Skip site navigation (1)Skip section navigation (2)
Date:      Fri, 21 Dec 2001 14:35:39 -0600
From:      "Mike Meyer" <mwm-dated-1009398939.66df23@mired.org>
To:        hawkeyd@visi.com (D J Hawkey Jr)
Cc:        questions@freebsd.org
Subject:   Re: Two FreeBSD slices on one HDD?
Message-ID:  <15395.40219.395530.155752@guru.mired.org>
In-Reply-To: <86914604@toto.iv>

next in thread | previous in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
D J Hawkey Jr <hawkeyd@visi.com> types:
> My bad to reply to myself, but I did find some info.
> 
> In article <20011221101718.A7266_sheol.localdomain@ns.sol.net>,
> 	hawkeyd@visi.com writes:
> > 
> > My HDD has two slices (aka, DOS primary partitions), ad0s2 being FreeBSD
> > 4.2, and ad0s1 being WinME. I'd like to blow away ad0s1, and install the
> > forth-coming FreeBSD 4.5 in that slice (DOS partition).
> > 
> > Does FreeBSD have more than one slice (DOS partition) ID, such that I can
> > have two bootable primary partitions (DOS parlance), and bootEZ (whatever
> > it's called) will let my choose between them, as though FreeBSD were
> > sharing the HDD with some other OS?
> 
> Only one BIOS partition ID.
> 
> From what I have read, go ahead with the install, and when in 'fdisk',
> remove ad0s1 (the WinME slice), and replace it with a FreeBSD slice,
> marking it bootable. The, in 'disklabel', proceed to set up partitions
> within the new ad0s1 slice as usual.
> 
> BUT, will the rest of the install correctly put everything in the new
> ad0s1 slice, and not the existing ad0s2 slice?

I can't answer that. I built my two-BSD hd from sources and installed
that way.

> Then, will, bootEZ will see both FreeBSD partitions, and allow booting
> either? This I haven't found an answer to.

It should see them both, but it will label them both as "FreeBSD". I
installed Grub so I could label them as "FreeBSD Current" and "FreeBSD
Stable".

> > Furthermore, can either then mount the other slices' partitions?
> I cannot see why not, unless trying to write to ad0s1 from ad0s2 screws
> up due to ad0s1 having DIRPREFS and ad0s2 not? Anyone?

No problems at all. You can even have them both use the same swap
partition to save a little space.

> Is it really this straight-forward, the "Just do it" Nike approach?

Except for sysinstall, the answer is yes. I suspect the answer is yes
for sysinstall as well.

	<mike
--
Mike Meyer <mwm@mired.org>			http://www.mired.org/home/mwm/
Independent WWW/Perforce/FreeBSD/Unix consultant, email for more information.

To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org
with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message




Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?15395.40219.395530.155752>