Re: how to set up a dual boot system

From: Marty Landman (MLandman_at_face2interface.com)
Date: 02/14/05

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    Date: Mon, 14 Feb 2005 11:05:18 -0500
To: Jerry McAllister <jerrymc@clunix.cl.msu.edu>

    Does this mean I should start over, installing fbsd first and setting aside
    a slice on the first disk (second slice say) for windows?

    If I do that, will windows be able to format that second slice, i.e. will
    it see it as a partition?

    Marty

    At 10:20 AM 2/14/2005, Jerry McAllister wrote:
    > >
    > > I must've goofed somehow. Left windows 98 on the primary master ide and
    > > installed fbsd 5.2 on the other two ide's; installation seemed to go well,
    > > and I installed the bootmgr on the first of the two ide's that fbsd is on.
    > > However when I reboot from the hard drive go right into windows.
    > >
    > > Where did I go wrong, and how do I fix it?
    >
    >The MBR has to be installed on the first disk found in the boot list
    >which will most likely be the one with Winxxx on it - your description
    >sounds like that and anyway MS doesn't like to be installed anywhere
    >else. The MBR should also be on the other two disks, but definitely
    >must be on that first one. Then you have to install a boot sector
    >on those two disks. The MS MBR doesn't know how to boot anything
    >but an MS system.
    >
    >Basically, when the system boots, it starts with the BIOS. The BIOS
    >looks at its list of boot devices according to how it is configured
    >and begins to check them in order. It tries to boot from the first
    >device in its list that has an MBR. That MBR is what then may look
    >at the other disks for a bootable slice. The MS MBR doesn't know how
    >to recognize any other type of system or boot anything but MS stuff.
    >So, you have to make sure that the first device that the BIOS finds
    >with an MBR has a FreeBSD (or other intelligent) MBR that knows how
    >to boot anything.
    >
    >The FreeBSD MBR will boot any of the systems with a standard boot sequence,
    >but it is a little limited in its ability to label them. It has labels for
    >a few, such as FreeBSD, MS-DOS, some LINUXen. But it doesn't have names
    >for many others such as MS with an NTFS slice. It will boot any of these
    >including the ones it doesn't have names for, but it just puts up ??? for
    >the name in the boot menu of ones it doesn't have names for. That is not
    >really a problem, though it can be confusing on a machine if you have
    >one FreeBSD slice and three bootable slices with system that say ??? for
    >the name. You have to remember which ??? is which...
    >
    >For that reasonable reason plus other prejudices many people install
    >a third part MBR/loader such as Grub. But, it isn't essential to
    >get things to work.
    >
    >The second thing you did wrong is installing F-5.2. If you want 5.xxx
    >then install 5.3 (or at least 5.2.1). FreeBSD 5.2 was almost immediately
    >supplanted because of problems - probably not related to your current
    >situation, but you don't want it anyway.
    >
    >////jerry
    >
    > >
    > > Marty
    > >
    > >
    > > Marty Landman, Face 2 Interface Inc. 845-679-9387
    > > Search & Sort Easily: http://face2interface.com/Products/FormATable.shtml
    > > Web Installed Formmail: http://face2interface.com/formINSTal
    > >
    > > _______________________________________________
    > > 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"
    > >

    Marty Landman, Face 2 Interface Inc. 845-679-9387
    Search & Sort Easily: http://face2interface.com/Products/FormATable.shtml
    Web Installed Formmail: http://face2interface.com/formINSTal

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