Date: Mon, 20 Mar 2006 21:16:10 -0600 From: Kevin Kinsey <kdk@daleco.biz> To: Benjamin Sher <delphi123@zebra.net> Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Urgent FreeBSD Boot question! Message-ID: <441F6FFA.9090609@daleco.biz> In-Reply-To: <441F1CB1.3000807@zebra.net> References: <441F1CB1.3000807@zebra.net>
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Benjamin Sher wrote: > Dear friends: > > I decided to go out and buy the latest issue of Linux > Format with the FreeBSD 6 CD. I am very glad I did. > FreeBSD is tough to install, > Well, kinda like the first date, the first cigarette, the first skirmish, the first honeymoon, etc.: a tad tough, the first time, maybe. It gets easier.... ;-) > > but after spending several hours I feel for ya .... > > I finally succeeded in doing a perfect installation. > ONE BIG PROBLEM: When I removed the CD and > rebooted, I got into my Windows XP (I have two > separate disks, one for Windows, one of FreeBSD). > There was no way to get into FreeBSD. Naturally, > I went into my BIOS and changed the boot sequence > from CD to Hard Drive. That only caused my system > to boot into Windows XP. > > I read the instructions about the FreeBSD Boot Manager. > It said clearly that it should allow switching from one > OS to another. But I did not see any configuration for that. There is no need to do any configuration of the boot manager in most situations. > > How, may I ask, do I do this while installing FreeBSD? > How do I change this configuration to guarantee that > all my work won't go down the toilet and that when I > reboot, I will see Lilo or whatever as a boot manager > that will allow me to select either FreeBSD or Windows? > > I am looking forward to solving this and then to actually > seeing FreeBSD for the first time. > > Thank you so much in advance. > > Benjamin Can you tell us about your hardware a little more? If your BIOS will only boot from HDD0, is that the drive that actually has FreeBSD on it? Obviously, if you have installed FreeBSD on a second hard disk, and WinXP is on the first, you will see the NT bootloader on Drive #0 and not the FreeBSD boot loader on Drive #1; this would, it seems to me, load Windows XP at the expense of ignoring everything else. My 'Net connection is via packet radio, and the weather in the Mid US is pretty bad today (so it may be that I'm reading your message late, after it's already been solved) and I'm having a good bit of difficulty reading the online docs, but on my local copy, there is some information in the Handbook (ch. 12) and perhaps the FAQ (ch. 9) that may help. If indeed the issue is that Windows is on "Drive zero", then I would suggest switching the physical ordering of the drives (by jumpers or cables or whatnot) and trying again. If the FreeBSD boot loader sees an "unknown" partition type on a disk (such as NTFS or FAT/MSDOS) it will give you an option to boot this disk (usually via the "F2" key, as FreeBSD is assigned to "F1") and then give control to the MBR on the other disk. Other potential options might include adapting the Windows boot loader to "see" the other drive's boot sector, or installing a 3rd party boot loader on the primary hard disk (such as GAG, Grub, or LILO as you mentioned above). HTH, Kevin Kinsey
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