Best way to make machine multi-boot

[Ralf Mardorf]

Hi,

I'm using GRUB2 since there was the thought that GRUB2 could boot
FreeBSD directly, but I ended up with a chainload. However, even when
using a sane bootloader, such as syslinux, I would use the bootloader
from Linux and if possible chainload FreeBSD and drop Windows
completely. I used Windows for testing hardware. MBR IMO is a good
choice, I at least use MBR. IOW, I don't know what can be used, but I
know that at least GRUB2 does the job, when used from a Linux install
and when manually editing grub.cfg and the HDDs use MBR.

I guess I should drop the set default line too, I didn't spend much work
to write grub.cfg.

The snipped menu entries are many Linux installs. You can let GRUB2
auto-generate Linux menu entries and then copy and paste the sane
generated parts to a manually edited grub.cfg. The automagically
generated grub.cfg isn't to my taste.

[rocketmouse at archlinux ~]$ cat /mnt/saucy/boot/grub/grub.cfg
set timeout=8
set default='0'; if [ x"$default" = xsaved ]; then load_env; set default="$saved_entry"; fi
set color_normal='light-blue/black'; set color_highlight='light-cyan/blue'

# 2013-Dec-05

	menuentry [snip]

menuentry "FreeBSD"{
    set root=(hd0,msdos1)
    chainloader +1
}

menuentry "XP"{
    set root=(hd1,1)
    drivemap -s hd0 hd1
    chainloader +1
}

menuentry [snip]

Regards,
Ralf