Questions regarding FreeBSD installation
Hiten Pandya
i will see what i can help you with... no offense..
> I intend to install FreeBSD on my PC, which already
> has some
> operating systems installed: Red Hat Linux 7.2,
> Mandrake Linux 8.1
> and Windows ME. It has two hard disks. It is using
> the GRUB
> boot manager.
o...k...
>
> 1. Does FreeBSD must really be installed into a
> primary disk partition?
> Can not it be installed into a logical partition?
It must be installed on a primary partition... yes..
> 2. Can the FreeBSD and Linux swap partition be
> shared?
I think it is possible...
> 3. Can the installation be done from an existing
> ext3 or ext2
> (second extended file system, from Linux),
> existing filesystem?
nope...
> 4. After installation, all installed operating
> systems will be
> ready bootable from the FreeBSD boot manager
> after installation?
yep.. all Operating systems you have will be bootable,
the following is a sample layout of the boot manager.
F1. DOS
F2. LINUX
F2. LINUX
F3. FREEBSD
you can although rename the above to your needs...
> 5. Can the current boot manager be kept and used to
> boot also
> FreeBSD? How?
It can be done, please read the documentation which is
called "using FreeBSD with Multiple Operating
Systems", which can be found at:
http://www.freebsd.org/docs.html#articles
> Note: Section 2.5.2 (Disk Organization) of the
> handbook are not very
> well written, since the use of the terms "partition"
> and "slice" is
> pretty confusing in the text. This is due to the
> overloaded use
> of "partition" .
What it means in the simplest of terms is, a partition
is the actual space you disect out of your hard-drive
for FreeBSD or any other Operating System.
A slice, is a way you can organise the inner layout of
the partition you have dedicated to FreeBSD, for
example:
/dev/ad0s1 - FreeBSD.
=====================================
/dev/ad0s1e - /usr
/dev/ad0s1f - /var
and so on...
you can have up to 16 of these slices inside a FreeBSD
partition.
Still unclear... mail me...
> Regards,
> Romildo.
> --
> Prof. José Romildo Malaquias
> Departamento de Computação
> http://iceb.ufop.br/~romildo Universidade
> Federal de Ouro Preto
> rom...@iceb.ufop.br
> Brasil
> rom...@uber.com.br
>
>
>
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=====
regards,
Hiten Pandya
<hitma...@yahoo.com>
<http://geocities.com/hitmaster2k>
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Annelise Anderson
> > Note: Section 2.5.2 (Disk Organization) of the
> > handbook are not very
> > well written, since the use of the terms "partition"
> > and "slice" is
> > pretty confusing in the text. This is due to the
> > overloaded use
> > of "partition" .
Partition is used in two ways (it has two different
meanings) so you're right--it's overloaded.
Partition means, first, a DOS-type partition (one of the
four the pc architecture permits on a physical hard drive,
of which one can be an extended partition). FreeBSD also
calls this partition a slice, e.g., ad0s1, ad0s2.
FreeBSD can then divide this slice (during the installation
process, in accordance with your instructions) into what are
also called partitions; the partitions of the slice hold file
systems like /, /var, and /usr, typically.
Thus ad0s1a, ad0s1b, etc. (my understanding was that you
could have eight of them) are the partitions of the slice.
a is typically (by default) the root partition (/), b in
swap (no mount point), e is /var, and f is /usr. ad0s1c is
the entire slice.
It's possible to use two (or more) DOS-style partitions, even
putting them on different drives. Some people like to put
/usr/local and /home on another partition; when you delete
a partition to reinstall, it's the DOS-style partition that
is the unit that gets deleted. So you could reinstall /, swap,
/usr, and /var, but leave /usr/local (perhaps including
/usr/local/home) alone, so it will be there after you
reinstall.
I think the latest version of the handbook (with 4.4) has
tried to clarify the use of the term "partition" and its
use to mean different things in different contexts.
I'd say "HTH" but it probably doesn't....summing up:
A DOS partition is a FreeBSD slice.
A FreeBSD slice can be divided up into partitions that hold
file systems or swap.
The meaning of partition is different in these two situations.
Annelise
>
> What it means in the simplest of terms is, a partition
> is the actual space you disect out of your hard-drive
> for FreeBSD or any other Operating System.
>
> A slice, is a way you can organise the inner layout of
> the partition you have dedicated to FreeBSD, for
> example:
>
> /dev/ad0s1 - FreeBSD.
> =====================================
> /dev/ad0s1e - /usr
> /dev/ad0s1f - /var
>
> and so on...
>
> you can have up to 16 of these slices inside a FreeBSD
> partition.
>
> Still unclear... mail me...
>
> =====
> regards,
> Hiten Pandya
> <hitma...@yahoo.com>
> <http://geocities.com/hitmaster2k>
> ----------------------------------------------------
--
Annelise Anderson
Author of: FreeBSD: An Open-Source Operating System for Your PC
Available from: mall.daemonnews.org and amazon.com
Book Website: http://www.bittreepress.com/FreeBSD/introbook/