Filesystem layout with sperated /boot partition

[valentin_nils at be-known-online.com]

Hi Eric,

Thanks for the reply.  I have now a better understanding whats possible with
FreeBSD. One question (last one) which I could not find an answer to in the
online manual is :

How would you do a Dual or multi OS boot machine f.e. with Windows on 
the first
disk, first slice, first partition and FreeBSD on another partition ?

Would I need a boot floppy or perhaps its not possible at all ?

Best regards

Nils Valentin

http://www.be-known-online.com



Quoting Erik Trulsson <ertr1013 at student.uu.se>:

> On Mon, Apr 03, 2006 at 02:33:42AM +0000, 
> valentin_nils at be-known-online.com wrote:
>> Hello FreeBSD Fans,
>>
>> I wanted to create a new system and was thinking about the following layout.
>>
>> Size | Mountpoint | Device name | File system
>> 100M /boot /dev/ad2s1a UFS2+S
>> 1024MB --- /dev/ad2s1b SWAP
>> 15GB / /dev/ad2s1c UFS2
>>
>> I want to put /boot on its own partition, but somehow I dont have a 
>> lot of luck.
>> I can install the OS, but when I reboot the bootloader will not boot.
>
> Don't do that.  You can not have /boot as a separate partition.  It just
> contains the kernel and the loader.  The other things that are needed for
> booting (like /bin/sh or /sbin/mount) reside elsewhere.  (Having /boot as a
> separate partition is apparently some Linux-specific convention.)
>
> What is normally done under FreeBSD when you want a small boot partition is
> to create /usr and /var as separate partitions which will let you create a
> small (100M) '/' partition.  (You will probably also want either a separate
> /home partition for user home directories, or let them reside under
> /usr/home.  (I think the latter is the default, but I am not 100% sure.)
>
>
>>
>>
>> No /boot/loader
>> ...
>> Default: 0:ad(0,a)/boot/kernel/kernel
>> boot:
>> No /boot/kernel/kernel
>> ...
>>
>> 1) I wouldnt mind on which partition "/boot" or "/" sits or what its 
>> named, but
>> I would like to separate "/boot" on a different partition and it 
>> seems like it
>> wouldnt boot when I do this. Is this just a matter of updating the 
>> bootloader ?
>> Wouldnt the installer do that automatically ?
>
> See above.  You can't do that.
>
>>
>> 2) The part which I dont get is why is "/" always ad2s1a - even when 
>> I create
>> "/boot" first ? ("/boot" will become f.e. ad2s1d) and SWAP will 
>> become ad2s1b.
>
> You need to boot from "/" and it should be partition 'a' on the slice.  It
> is probably possible to change this, but it would be much more pain and
> trouble than it is worth.
>
>>
>> So what I end up with is something like
>>
>> Size | Mountpoint | Device name | File system
>> 15GB / /dev/ad2s1a UFS2
>> 1024MB --- /dev/ad2s1b SWAP
>> 100M /boot /dev/ad2s1d UFS2+S
>>
>>
>> Any replies much appreciated.
>
> A good place to start reading is the online handbook:
> http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/
> especially the chapter on installing FreeBSD:
> http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/install.html
> The FAQ at http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/faq/  might also
> prove helpful.
>
>>
>> Best regards
>>
>> Nils Valentin
>> http://www.be-known-online.com
>>
>
> --
> <Insert your favourite quote here.>
> Erik Trulsson
> ertr1013 at student.uu.se
>