From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Sat Feb 15 09:09:45 2014 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:1900:2254:206a::19:1]) (using TLSv1 with cipher ADH-AES256-SHA (256/256 bits)) (No client certificate requested) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id 65C886DE for ; Sat, 15 Feb 2014 09:09:45 +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 22B3514D2 for ; Sat, 15 Feb 2014 09:09:44 +0000 (UTC) Received: from r56.edvax.de (port-92-195-112-109.dynamic.qsc.de [92.195.112.109]) (using TLSv1 with cipher DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA (256/256 bits)) (No client certificate requested) by mx01.qsc.de (Postfix) with ESMTPS id 258413CB3C; Sat, 15 Feb 2014 10:09:26 +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 s1F98sD6001928; Sat, 15 Feb 2014 10:08:54 +0100 (CET) (envelope-from freebsd@edvax.de) Date: Sat, 15 Feb 2014 10:08:54 +0100 From: Polytropon To: Mason Loring Bliss Subject: Re: Installing without blowing away GRUB/MBR Message-Id: <20140215100854.5f429b0c.freebsd@edvax.de> In-Reply-To: <20140215025211.GC4472@blisses.org> References: <20140215025211.GC4472@blisses.org> 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 Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org 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: Sat, 15 Feb 2014 09:09:45 -0000 On Fri, 14 Feb 2014 21:52:11 -0500, Mason Loring Bliss wrote: > Hi, all! > > I'd very much like to install FreeBSD 10 in some new partitions on an > existing system. The existing system has Debian Wheezy on it, and I'd like to > install FreeBSD without blowing away GRUB. Does the FreeBSD 10 installer > accomodate this desire? Ye olde sysinstall did - you could just leave the MBR untouched. If this is a problem in bsdinstall, here's a simple way around it: Allocate the disk space per command line (gpart, newfs), then return to the installer menu and use the (now) "existing file systems" as target. There should be nothing left that messes wuth the MBR. > What I'm imagining is that I'll end up with a freebsd-boot partition with > stage1 and stage2 in it, and then a ZFS partition with everything else. (To > throw a curve, I want to set up mirroring, and I assume I want either > manually or automatically to end up with an equivalent freebsd-boot partition > on the second disk.) That should be easy to prepare with gpart and gmorror. Warren Block wrote an article about that topic which you'll find helpful: http://www.wonkity.com/~wblock/docs/html/gmirror.html As far as I understand, this applies to the FreeBSD part of the installation. Linux should support GPT and will need different but similar configuration. :-) > Thanks in advance for clues or pointers. I intend, at present, for FreeBSD to > consume a decent chunk of my infrastructure, but I want to ease into it, > hence my not wanting to blow away existing Linux stuff as yet. A good decision. :-) -- Polytropon Magdeburg, Germany Happy FreeBSD user since 4.0 Andra moi ennepe, Mousa, ...