From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Mon Nov 21 16:50:17 2011 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 40C5510656D5 for ; Mon, 21 Nov 2011 16:50:17 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from smithi@nimnet.asn.au) Received: from sola.nimnet.asn.au (paqi.nimnet.asn.au [115.70.110.159]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 62D898FC0A for ; Mon, 21 Nov 2011 16:50:11 +0000 (UTC) Received: from localhost (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by sola.nimnet.asn.au (8.14.2/8.14.2) with ESMTP id pALGo4pZ069604; Tue, 22 Nov 2011 03:50:05 +1100 (EST) (envelope-from smithi@nimnet.asn.au) Date: Tue, 22 Nov 2011 03:50:04 +1100 (EST) From: Ian Smith To: Bruce Cran In-Reply-To: <20111121101201.6336C10656E5@hub.freebsd.org> Message-ID: <20111122030531.U72022@sola.nimnet.asn.au> References: <20111121101201.6336C10656E5@hub.freebsd.org> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: 9.0 and bsdinstall - avoiding updating the MBR X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Mon, 21 Nov 2011 16:50:17 -0000 In freebsd-questions Digest, Vol 390, Issue 1, Message: 18 On Mon, 21 Nov 2011 01:47:27 +0000 Bruce Cran wrote: > I'm planning to install FreeBSD alongside a whole range of Windows > builds for testing. In 8.x it's possible to tell the installer not to > bother updating the MBR so you can use something like EasyBCD to boot it > via the Windows bootloader instead. Is it still possible on 9.0-RC2 > using bsdinstall? I don't seem to remember seeing any option to avoid > writing out the new boot code. Hi, I gather not (yet?) Can save the MBR with (eg) 'boot0cfg -f ~/mymbr adaX' for safety, dd it back if need be, and/or use fdisk(8) -p, -t and -f flags to save, test and restore just the slice table. At least they're precautions I'm taking, really not wanting to clobber win2k (for BIOS updates :), 8.2-RELEASE or a shared UFS partition when next trying to install 9.0-RC2 to slice 2, currently 7.4-RELEASE .. % boot0cfg -v ad0 # flag start chs type end chs offset size 1 0x00 0: 1: 1 0x0b 1023: 5:63 63 8385867 2 0x00 1023:255:63 0xa5 1023: 13:63 8385930 125821080 3 0x00 1023:255:63 0xa5 1023: 15:63 134207010 33543342 4 0x80 1023:255:63 0xa5 1023: 14:63 167750730 66685815 version=2.0 drive=0x80 mask=0xf ticks=182 bell=# (0x23) options=packet,update,nosetdrv volume serial ID a8a8-a8a8 default_selection=F4 (Slice 4) % fdisk -p ad0 # /dev/ad0 g c232581 h16 s63 p 1 0x0b 63 8385867 p 2 0xa5 8385930 125821080 p 3 0xa5 134207010 33543342 p 4 0xa5 167750730 66685815 a 4 cheers, Ian