Thinkpad A31p recovery Partition

[Darryl Okahata]

Kit Mitchell <kit at hypostasis.com> wrote:

> Having just installed 4.8-RELEASE on the above, like
> an idiot I re-wrote the MBR with the FreeBSD boot
> manager.  Is there a way of accessing the thinkpad
> recovery slice to drop XP back on the slice I've
> left for it?  Or is it worth trying some other
> paticular boot manager to do this?

     At this point, I think you'll just have to bite the bullet and get
the IBM recovery CDROMs (IIRC, free within the first 30 days, and then
something like $20-$30 after that).

You probably don't want to hear this, but one "better" way to install
FreeBSD on the A31/A31p (I've got an A31) is:

[ The following assumes a (1) standard, unmodified, XP installation, (2)
  a FreeBSD recovery CDROM, and (3) some system that you can access via
  the network (you'll need it to temporarily hold a file, as the
  A31/A31p doesn't have a floppy).  ]

1. You're going to configure the A31/A31p to use XP's native boot
   manager to boot either XP or FreeBSD (because of this, you do not
   have to change the boot sector).  To understand how this works, and
   what you have to do, read the following:

	http://bsdatwork.com/sections.php?op=viewarticle&artid=3
		(Also read the OpenBSD section for additional WinXP
		info.)

	http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/faq/disks.html#NT-BOOTLOADER

2. Repartition the disk using a program like PartitionMagic or BootIt.

   If you use BootIt, YOU MUST NOT INSTALL IT; you just boot the BootIt
   CDROM, and CLICK "Cancel" TO ENTER MAINTENANCE MODE -- DO NOT INSTALL
   BOOTIT.  Once you're in maintenance mode, you can click on the
   "Partition Work" icon to resize partitions.

3. Install FreeBSD, but DO NOT INSTALL ANY BOOT MANAGER.  Leave the boot
   sector alone.  The one thing you must not do (as you have
   unfortunately discovered) is replace the boot sector (boot sectors,
   actually, as the IBM recovery code seems to exist in multiple
   sectors).

4. Enable networking on FreeBSD.  Once you've got it working, copy
   /boot/boot1 (or other file, as mentioned in the above URLs) to the
   other system accessible via the network.

5. Boot the FreeBSD recovery CDROM, and enter recovery mode.  Use fdisk
   to change the active partition back to the original (non-recovery) XP
   partition.

6. Boot XP, and then use the instructions in the above URLs to set up
   XP's bootloader to select between XP and FreeBSD at boot time.
   You'll need to use the file that you saved in step #4, above.

At this point, you should be able to choose between booting either XP or
FreeBSD.

-- 
	Darryl Okahata
	darrylo at soco.agilent.com

DISCLAIMER: this message is the author's personal opinion and does not
constitute the support, opinion, or policy of Agilent Technologies, or
of the little green men that have been following him all day.