Date: Mon, 12 Jan 1998 11:49:14 -0800 (PST) From: Doug White <dwhite@gdi.uoregon.edu> To: "J. Gaynor" <jeff.gaynor@ibm.net> Cc: freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: FreeBSD , OS/2 and SMP Message-ID: <Pine.BSF.3.96.980112114250.21665I-100000@gdi.uoregon.edu> In-Reply-To: <34B19099.38C4@ibm.net>
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On Mon, 5 Jan 1998, J. Gaynor wrote: > I am interested in running FreeBSD on my workstation. It > sounds very good as far as features and stability. My > system is a dual processor Pentium with a Tyan 1462 motherboard. > I downloaded the test floppy and so far all seems really > very nice. The only 3 questions I have are the following: Should have no problem on this machine. > * Does FreeBSD support multi-processor architecture? What are the > limitations? Yes, FreeBSD supports SMP, but you have to run -CURRENT, which is the current release-in-development. I suggest referencing http://www.freebsd.org/~fsmp/SMP/ for information. In SMP mode the OS takes care of utilizing the extra CPUs. > * I use Warp Server 4.0 as my standard OS. Is there support for > reading HPFS partitions? Do FreeBSD and OS/2 coexist in a friendly > fashion on the same system? Should be no problem. Using vmount you can read your HPFS partition, but you can't write it. > * I also use System Commander to manage multiple boot configurations. System Commander (reportedly) has an evil `feature' that changes the OS Type bits and this confuses our boot blocks. You may have to use SysCommander's bootblock store feature (?) to load in a new MBR rather than starting FreeBSD with SysCommander directly. Or use the OS/2 Boot manager. > Are there any limitations on the installation > partition, specifically, can FreeBSD be installed to an extended > logical partition, or must it be installed to a primary partition. > If it must be installed to a primary partition, does this have to > be on the first physical drive (like SCO Unix)? FreeBSD must be installed to it's own slice type. You can place the install files on a DOS primary partition, but the actual OS must go on it's own slice. BTW, the OS/2 Boot Manager boots FreeBSD fine. I actually have a Warp 4/FreeBSD dual boot system on my box that I don't use but it does work. > Thank you very much for your time. FreeBSD, with its cross > Unix compatibility and features really does look quite excellent. > I look forward to hearing from you in the future. Let us know if you have any other questions. Doug White | University of Oregon Internet: dwhite@resnet.uoregon.edu | Residence Networking Assistant http://gladstone.uoregon.edu/~dwhite | Computer Science Major
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