FIRST INSTALL QUESTION

[Ion-Mihai Tetcu]

On Sat, 29 Nov 2003 21:58:55 -0800
"ADSBANNERS" <support at adsbanners.com> wrote:

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> 
> SUBJECT:  FIRST INSTALL QUESTION
> 
> http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/articles/multi-os/ch5.html
> 
> I purchased SAMS FreeBSD (4.7) in 24 Hours and everything is pretty clear,
> except there isn't any example (neither on freebsd.org) that precisely
> reflects my hardware configuration, namely..
> 
> Pentium II w/ orig 10GB HDD (now clean install WIN98SE) + 2d (HDD01) 40GB
> HDD which is not bootable, used only for backup (local and LAN). My updated
> hp Phoenix BIOS v 1.09 w/LBA support recognised the second hard drive w/o
> problem and it works fine.
> 
> I was hoping that I could partition only the 2d hard drive and install the
> boot manager included on the CD (easy boot I guess) on the 2d hard drive,
> until I read the FAQs online that mentioned this boot manager uses the MBR -
> which must be located on the original, bootable hard drive (I have never
> used a boot manager unless Windows 98 Start-up Menu qualifies).

You should install FreeBSD's boot manager (it's the easy way) on the
firts disc (ad0) and on the disk on which you put FreeBSD. When booting
it will promt you with something like: 
F1 DOS 
F5 Drive 2

If you'll choose F1 it will boot you win98 (and you will get here the
Windows 98 Start-up Menu).
If you'll choose F5 it will promt with something like:
F1 DOS
F2 FreeBSD
F5 Drive 1
choose F2 to boot FreeBSD.

man boot0cfg

You might want do dig from the following link:
http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=boot0cfg&apropos=0&sektion=0&manpath=FreeBSD+5.1-RELEASE+and+Ports&format=html


     The FreeBSD `boot0' boot manager permits the operator to select from
     which disk and slice an i386 machine (PC) is booted.

     Note that what are referred to here as ``slices'' are typically called
     ``partitions'' in non-BSD documentation relating to the PC.  Typically,
     only non-removable disks are sliced.

     The boot0cfg utility optionally installs the `boot0' boot manager on the
     specified disk; and allows various operational parameters to be config-
     ured.

     On PCs, a boot manager typically occupies sector 0 of a disk, which is
     known as the Master Boot Record (MBR).  The MBR contains both code (to
     which control is passed by the PC BIOS) and data (an embedded table of
     defined slices).


> 
> But then I noticed a reference (link above) to booting from DOS using
> FBSDBOOT.EXE and that got me to wondering if I could just partition ½ of the
> 2d hard drive for FreeBSD, install FreeBSD on that partition 

Yes, you could.

> and then boot
> to it using the Windows 98 Start-up Menu / DOS. 

Nop. It work like this:
1. The BIOS loads the code from MBR of the boot disk.
2. The MBR choose (or promt you to choose) what to load next.
3. This is where Windows 98 Start-up Menu get the control.

> Would FBSDBOOT.EXE find the
> BSD partition on the 2d hard drive? Would I just locate FBSDBOOT.EXE on the
> Windows partition of the 2d hard drive?
> 
> Of course I'm trying to avoid partitioning the orig hard drive w/ WIN98SE,
> and I'd like to use the slave hard drive for both WIN98 backup and FreeBSD.
> Thank you.

Installing FreeBSD's boot manager wil not break anything on you win98
install and doe not presume repartitionig.


-- 
IOnut
Unregistered ;) FreeBSD user