New installation of FreeBSD with Debian dual boot

[Matthew Seaman]

AG wrote:
> Hello all
> 
> I'm looking to install FreeBSD 8.0 on my system today, where it would 
> dual boot with Debian.  I have the *.iso all ready to go, so just wanted 
> to check a couple of points before I log out of Debian and boot into the 
> DVD to install.  Perhaps some veterans can advise me on the following:
> 
> 
> (1) The Debian is the only OS on my system, so I will have to resize the 
> partitions (I currently have /,  swap, and /home).  I am assuming that 
> (after backing up) there shouldn't be any problems in doing so, but is 
> the partition editor (i.e. the tools that one uses to allocate partition 
> space) reasonably sane and plays nicely with a GNU/Linux distro?

Sure.  The FreeBSD partition type in fdisk is 165 IIRC.  Linux uses partitions
from the MBR pretty much directly, but FreeBSD expects to have one big chunk
of space (known in FreeBSD-speak as a *slice*) within which you create OS-level
partitions.  Thus for SATA drives, Linux's /dev/hda1 (1st partition on the 
master drive (hda) on the first SATA bus) would be known to FreeBSD as /dev/ad0s1
(slice one on the first drive (ad0)).  If that slice contained a FreeBSD install,
then it would be sub divided into partitions /dev/ad0s1a [traditionally the root
fs], /dev/ad0s1b [swap], /dev/ad0s1c [a legacy thing -- a partition covering the
whole of s1, not generally used for anything much nowadays] and /dev/ad0s1[d-z]
[data partitions or whatever you will].

The FreeBSD installer can only install into a primary partition and (I think)
FreeBSD can only boot from a 1ary partition, but otherwise it is possible to
access logical partitions. 

Note that this is assuming you use the defaults available through the Sysinstall
program on the FreeBSD installation media.  There are a number of new partitioning
schemes / disk management systems now available (gpart, ZFS) and also new disk
drivers (ada(4), ahci(4)) but these are not yet possible to set up through the
Sysinstall program and require things like booting off removable media and then
hacking around with the command line inside a chroot to get going.  (Probably
not something you should attempt on your first install).

FreeBSD has support for Linux ext3 filesystems, except it doesn't do journalling.
It's probably good enough for passing files between OS images though.  Failing that,
you can use the MS-DOS derived FAT-32 filesystem as the lowest common denominator.

Another trick is to fire up one of the OSes in a VM hosted on the other OS, and set
up network shares or the like between the two.

> (2) I use a Seagate FreeAgent USB drive to hold media files and back 
> ups.  With Debian I had to edit some rules and install a driver for 
> this.  What's the situation like under FreeBSD for supporting these 
> kinds of external (NTFS) drives?

It should just work -- appropriate drivers will be autoloaded when you plug
the device in.  The OS should find any disk partitions on the device, but you'll
still have to set up something to mount the filesystems.  I think this can be done
automatically by suitable use of amd(8), but you'll have to google for the
details.

> (3) If I wanted to share files between Debian and FreeBSD, aside from 
> using a data stick are there any ways that I can access my Debian drive 
> from FreeBSD and vice versa?

Oh, many weird and arcane ways, but I've already described most of the practical
ones.

> (4) I do intend to use the installation handbook, accessed via a 
> different computer, while I install.  Are there any gotchas in FreeBSD 
> 8.0 (for i386 architectures) that aren't covered in the handbook?

The Handbook is really very good.  Of course,there are always problematic
bits of hardware: laptops are often a bit tricky to install correctly and hard
to get all the hardware working right, but desktops and servers are a lot more forgiving and will either work straight away, require you to tweak some BIOS 
settings / update your BIOS / turn off ACPI and then work fine or else basically
some critical device won't be supported and the whole thing will be a non-starter.

It's generally best with FreeBSD to aim to get the OS installed and booted up
with minimal extras at first, then work from within the OS to install X, desktop environments, applications, setup user accounts etc.  This will require a
reasonable degree of competence with the Unix CLI, and you'll need to read up
on such things as the ports, csup(1), portsnap(8), freebsd-update(8), pkg_add(1),
pkg_info(1), portupgrade(1) or portmaster(8) all of which are covered in the
Handbook pretty well.

	Cheers,

	Matthew

-- 
Dr Matthew J Seaman MA, D.Phil.                   7 Priory Courtyard
                                                  Flat 3
PGP: http://www.infracaninophile.co.uk/pgpkey     Ramsgate
                                                  Kent, CT11 9PW

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