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Date:      Mon, 7 Dec 1998 10:22:13 +0200 (SAT)
From:      Robert Nordier <rnordier@nordier.com>
To:        john.saunders@scitec.com.au (John Saunders)
Cc:        freebsd-current@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject:   Re: Booting 3.0-RELEASE in a non-standard setup
Message-ID:  <199812070822.KAA23496@ceia.nordier.com>
In-Reply-To: <002901be219f$21d16400$6cb611cb@saruman.scitec.com.au> from John Saunders at "Dec 7, 98 04:04:56 pm"

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John Saunders wrote:

> FYI (Information obtained from this weekends hacking)

Thanks for reporting back on this.

> 
> It is possible to have FreeBSD 2.2.x and 3.x co-existing on
> the same disk in different partitions. What makes this possible
> is the new boot blocks by Robert Nordier. You also need to make
> certain that the 2.2.x partition comes first in the partition
> table (although I don't think it need come first on the disk).

However, upgrading your 2.2.x boot blocks to new ones from -current
should allow 2.2.x to occupy any slice (PC partition) as well.

[ Useful stuff elided ]

> The new boot blocks load the /boot.config file which
> specifies the information needed to load the kernel from
> the correct slice and mount the correct root filesystem.
> It appears to be impossible to specify this information in
> any way other than editing the file from another running
> system. The old boot blocks allowed you to enter this
> from the command line. We probably need a ctrl sequence
> to escape into a command line for this.
> 
> If you press any key the /boot/loader file will be started

I'm a bit puzzled that you experienced this.  Though I gather
you're using the 3.0R new boot stuff, rather than the -current
versions, and there have been a number of changes in the last
7 weeks or so.

After the new boot blocks load, you should see one of the
characters

    - \ | /

displayed, while everything stops for 3 seconds.  If you hit
a key other than [enter] at this stage, you should get to the

    boot:

prompt.  (Though best hit a key that generates an ASCII char,
if you're using older code.)

> and it won't work properly in the case where the BIOS
> drive number doesn't match the wd drive number. So never
> press a key, let the boot block load the kernel directly.

-- 
Robert Nordier

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