Date: Wed, 22 Mar 2006 16:20:31 -0000 From: "Frank Mitchell" <mitchell@cloudynwuk.force9.co.uk> To: <matteo@freebsd.org> Cc: h.eichmann@gmx.de, freebsd-qa@freebsd.org Subject: bin_48341 & Dual-Booting Message-ID: <000001c64ddb$6bafd5a0$f5d8ae51@hal>
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Dear Matteo Riondato, Further investigation confirms two problems related to Heiner's. For Dual Booting with Windows Me I needed to retain my LBA Disk Geometry, as originally auto-detected by BIOS. This means 1023 Logical Cylinders and 64 Logical Heads, also given by Slackware fdisk. But FreeBSD-6.0 accepts the Default Logical Geometry supplied by the ATA Identify Drive Command, which means 4092 Logical Cylinders and 16 Logical Heads. The sysinstall fdisk in FreeBSD-6.0 sets up this CHS Geometry even when the desired LBA CHS Translation Geometry is specified in the BIOS, and even when the FreeBSD Partition was already set up for LBA CHS Geometry previously. You need to be aware of the need for the fdisk "G" option every time. Being new to FreeBSD, I wanted to re-run sysinstall a few times without disturbing my Windows Me boot set-up. So I chose the "Boot Manager = None" Option, intending to leave the MBR untouched while I investigated the possibility of booting from a Floppy. But I soon found my machine rebooted into FreeBSD every time. I didn't see Windows Me again until I installed the FreeBSD Boot Manager, which luckily dual-booted okay. (Windows Me gave problems using Lilo). One fact may or may not be significant. My BIOS had the Boot Sector Virus Warning Enabled. Now every time I reboot with FreeBSD Boot Manager I get a bleep alarm and a Message Box saying: "Award BIOS WARNING!!! Disk Boot Sector is to be modified. Type "Y" to accept, any key to abort." I never got that with the "Boot Manager = None" Option, even though the Boot Setup was obviously changed. Yours Truly: Frank Mitchell -- No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.1.385 / Virus Database: 268.2.6/288 - Release Date: 22/03/2006
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