/boot on a separate partition

[Alex Zbyslaw]

Ross Kendall Axe wrote:

>I admit, I didn't know the /boot was new in FreeBSD, but then, I am a
>BSD virgin.  As for reasons to support a /boot partition, how about BIOS
>bugs/quirks?  There's no shortage of those. 
>
Well, until someone proves otherwise, I don't believe in them anymore.  
I believe they *used* to exist, but that comments about "cannot boot 
past cyl 1024" only exist in documentation because this *used* to be 
true and no-one really knows whether it can safely be deleted, so it's 
left in.  Sure, if you get an old enough PC it could still be true, but 
as you've proved (congrats, by the way, enjoy FreeBSD) the oldest PC you 
considered it worth installing FreeBSD on did not have this problem.

Your 486 might have this trouble, then then it would probably have 
trouble addressing a disk that big at all.  (Btw, there are minimum 
memory requirements for 5.X, 32Mb?, if you ever do decide to try FreeBSD 
on that 486).

>>The oldest PC I have that runs FreeBSD (also a Pentium) has a 4 and an
>>8Gb disk, and no problem booting off the ends of either. 
>>    
>>
>
>Pffft.  I've got a 486 with a 1/4GB hard disk around here _somewhere_.
>  
>
I didn't mean that as a pissing contest :-)  I just meant that there 
must be bucketloads of PCs out there similar to yours, unused, unwanted 
and unloved, that could do what you thought yours couldn't.

>>Depending on where you are located, you might be able to find something
>>very cheap (but still better than yours) in classifieds, computer fairs,
>>2nd hand shops or the local tip.
>>    
>>
>
>This particular machine was actually intercepted before it reached the
>dump.  Still, it's powerful enough to make a decent home router.
>  
>
I've never used it myself, but NetBSD gets mentioned as a suitable OS 
for a router.  I stick with FreeBSD just for compatibility across all my 
machines, but if you're interested in trying stuff out you might want to 
see what it offers.

--Alex