MBR problem

From: Kjell B. (homebell_at_telia.com)
Date: 01/31/04

  • Next message: Steinar Bormer: "Re: RELENG_5_2"
    To: <freebsd-questions@freebsd.org>
    Date: Sat, 31 Jan 2004 13:38:44 +0100
    
    

    I just installed FreeBSD 5.2-RELEASE (using the mini-install CD) on my
    laptop which already had Win XP Home + Win XP Pro on it. During partition
    definition I chose not to touch the MBR. (I wanted to make use of Windows
    boot.ini for booting into FreeBSD.) Nevertheless, whenever I boot I get
    directly to the FreeBSD boot menu where there's no option to boot Windows.

    disk layout:
    ad0s1: 31 MB DELL slice
    ad0s2: 8001 MB Windows XP Home slice
    ad0s3: 8510 MB extended DOS slice with three logical Win partitions (one of
    them Windows XP Professional)
    ad0s4: 2533 MB FreeBSD slice

    I tried to restore the MBR using fixmbr from Windows Recovery Console. It
    doesn't help. I claims it has overwritten the file, but I still get directly
    into FreeBSD at boot.

    I've tried setting ad0s2 and ad0s4 as bootable and then writing changes (W)
    in FDISK partition editor in sysinstall. At the following choice of MBR, I
    choose 'Install the FreeBSD Boot Manager'. I then get "ERROR: Unable to
    write data to disk ad0!" followed by "Disk partition write returned an error
    status!". The same result also if I choose 'Standard' or 'None' in the MBR
    choice menu.

    (Another weird thing in sysinstall -> fdisk: Positioning the cursor on any
    of the slices and hitting F1 yields "Sorry! The slice file is not provided
    on this particular floppy image". This indicates to me that something is
    wrong with my installation, but what?)

    Any hints on ways out of this?

    Another question: In 5.2 there are two sysinstalls - /stand/sysinstall and
    /usr/local/sbin/sysinstall whereas in 4.8 I only find /stand/sysinstall.
    Which one should I use with 5.2 and what's the difference between them?

    -- 
    Kjell
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  • Next message: Steinar Bormer: "Re: RELENG_5_2"

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