Weird boot loader

[Rich Wales]

Georgi Hristov wrote:

    > > When I boot my system it does not boot automatically,
    > > but instead presents me with a choice of FreeBSD and
    > > Disk1 . . . .  This is kind of a problem to me, because
    > > I cannot restart the system over the network, since it
    > > waits on somebody to push F1 . . . .

"Brad" replied:

    > It should automatically boot the last partition you
    > selected to boot (after a few seconds).

Specifically, it will boot on its own after 10 seconds (unless you
changed the "ticks" setting via the "boot0cfg" command).  See "man
boot0cfg" for more details.

    > You have to have a bootloader to take the next step
    > in starting your computer (loading the OS).

True, but if a system will only be running FreeBSD (and only from
a single partition), there are a few ways to reduce or eliminate
the opening menu and its 10-second delay:

(1) Reduce the delay by using the "-t" option in "boot0cfg".  The
    default delay is 182 clock ticks (10 seconds), but you could
    change it to 1 tick (or perhaps even 0, though I haven't tried
    this myself).

or

(2) Replace the regular FreeBSD boot manager with a "standard"
    master boot record (MBR) that goes straight to the first
    partition on the first drive.

    (a) You can do this while you're setting up a new system by
	specifying the "Standard" MBR on a disk.

    (b) Or, after a system has already been set up, you can use
	/stand/sysinstall, select your first disk for partitioning,
	type "W" (without changing the existing partitioning!),
	confirm that you do want to write changes immediately, and
	then choose "Standard" in the boot manager dialogue.  I've
	done this on a FreeBSD-only server at home, and it seems
	to work fine.

Rich Wales            richw at richw.org            http://www.richw.org