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Date: Tue, 29 Jul 1997 10:04:55 -0400
From: Randall Hopper <rhh@ct.picker.com>
To: "Rodney W. Grimes" <rgrimes@GndRsh.aac.dev.com>
Cc: Bruce Evans <bde@zeta.org.au>, current@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject: Re: Multiple FreeBSD Systems on a Single Disk
References: <199707281528.BAA23105@godzilla.zeta.org.au> <199707281729.KAA18261@GndRsh.aac.dev.com>
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In-Reply-To: <199707281729.KAA18261@GndRsh.aac.dev.com>; from Rodney W. Grimes on Mon, Jul 28, 1997 at 10:29:04AM -0700
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Rodney W. Grimes:
 |> >> Only booting from the first FreeBSD partition (slice) is supported.
 |> >> The second one can be booted from by making it the first, e.g.,
 |> >
 |> >Even simpler: you can install OS-BS bootloader (from /tools), which is
 |> >much more configurable than boot-easy. 
 |> 
 |> The lack of support has nothing to do with the master boot loader.
 |> The FreeBSD boot loader only supports booting from the first FreeBSD
 |> slice (on any disk that can be accessed by the BIOS).
 |
 |And should be fixed (I've mentioned this before) to boot from the
 |first ACTIVE (flag 0x80) FreeBSD slice.  Should be a trival amount
 |of code, and would do what everyone else does, even Microsoft got
 |that part right.

That's one option.  Another one that'd be better is for FreeBSD to just
boot the slice whose Boot Record is loaded.  I.e. if OS/BS transfers
control to Disk 1 Slice 2, Disk 1 Slice 2's Boot Record is loaded, which
should boot FreeBSD off Slice 2.  Ditto for Slice 1 if I happen to have
FreeBSD in that slice as well.

If I boot Slice 2, FreeBSD shouldn't try to read or touch Slice 1 during
the boot loading sequence.  IMO, it shouldn't go divining whether there's a
valid FreeBSD on Slice 1 (that may or may not be trashed) which it can pick
up a boot loader from.  The MBR transferring control to Boot Record Slice 2
should mean to boot off Slice 2.

Randall