From owner-freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Tue Oct 9 22:12:31 2018 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@mailman.ysv.freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2610:1c1:1:606c::19:1]) by mailman.ysv.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id E712C10BF5E6 for ; Tue, 9 Oct 2018 22:12:30 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from freebsd@edvax.de) Received: from mout.kundenserver.de (mout.kundenserver.de [212.227.17.24]) (using TLSv1.2 with cipher ECDHE-RSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256 (128/128 bits)) (Client CN "mout.kundenserver.de", Issuer "TeleSec ServerPass DE-2" (verified OK)) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id 6319981278 for ; Tue, 9 Oct 2018 22:12:30 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from freebsd@edvax.de) Received: from r56.edvax.de ([92.195.106.107]) by mrelayeu.kundenserver.de (mreue107 [212.227.15.183]) with ESMTPA (Nemesis) id 1Mf0yy-1fUuv73YPS-00gZzO; Tue, 09 Oct 2018 23:59:12 +0200 Received: from r56.edvax.de ([92.195.106.107]) by mrelayeu.kundenserver.de (mreue107 [212.227.15.183]) with ESMTPA (Nemesis) id 1Mf0yy-1fUuv73YPS-00gZzO; Tue, 09 Oct 2018 23:59:12 +0200 Date: Tue, 9 Oct 2018 23:59:11 +0200 From: Polytropon To: Manish Jain Cc: Wojciech Puchar , FreeBSD Questions Subject: Re: FreeBSD boot manager customization for single-disk multiboot (4 x DOS) Message-Id: <20181009235911.65befcb2.freebsd@edvax.de> In-Reply-To: <742396b8-e662-ed00-142a-0f2765674207@yandex.com> References: <20181007234040.028639f8.freebsd@edvax.de> <38342ce8-990a-ce05-7ab9-9f7d6017f91b@yandex.com> <742396b8-e662-ed00-142a-0f2765674207@yandex.com> Reply-To: Polytropon 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-Provags-ID: V03:K1:ABCyBKFZu2lWWayFo/7b8axwQjRsUKzsQqhq0+uwSq21OC5omib WVUVdBA+yDnBXWda1EniuudoN0b6brvenUNRmgpYziyCk/K24Z+pGh1D5DSbbJZx8wsOHuB pQ2iavLvUtMAOOY+lFhZ8CLwbkbQMofe17pUfsfV65BvXD3Murr2XfnAwfoRrFdtLSk2wmD tJ0IrkXm7lqYwcEOPjamQ== X-Spam-Flag: NO X-UI-Out-Filterresults: notjunk:1;V01:K0:fZ92W+/W250=:Wk349DFdfEZf9/uMK0Tu6m VCno1l9fAFPj0MMKvr2Fv5AdwOqoLpna5YmpUJ/ApPE9ucc5OVmpcrfRv/MPRRsaGl3lH+qdL 09gszpBcoS0jBGhMmljm4t+bfpQ7wMYZKv92zrAE1wmNIQ9uX5WqzF6iZP9JzlximdY1Gr2eI oo7+ApkctNOQRrIl1ZIFVJnEqUAmSjDgYjZDzTzlW3PFYLpTALBsTWWlapv6G+/ji80LKX3DQ Cm33E1o06I2yjRQ+X4uYSyZgGxpsN7huN/Ap/kUKaNZy+sM1zh+tRVp7AaKt64P7TiCQ2Sj77 Xkljlt4KthDM+GR4ByyyKciHYeG+s/UqmJj26/4EvmcnDjJnapN+Mtq/4WdTRvCnGP0l0vslo HttD1qF2JZR07bqn74e7BDXE2UuJAi304xejDzarc2g155XSZY2J4WMjscx/0TqNpsQ7LoX8g F7H85jX9DGfXE9gr0YIlTLjrd99TVP/gv1cXoaHAu+CLaXn50LXi/3n35QKKN2dD/Hm+RcJRz 9CDUAc34zXoLKvylZmMHTJBilxyaAR/g6U7joOdmPxznUmZc2osaz3ZfgMr+FDJWJNeHMxoWL mtSa9bMR9dnQ7zr4Ex/8Oh3xPm13wFJp2EwxB81r4L+lqEXEzifVSLKmcyUSBIpo107gBYxSk CfM3MSgIp/b/sqm7CQqJQklXUBPljJUaH0af1I/T/63Gw66RrJ0nsPUwblFR0NU6aokTjH6CV Qw2WuKTDsZOkMyf4 X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.27 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Tue, 09 Oct 2018 22:12:31 -0000 On Tue, 9 Oct 2018 21:30:41 +0530, Manish Jain wrote: > On 10/09/18 12:14, Wojciech Puchar wrote: > >> > >> I suggest a better way than to use FreeBSD/Linux boot manager. > >> > >> Create 1 primary partition + an EBR with 4 logical drives (with the > >> primary partition at the beginning of the disk). > >> > >> Install 4 x DOS/Win into the logical drives (all using the first > >> primary partition as C:) > >> > >> Finally and if needed, alter the boot.ini in C: as you wish. > >> > >> Does that solve your problem, or compound it ? > > > > what is boot.ini? i don't remember something like this in DOS. > > > I would have thought C:boot.ini was the standard bootloader > configuration file in DOS/Windows - it is, of course, standard in Windows. In DOS, there is no such mechanism. It always needed some external boot manager (or at least a BIOS where you could choose a boot device, but that required individual disks to boot from). I'm not sure this facility is present in the older versions of "Windows" (pre-2000) which are going to be installed on that particular systems. I'm also unsure if it can handle DOS correctly (even though it usually can handle Linux). By the way, depending on the smallest disk I can find, it _might_ be possible that I can install Linux too, and that could be a chance to try Grub. This will make it possible to use that particular laptop for adjacent amateur radio purposes. I'm not sure if DOS will boot from a logical volume inside an extended partition, so maybe I'm going to have to rethink about the layout, maybe something like this is possible: prim. part. 1 = DOS 5.0 prim. part. 2 = DOS 6.22 prim. part. 3 = data exchange (FAT) ext. part = { log. vol. 1 = Windows '95 log. vol. 1 = Windows '98 log. vol. 1 = Linux swap log. vol. 1 = Linux ext2 } With Grub, setting "boot paths" to the five systems installed should be no problem. At least this was possible in much older versions of Grub (I used that to boot DOS or OS/2 or Linux in the past) - no idea if it still works... > Since Windows 98 would getting installed last, its boot manager should > configure the boot environment correctly. That's highly questionable, given the "urge" of destroying existing MBR data that "Windows" usually seems to feel. The common instructions of building multi-boot environments therefore often include the advice to install "Windows" first, and end with the OS that will install the boot manager, or if that's not possible, re-install (!) the boot manager after "Windows" has been installed. -- Polytropon Magdeburg, Germany Happy FreeBSD user since 4.0 Andra moi ennepe, Mousa, ...