Re: WIN2000 & FreeBSD
From: Adam (blueeskimo_at_gmx.net)
Date: 06/29/03
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- In reply to: Jerry McAllister: "Re: WIN2000 & FreeBSD"
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To: FreeBSD-questions@freebsd.org Date: 29 Jun 2003 16:36:38 -0400
On Sun, 2003-06-29 at 16:12, Jerry McAllister wrote:
> Here there seems to be some confusion on the use of the word partition.
> FreeBSD uses the term "slice" to mean the major division of the disk
> that Microsloth uses the term "partition" for. You need only two of
> these slices (MS partitions) - one for Windows and one for FreeBSD
> although you can have as many as 4. Those slices are identified in
> FreeBSD land as s1..s4 (ad0s1..ad0s4 for IDE disk one for example) and
> as a letter drive in the MS netherworld (typically drive c, d, etc)
> These major divisions called slices are created by fdisk.
>
> Then, you further divide the FreeBSD slice in to partitions using disklabel
> which are named a..h. FreeBSD calls these sub divisions 'partitions'.
> You create filesystems on these FreeBSD partitions and mount them.
> There are conventions and expectations for some of these. Usually 'a' is
> used for the root (/) file system, 'b' is used for swap, 'c' us unused
> and set up to refer to the whole slice by a few things, 'd' seems to be
> unused, but I don't know the reason. The remainder (e-h) have any use
> although often 'e' is used for /tmp 'f' is often used for /usr or /var
> or sometimes /home depending on how you choose to spread out and manage
> your disk space.
>
> Often second and and subsequent extra disks are assigned to one whole
> use and in that case it is common to use either 'a' or 'e' or 'f' to
> be its name. Some times a chunk of each extra disk is used to add to
> swap space and typically the name 'b' is used for each of those regardless
> of which other letter names are used for the rest of the disk.
>
> So, for example, if you have a machine with 3 IDE disks, split the first
> to be boot disks for MSwin and FreeBSD, dedicate the second to MSwin and
> use the third to add to swap and work space, you might have disks addressed
> as follows: (Size choices are up to you, but remember, you always want more)
>
> ad0s2a mounted as / (eg root)
> ad0s2b swap
> ad0s2c a comment describing the whole ad0s2 slice
> ad0s2e mounted as /tmp
> ad0s2f mounted as /usr
> ad0s2g mounted as /var
> ad0s2h mounted as /home
>
> ad2s1b swap
> ad2s1f mounted as /work
>
> ad1s1 cal also be msdos mounted as something if you like.
>
> Note: You will need to install the boot loader on each disk that will have
> bootable systems on it. In this example, that is only ad0. And you will
> need to put a Master Boot Record on the first boot disk (from the BIOS point
> of view) - ad0 in this example. If you choose to make all of the first
> disk (ad0) be dedicated to MSwin and the second disk (ad1) dedicated to
> FreeBSD, for example, you would need to write a boot loader on both ad0
> and ad1 and the FreeBSD MBR on the first disk (ad0) even though you don't
> put any other FreeBSD stuff on that disk. That is because the BIOS starts
> with that first disk to figure out how to boot and then the MBR takes over
> from there. And, at least up to WinXP the Microsloth MBRs could not boot
> a UNIX OS - but FreeBSD could do either. I have heard tell that now the
> MBR that comes with XP can do both, but haven't tried it.
>
> Although the descriptions of fdisk and disklabel in the man pages can
> at first be rather confusing, after a while they begin to make sense and
> are relatively easy to use.
>
> But, you can also use the sysinstall, either from an install CD or
> by invoking /stand/sysinstall and it will also do all your calculations
> for you in a minimal GUI interface. Sysinstall will also make it write
> the boot loader and MBR if you want.
>
> MS doesn't have anything exactly the same as those sub-partition divisions
> of the slice (tho it does have something else vaguely similar called an
> extended partition that is not compatible).
>
> So, this was a bigger comment than I had planned, but we seem to go over
> and over this same confusion so often.
Thanks Jerry! This is one of the most informative posts I have seen in a
long time. All newbies should read this post very closely!
-- Adam <blueeskimo@gmx.net> _______________________________________________ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to "freebsd-questions-unsubscribe@freebsd.org"
- Previous message: Sundar Subramanian: "attention: quinn ellis :: multiboot help"
- In reply to: Jerry McAllister: "Re: WIN2000 & FreeBSD"
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