Date: Sun, 23 Jul 2000 15:11:38 -0700 (PDT) From: John Baldwin <jhb@pike.osd.bsdi.com> To: nimrodm@email.com Cc: freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Installing FreeBSD onto second HDD Message-ID: <200007232211.PAA24615@pike.osd.bsdi.com> In-Reply-To: <20000723233723.A6164@localhost.bsd.net.il> from Nimrod Mesika at "Jul 23, 2000 11:37:24 pm"
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Nimrod Mesika wrote: > On Sun, Jul 23, 2000 at 11:42:19AM -0700, Alfred Perlstein wrote: > > * Tamgiao Nguyen <tnguye21@umbc.edu> [000723 11:27] wrote: > > > Hi, > > > > > > 1> Is it possible to install FreeBSD, IN ITS ENTIRETY, onto the > > > second IDE HDD? (All 4 primary partitions on my first HDD are in > > > use.) > > > > > > 2> Must FreeBSD be installed to a primary partition (slice) or is > > > it any-disk-any-partition like Linux? > > > > Yes, and yes (primary partition only). > > What is the reason behind that requirement (primary partition)? I > thought a logical partition is just like any other partition, so what > seems to be the problem - the loader? Well, extended partitions present an annoying problem. For primary partitions, you just read the MBR and take a best guess as to which one you came from (preferring active FreeBSD slices over non-active). With extended, you have to go load the slice table from each one to try and a find a FreeBSD slice. We only have about 512 - 66 = 446 bytes to do this in. :) Not only that, but you need a well-defined scheme for numbering sub-slices so that when boot1 passes a BIOS drive number and a slice number to boot2, boot2 can find the same slice to use when loading the loader and/or kernel. > Maybe it's worth fixing (along with the <1024 cylinder requirement - > new LILO versions & new BIOS'es are known to overcome that limit). I just finished fixing this. -- John Baldwin <jhb@bsdi.com> -- http://www.FreeBSD.org/~jhb/ PGP Key: http://www.cslab.vt.edu/~jobaldwi/pgpkey.asc "Power Users Use the Power to Serve!" - http://www.FreeBSD.org/ To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message
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