freebsd-current@lists.freebsd.org

[Rui Paulo]

Andrew Gallatin wrote:
> Arne Schwabe writes:
>  > Andrew Gallatin schrieb:
>  > > Rui Paulo writes:
>  > >  > > I'm about to plug the firewire disk into another box and install using
>  > >  > > make installworld DESTDIR=/firewire_disk, but this is the sort of
>  > >  > > thing that would really, really put off your typical FreeBSD would-be
>  > >  > > adopter.  Is there anything we can do to fix this in the 7.0
>  > >  > > timeframe?
>  > >  > 
>  > >  > As a workaround try using a 6.2 CD.
>  > >
>  > >
>  > >  > > On a somewhat related note, how well does FreeBSD even work on
>  > >  > > an iMac?  Can we suspend/resume SMP machines yet?
>  > >  > 
>  > >  > No.
>  > >
>  > > Argh.  Screwed at every turn.  As it turns out, I can't even make my
>  > > machine boot a "legacy" OS from a firewire disk.  Both FreeBSD and
>  > > Ubuntu lead to a "no bootable device" error when booting directly, and
>  > > rEFIt also fails (with some interesting comments regarding how apple's
>  > > firmware does not deal well with booting a legacy OS from firwewire).
>  > > I ran out of time before I could shuffle MacOSX to the external drive
>  > > to free up the internal one for FreeBSD.
>  > >
>  > > Oh well, back to MacOSX and dealing with X crashing every few weeks.
>  > >
>  > >   
>  > You could resize your hfs+ parition (diskutil) and put a small boot
>  > parition on your internal harddisk. Works fine on my Macbook Pro (but
>  > still not usable, missing GPU support :( )
> 
> That's an option, but I was initially reluctant to touch
> my internal disk.  I'm also somewhat upset that the machine
> can boot BSD or Linux only from an internal drive.  If I were
> to convert it to FreeBSD, then I'd be totally hosed when the internal
> drive dies (its really buried in an iMac).

Have you tried booting BSD from Firewire with the help of rEFit?
http://refit.sf.net

-- 
Rui Paulo