Three questions...

[Steve Quinn]

George Ruch wrote:

--- George Ruch <george.ruch at 3lefties.com> wrote:

> I'm working on a 5.4-REL test installation on my main desktop machine. 
> Hardware specifics:
> 	MSI MS-6378 MB
> 	AMD Athalon 1800 @ 1536
> 	256 MB memory
> 	2 x Maxtor 30 GB drives
> 	Zip 100 ATA
> 	DVD-RW
> This will be a learning installation.  I have some past experience with 
> OS/2 Warp 3 and Redhat 5.1 (no, you don't get to guess my age) on much 
> smaller drives.
> 
> Q1:  I have two drives, laid out as follows:
> Drive 1
> /ad0a	  WinXP, NTFS, 16.06GB, primary
> /ad0e     data, NTFS, 12.58GB, extended
> 
> Drive 2
> /ad1a     currently empty, 14.36GB, primary
>            (installation target)
> /ad1e     /ad0 backup, NTFS, 14.27GB, extended
> 
> I'd like to use XP's NTLDR to manage the dual boot process.  I've seen 
> the following trick for Linux ( www.redhat.com/advice/tips/dualboot.html):
> 
> - Boot into Linux, copy the first sector of the boot partition as follows:
> 	dd if=/dev/hdb of=/bootsect.lnx bs=512 count=1
> - Move bootsect.lnx to WinXP root (C:\), and add the following line to 
> boot.ini:
> 	C:\bootsect.lnx="Linux"
> 
> Does this approach work with FreeBSD?  Logic says it should, given the 
> similarities, but when has logic applied consistently to computers?
> 
> Q2: Failing that, does anyone out there have any experience with 
> PowerQuest's (now Symantec) BootMagic boot manager (p/o Partition Magic 
> 8.0) and FreeBSD?  The documentation indicated that it will recognize 
> Linux partitions, but says nothing about FreeBSD.
> 
> Q3: Partitioning
>    Yes, I know you've seen several million questions on partitioning 
> schemes.  I've read up on it, and I'd like to get some feedback on this 
> plan.  All slices would be p/o ad1a, which has approx. 14,704MB free.
> 
> 	/		128M
> 	/usr	8192M
> 	/home	3312M
> 	/var	1024M
> 	/tmp	1024M
> 	swap	1024M  (4 x physical)
> 
> Thanks in advance,
> 
> |     George Ruch
> |     "Is there life in Clovis after Clovis Man?"

Hi George

I'd suggest backing up your MBR before starting anything
This way, independent of the boot manager your choose, you can always (hopefully) get back to your
current working one
It's really easy, really small (512 bytes) and could save mega amounts of time/hair

I boot with FreeBSD or Linux media from CDROM/Floppy to accomplish an MBR backup
Media I've used include the FreeBSD fixit thingy, Knoppix, Linux installer CD's, RIP (Rescue is
Possible) 
http://www.tux.org/pub/people/kent-robotti/looplinux/rip/

Here's a way to backup it up to a Dos formatted floppy

FreeBSD
Use FreeBSD 4.11 Disk2 or FreeBSD 5.4 Disk 1

Boot the CD, choose fixit, and choose CDROM

Pop in the floppy and mount it
FreeBSD 4.11
#mount_msdos /dev/fd0 /mnt
FreeBSD 5.4
#mount_msdosfs /dev/fd0 /mnt

Backup the MBR of the Primary ATA Master to floppy
#dd if=/dev/ad0 of=/mnt/my.mbr bs=512 count=1
#umount /mnt

Linux
#mount -t msdos /dev/fd0 /mnt
#dd if=/dev/hda of=/mnt/my.mbr bs=512 count=1
#umount /mnt

Restoring the MBR is basically the reverse
mount the floppy under /mnt
#dd if=/mnt/my.mbr of=/dev/ad0 (or hda) bs=512 count=1
#umount /mnt


The RIP floppy has scripts for this sorta thing making it pretty easy
It would be really smart to experiment with a sacrificial lamb prior to your production machine

I hope this helps

Take care

Steve Quinn

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