Date: Tue, 22 Aug 2000 13:05:38 +0200 From: Siegbert Baude <siegbert.baude@gmx.de> To: Warren Mailman <warrenmailman@kscable.com>, freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Cc: Duke Normandin <dnormandin@freewwweb.com>, DAve <dave@pixelhammer.com> Subject: Re: Is it possible to install FreeBSD 4.1 to a FAT32 partition? Message-ID: <39A25E82.BBE7D46@gmx.de> References: <000a01c00bbf$9cb2da80$66019bc0@warrensamd400> <39A1B7D1.2DA841D6@gmx.de> <001801c00bcc$9928dd80$66019bc0@warrensamd400>
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Hello Warren, > I don't mean to bother you, but I've got another question...I've got plenty > of space on my HD, and only one drive (Win) on it. If I can break that up > and give BSD the excess space, will that be good enough? On http://www.freebsd.org/handbook/install.html you will find every information you need. Just some comments: As said FreeBSD needs a primary partition. If you like modern desktops like gnome and kde, maybe some office suites, I would recommend at least 4 GB. One of the best things in FreeBSD is the perfect update ability via cvsup your source and compiling your whole system from scratch with only some simple commands. This method is called "tracking the stable tree", as opposed to "installing a release only one time". (A release, e.g. the latest one called 4.1, is nothing else than a snapshot of the stable tree of a special date. Simply a good point to start tracking stable. :-) ) But the source and corresponding compiled object files will need alone more than half a GB. The FreeBSD manner of installing new programs via the ports tree (which also is updated via cvsup) again adds pretty big need for space (but you will learn to love this thing, believe me :-) ). So if you have... If you decide to track stable, you should also subscribe to the appropriate mailing list. You can learn a lot by also reading the questions mailing list, but be aware of hundreds of mails per day! Look at http://www.freebsd.org/handbook/eresources.html#ERESOURCES-MAIL for further details. There is only one point to think about. Up to 4.0 FreeBSD wasn't able to boot from partitions beyond cylinder #1023 of your harddisk (on modern hard disks this is equivalent to the first 8GB of your disk). If you want to install 4.1 this limitation has gone. If you have a pre4.1 version, note, that it's pretty acceptable to have windows in the first primary partition, FreeBSD in the second (within the 8GB range) and further windows partitions (then called logical partitions) in a container called extended partition (which then as a total including all logical partitions is your third primary partition). You can even use this windows space from within FreeBSD (I would recommend this for pure data only, not for system files, because of the limitations of the windows file system with regard to the UNIX permission system; personally I use this for pictures and MP3s e.g.). It's also possible to create a FreeBSD file system within a logical disk in your extended partition, but the FreeBSD tool to easily create partitions (found in /stand/sysinstall ) won't support this, so you have to do this by hand, which isn't trivial. If you ever run into space problems, it's easier to use Partition Magic again to reduce your extended partition and add a fourth primary partition to contain your second FreeBSD file system. So to make things easy for Partition Magic or fips: Defrag your harddisk with the appropriate windows tool. Downsize your windows partition with PM or fips. Add a second primary partition for FreeBSD and then start installing. One note: In FreeBSD documentation you will often find the term "slice" instead of "partition". In UNIX terms a partition is a subdivision of a slice. This behaviour is unknown for MS file systems. You can leave the task of dividing your slice into partitions to your installation tool (which is nothing else than /stand/sysinstall called at installation time automatically). Happy installing and welcome onboard! Ciao Siegbert P.S.: Duke and DAve, hope you will love this, too. :-) Is your database in work? To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message
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