From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Tue Jan 21 05:04:34 2014 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [8.8.178.115]) (using TLSv1 with cipher ADH-AES256-SHA (256/256 bits)) (No client certificate requested) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id 6B4F3875 for ; Tue, 21 Jan 2014 05:04:34 +0000 (UTC) Received: from mx01.qsc.de (mx01.qsc.de [213.148.129.14]) (using TLSv1 with cipher ADH-AES256-SHA (256/256 bits)) (No client certificate requested) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id 2F3271117 for ; Tue, 21 Jan 2014 05:04:33 +0000 (UTC) Received: from r56.edvax.de (port-92-195-149-155.dynamic.qsc.de [92.195.149.155]) (using TLSv1 with cipher DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA (256/256 bits)) (No client certificate requested) by mx01.qsc.de (Postfix) with ESMTPS id 249CC3CB9A for ; Tue, 21 Jan 2014 06:04:31 +0100 (CET) Received: from r56.edvax.de (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by r56.edvax.de (8.14.5/8.14.5) with SMTP id s0L545ap002502 for ; Tue, 21 Jan 2014 06:04:06 +0100 (CET) (envelope-from freebsd@edvax.de) Date: Tue, 21 Jan 2014 06:04:05 +0100 From: Polytropon To: FreeBSD Questions Subject: FreeBSD and Linux shared installation Message-Id: <20140121060405.396586d4.freebsd@edvax.de> Organization: EDVAX X-Mailer: Sylpheed 3.1.1 (GTK+ 2.24.5; i386-portbld-freebsd8.2) Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.17 Precedence: list Reply-To: Polytropon List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Tue, 21 Jan 2014 05:04:34 -0000 For educational and experimental purposes, I'd like to install FreeBSD along with two Linusi on a laptop. It has a 100 GB SATA disk which should be sufficient. So I'm searching for important advice and mentioning of pitfalls that I should avoid. I'm planning to use FreeBSD 10.0, Kali Linux and Mageia. Here are some problems or considerations I expect to be facing: Partitioning: Does Linux support GPT, or should I better keep using MBR? FreeBSD would get one slice, "DOS primary partition", a common data exchange partition another one, and the Linusi could do their stuff on "logical drives inside a DOS extended partition", as it seems to be common over there. Boot manager: Can the FreeBSD boot manager (which I prefer because it's simple and sufficient) recognize and distinguish the two Linusi? Is there an easy way to modify its source so the display is more obvious, e. g. F1 FreeBSD F2 Kali F3 Mageia Default: F1 instead of F1 FreeBSD F2 Linux F3 Linux Default: F1 which I assume would be the default? I have already briefly checked the source at /usr/src/sys/boot/i386/boot0/boot0ext.S which doesn't seem to have a more specific differentiation, but maybe a "custom hack" could be used to disguise one of the Linusi at something else? Swap: Can the two Linusi share the same swap partition? And furthoermore, could FreeBSD also use that one? Note that the different systems are not running at the same time, so it would be nonsense to waste disk space for three "dedicated" swap partitions when one is sufficient. Shared data partition: I'm not searching for blazing performance, so I do not require the most recent ext10fs or RiceFat here. The goal should be that this partition can be adressed from all the operating systems. It doesn't have to be /home, instead it will be mounted separately, but rw. Regarding FreeBSD, it would nice to not require fuse here (base OS tools preferred). My initial partitioning and sizing idea: Partition OS, subpart. Size Device (slice, partition) -------------- -------------- ------ --------------------------- Prim. #1 FreeBSD 55 GB /dev/ada0s1{a,d,e,f,g} a / 1 GB d /tmp 2 GB e /var 2 GB f /usr 15 GB g /home 35 GB Prim. #2 swap 5 GB /dev/ada0s2(b?), /dev/sda2 Prim. #3 common data 10 GB /dev/adas3, /dev/sda3 Extend. #1 log. dr. #1 Kali Linux 15 GB /dev/sda5 log. dr. #2 Mageia Linux 15 GB /dev/sda6 Would something like this work, or is there a better approach? -- Polytropon Magdeburg, Germany Happy FreeBSD user since 4.0 Andra moi ennepe, Mousa, ...