable partitions below the 1024th
cylinder.
If you install Windows 95 on an existing BSD system, it will ``destroy'' the
MBR, and you will have to reinstall your previous boot manager. Boot Easy
can be reinstalled by using the BOOTINST.EXE utility included in the \TOOLS
directory on the CDROM, and via ftp. You can also re-start the installation
process and go to the partition editor. From there, mark the FreeBSD
partition as bootable, select Boot Manager, and then type W to (W)rite out
the information to the MBR. You can now reboot, and Boot Easy should then
recognize Windows 95 as DOS.
Please keep in mind that OS/2 can read FAT and HPFS partitions, but not FFS
(FreeBSD) or EXT2 (Linux) partitions. Likewise, Windows 95 can only read and
write to FAT and FAT32 (see Section 2) partitions. FreeBSD can read most
file systems, but currently cannot read HPFS partitions. Linux can read HPFS
partitions, but can not write to them. Recent versions of the Linux kernel
(2.x) can read and write to Windows 95 VFAT partitions (VFAT is what gives
Windows 95 long file names - it is pretty much the same as FAT). Linux can
read and write to most file systems. Got that? I hope so.
Devon Ryan
Just use grub (it's in the ports). You can make a boot disk with it for
after installing XP and then (once you have a nice config for it)
install it onto the MBR.
--
Devon Ryan | dpr...@midway.uchicago.edu
Biology/Neuroscience, Pre-med | http://home.uchicago.edu/~dpryan
SG Unix Systems Administrator | dpr...@sg.uchicago.edu
Max Palevsky RCA | rca-pa...@rh.uchicago.edu
walt
> Here we go:
>
> Just did a fresh install of FreeBSD 4.4. During installation I left enough
> space on the drive for an XP installation. (I know...wasn't my
> choice..so...)
>
> I know when I install XP it's gonna overwrite the MBR so what's the BEST way
> to:
>
> 1: Boot back into FreeBSD after I install XP
> 2: Reinstall the FreeBSD Boot Manager
> 3: Configure the Boot Manager such that XP is listed as well.
It's easy to get XP/NT's bootloader to start FBSD and I recommend
doing these steps even if you later decide to re-install another
bootloader:
First get your FBSD installation set up and booting normally.
Make a copy of FBSD's bootblock using dd. Let's say your FBSD
slice (partition) is /dev/ad0s2 for example. Confirm this
by typing 'mount' which print something like this:
/dev/ad0s2a on / (ufs,local,soft-updates)
dd if=/dev/ad0s2 of=fbsdboot bs=512 count=1
This says to copy the first block of 512 bytes from your FBSD
partition to a file name 'fbsdboot', which will be stored in the
current directory. Note that there is no 'a' after the s2--you
want the raw partition, not the / filesystem known as ad0s2a.
You need to save this bootsector where you can get at it after
XP wipes your MBR, so copy it NOW to a DOS-formatted floppy
disk that Windows can read. You'll need to mount the floppy
disk with 'mount_msdos /dev/fd0 /mnt' or something similar
before you can copy the file to it. Don't forget to unmount
the floppy before rebooting.
Once XP is installed you then need to edit the file
"boot.ini" (but see below) to add the entry:
c:\fbsdboot="FreeBSD"
assuming that c:\ is where your Windows drive actually is,
and that you copy the fbsdboot file there.
Now when you reboot the machine you should see an entry
for FreeBSD in the boot menu.
But--what if you don't have a 'boot.ini' after XP installation?
I've always run dual-boot machines, and boot.ini is always
there, but I understand that if XP is installed by itself
it won't necessarily create one because it's not expecting
to multi-boot. (Not sure about this.)
If you right-click on My Computer, then on Properties, then
Advanced, then Startup and Recovery you should see a section
for editing the bootup menu where you can create alternate
entries yourself. This is basically just an editor for
boot.ini, so (I hope) you won't be stuck here.
The advantage of doing these steps is that when you go to
re-install Windows (as you certainly will) you will still
be able to boot FBSD after your MBR is wiped yet again...
Good luck!
mic...@lpthe.jussieu.fr
> Here we go:
> Just did a fresh install of FreeBSD 4.4. During installation I left enough
> space on the drive for an XP installation. (I know...wasn't my
> choice..so...)
> I know when I install XP it's gonna overwrite the MBR so what's the BEST way
> to:
> 1: Boot back into FreeBSD after I install XP
Boot the FrreBSD cdrom, and press the space bar when loader is ready.
You get the Ok prompt and can boot your harddisk. Basically
unload
lsdev -> hope this does not crash.
set currdev=disk1s1a
or something like that
load /kernel
boot
> 2: Reinstall the FreeBSD Boot Manager
I assume you have an ATA disk with freebsd on slice 1. Then
boot0cfg -B ad0
will install "booteasy" on the MBR. It should allow to boot
freebsd on slice 1 and windows on slice 2 although i don't know
how XP boots exactly. For Win98 it works.
You can use the -m option to customize how many slices will appear
in the menu.
> 3: Configure the Boot Manager such that XP is listed as well.
> Thanks for any help/tips you can provide!
> Happy New Years as well....
> Eddy
--
Michel Talon
Eddy
Eddy
"Sam Black" <ateran6...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
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Eddy
All your efforts are greatly appreciated.
Eddy
"Eddy" <no...@none.com> wrote in message
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../
I have the same setup on one of my boxes.. I personally use osbs, but osbs2
(the beta one) just rox! It's menu driven, and supports more too...
Might have to download version two from either netbsd.org, openbsd.org or
migth have been freebsd.org. I forget off hand but I totaly recommend it.
grub on the other hand, I can't really comment as I haven't tried that yet.
I believe that's in ports though.