From owner-freebsd-ppc@FreeBSD.ORG Thu Feb 26 23:00:06 2009 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-ppc@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 315E4106567D for ; Thu, 26 Feb 2009 23:00:06 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from nwhitehorn@freebsd.org) Received: from mail.icecube.wisc.edu (trout.icecube.wisc.edu [128.104.255.119]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 079E18FC0C for ; Thu, 26 Feb 2009 23:00:05 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from nwhitehorn@freebsd.org) Received: from localhost (localhost.localdomain [127.0.0.1]) by mail.icecube.wisc.edu (Postfix) with ESMTP id 05F485823D; Thu, 26 Feb 2009 17:00:05 -0600 (CST) X-Virus-Scanned: amavisd-new at icecube.wisc.edu Received: from mail.icecube.wisc.edu ([127.0.0.1]) by localhost (trout.icecube.wisc.edu [127.0.0.1]) (amavisd-new, port 10030) with ESMTP id VpLafbpM8Cbd; Thu, 26 Feb 2009 17:00:04 -0600 (CST) Received: from wanderer.tachypleus.net (i3-dhcp-172-16-55-200.icecube.wisc.edu [172.16.55.200]) by mail.icecube.wisc.edu (Postfix) with ESMTP id DBB7E5823C; Thu, 26 Feb 2009 17:00:04 -0600 (CST) Message-ID: <49A71EF4.5090203@freebsd.org> Date: Thu, 26 Feb 2009 17:00:04 -0600 From: Nathan Whitehorn User-Agent: Thunderbird 2.0.0.19 (X11/20090126) MIME-Version: 1.0 To: Ananda Samaddar References: <20090226191342.52d4a36b@ananda-desktop> In-Reply-To: <20090226191342.52d4a36b@ananda-desktop> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Cc: freebsd-ppc@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Questions about FreeBSD on a Mac Mini X-BeenThere: freebsd-ppc@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Porting FreeBSD to the PowerPC List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Thu, 26 Feb 2009 23:00:07 -0000 Ananda Samaddar wrote: > hi all, > > I'm a prospective FreeBSD user and I've already done a bit of research > on the website, docs and mailing lists. I do have a few questions, > most of them are for confirmation rather than anything else so here > goes: > > 1. It's not possible to use the installer to partition your disk as > fdisk doesn't work is this true? > 2. Open Firmware doesn't understand FreeBSD partitions so there's no > reasonable way to boot an installed system is there? > > While the installer does not currently provide a partitioning mechanism or bootloader installation facility, the operating system itself does have this capability, and you can also do it by hand (e.g. from OS X). The gpart utility is capable of partioning APM disks from the command line, and there is a boot loader image (/boot/boot1.hfs) available on -CURRENT that you can dd to an extra 800 K partition to get a boot sector that OF will understand. You can also partition from OS X and copy the loader (/boot/loader) to an HFS partition at that time. > 3. Altivec is not supported so there'll be a performance hit when using > FreeBSD? > This is remedied in -CURRENT and will be merged to -STABLE in a week and a half, barring any reports of problems. -Nathan