Date: Tue, 29 Mar 2011 14:21:00 -0700 From: Nerius Landys <nlandys@gmail.com> To: Jason Hsu <jhsu802701@jasonhsu.com> Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Easiest desktop BSD distro Message-ID: <AANLkTikAvrc5DoAg17fcueD_1nCyVzVcxdgev6Q%2BwEcR@mail.gmail.com> In-Reply-To: <20110329144527.c009ba8b.jhsu802701@jasonhsu.com> References: <20110329144527.c009ba8b.jhsu802701@jasonhsu.com>
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> But the challenge of BSD have so far proven too much for me. =A0It would = take too long to configure FreeBSD to my liking. =A0I couldn't figure out w= hat to enter in GRUB to multi-boot Linux and BSD. =A0I tried PC-BSD, GhostB= SD, and DragonflyBSD in VirtualBox. =A0I've found PC-BSD agonizingly slow t= o install and operate, and KDE didn't even boot up when I logged in. =A0Gho= stBSD has too many things that don't work, such as the keyboard on my lapto= p and my Internet connection on my desktop. =A0DragonflyBSD didn't boot up = in Virtualbox. To boot FreeBSD, you need the code in the master boot record to simply pass control to the boot sector code sitting in the FreeBSD partiton. The boot sector code on the FreeBSD partition has everything it needs to boot FreeBSD. So, in GRUB: title FreeBSD root (hd0,2) makeactive chainloader +1 (hd0,2) means FreeBSD is on the 3rd partition of the hard drive. Side note: When you install FreeBSD there is an option to "don't touch the MBR" (master boot record). However in practice and with certain versions of FreeBSD I have found that even with the "don't touch" selected, it still modifies little things in the MBR. Therefore, I would recommend backing up the 512 bytes in the MBR on your system so that you can restore in case things become unbootable, which was the case for me when I installed CURRENT a few days ago. Another side note: FreeBSD might not be for the faint at heart. It's very powerful however. For me, FreeBSD is an opportunity to learn more about how computers actually work. And I'm delighted by the experience.
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