Date: Mon, 17 Jan 2000 03:22:20 +0000 (GMT) From: Niall Brady <bradyn@maths.tcd.ie> To: Cal Cornils <cornils@community.net> Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Boot FreeBSD from a floppy? Message-ID: <Pine.BSF.4.10.10001170302470.8273-100000@walton.maths.tcd.ie> In-Reply-To: <01b501bf5f85$2df54100$5705fa0a@x>
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Yep, as Duke said, the question was answered earlier in the week (when asked by me :) The way it worked for me was that during the install I chose the "Don't touch MBR" option... yet it still did... but I guess an fdisk /mbr (or Partition Magic or the like) should do the trick... so *exercise caution* if you're unsure... (that was what happened with 3.2 Release for me) [In any case, you'll need some way of getting into FreeBSD first of all, in order to prepare a suitable boot floppy.] The method that I found best in the end was to take the first of the install floppys, and (assuming that the floppy is mounted on /floppy) then remove the kernel file on the floppy, and the included config files. In other words, the remaining directory structure is... /floppy/boot.config /floppy/boot/boot1 /floppy/boot/boot2 /floppy/boot/loader So at that point, you'll need to whack a line like 0:wd(1,a)kernel into /floppy/boot.config What that will do is look for IDE interface 0 (specified by 0:wd), then it'll go to slice 1, partition a (slice 0 is the 1st slice, slice 1 is the 2nd etc.); then it will load the file named kernel that it finds there. You can do fancier stuff if need be with the following line... 0:wd(1,a)/boot/loader That will run the program called /boot/loader on the hard disk, which will let you configure PNP cards and similar fun stuff. Best of luck! -- Niall On Sat, 15 Jan 2000, Cal Cornils wrote: > Can I install FreeBSD 3.2 so that it's bootable from a floppy?? I'd > like to put it in a new partition on my Win PC separate (or course) from > all others, and would rather not try to fool around with the MBR, boot > sectors, and such for startup. > > I believe I've heard this is one of the options that's available when > doing the installation, but wasn't sure. And that when it's done, I > believe you can give at the boot: prompt something like > wd(2,c)/kernel > to give it directions to the BSD partition. Is this the way it works?? > > I can do this kind of a thing with RH Linux 5.2, but wanted to confirm > that it's also an option with FreeBSD. > > Cal Cornils > > >> > > > >To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org >with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message > To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message
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