booting a CD-ROM

[Xavier FreeBSD questions]

On Tue, Apr 03, 2012 at 05:46:20AM -0400, Thomas Mueller wrote:

Hi Thomas,

> >       I have an old  FreeBSD  system that I haven't used for a long
time and I have forgotten the passwords.  This machine has  FreeBSD-4.3
and  FreeBSD-4.7
> > on it, and also  MS'  Windows98 .  I tried getting onto that system by
booting with a  CD-ROM  which started going and gave me the following
messages:
> >             boot from  ATAPI  CD-ROM
> >             CD Loader 1.2
> >             Building the boot loader arguments
> >             Relocating the loader and the BTX
> >       The system then did not output for a liitle over 5 minutes and
then typed:
> >             Starting the
> > and after this I waited for over 5 minutes but the system did not type
anything else.  Then I tried  booting that  CD-ROM  on another system where
it booted
> > successfully and the program on it ( FreesBIE version 2) ran and I
could communicate with it.  I suspect a problem with the  boot loader on
the first system.
> >      Where can I get a new boot loader for that system?    Since I want
to get a modern  FreeBSD  (version 9.1 or higher), I expect that will
include a new
> > multi-system loader on it that I can use on the old system if I can
load just that.  How can I load just the boot loader?  Also, what is the
structure of the
> > password  files (is this on the  web  with a per system-version note so
if it has been changed over time, I can find those I need) on those
systems, and how
> > can I find and clear out the password for  root  so I can get in and
set its password and then the other passwords?
> >     Thanks in advance for your help.
>
> You'll have to wait some months for FreeBSD >= 9.1.  Current release is
9.0.

I'm impatient ...

>
> I believe FreeBSD has a multisystem boot loader, BootEasy/boot0.  You can
also look to GRUB:
>
> http://www.gnu.org/software/grub

Another option is Boot-Repair-Disk (
http://sourceforge.net/p/boot-repair-cd/home/Home/ ). This tool is easy
and intuitive.

See you.