Dual boot problems

[Jerry McAllister]

Howdy,

> Hello,
> This weekend I purchased a laptop with a core2duo processor. The laptop
> came with windows Vista premier. Due to some applications that I require,
> removing Vista and installing FreeBSD is not an issue. (Please leave the
> Vista/Microsoft flames at the door)
> 
> When I install FreeBSD/i386,  I can then install grub (instead of
> FreeBSD's bootloader) and I can have grub "chainload" the Vista
> bootloader.  All works fine.
> 
> However,  when I try FreeBSD/amd64, grub won't compile (it's architecture
> is forced to i386 only in the Makefile.  I haven't dug into why, but I'm
> confident there is a reason. Obviously, grub becomes a non-option.  Gag
> has the same limitation of being i386 only.

Do you really need to use Grub to replace the FreeBSD MBR?
I haven't had my hands on Vista yet - in no hurry either - 
but I think it should boot Vista OK.   I've use it for several
other MS versions from Win-95 - Win 2K - Xp-Pro and it works 
just fine.   I haven't heard that any low level boot code (at the
level the MBR works) has been changed in Vista, though I haven't
been out looking yet either.

I would be interested to know if they have changed the BIOS to MBR to
boot sector handoff specs if something has happened to it.

////jerry


> Has anyone successfully been able to dual boot Vista + FreeBSD/amd64?  I'm
> eager to have both on the laptop, however I've spent the entire weekend
> scouring google, and reinstalling both freebsd (i386 and amd64 versions)
> and have reinstalled vista at least 8 times.
> 
> I've already thought about using the windows bootloader,  but Vista has
> done away with NTLDR/boot.ini in favor of "BCD".   editing BCD seems
> non-trivial at best, and frankly I'm getting tired of reinstalling OS's;
> so I thought I'd ask around instead of reinventing the wheel.
> 
> 
> Thank you in advance for any advice, or input.  Also thanks in advance for
> leaving the irrelevant MS hatred out of the thread.
> 
> - Jeff Palmer
> 
> 
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