From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Sun Nov 28 14:45:29 2004 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 9A26A16A4CE for ; Sun, 28 Nov 2004 14:45:29 +0000 (GMT) Received: from mail3.speakeasy.net (mail3.speakeasy.net [216.254.0.203]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 6D0FD43D58 for ; Sun, 28 Nov 2004 14:45:29 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from freebsd-questions-local@be-well.ilk.org) Received: (qmail 9831 invoked from network); 28 Nov 2004 14:45:29 -0000 Received: from dsl092-078-145.bos1.dsl.speakeasy.net (HELO be-well.ilk.org) ([66.92.78.145]) (envelope-sender ) by mail3.speakeasy.net (qmail-ldap-1.03) with SMTP for ; 28 Nov 2004 14:45:28 -0000 Received: by be-well.ilk.org (Postfix, from userid 1147) id 7EC2E69; Sun, 28 Nov 2004 09:45:28 -0500 (EST) Sender: lowell@be-well.ilk.org To: "baldyeti" References: From: Lowell Gilbert Date: 28 Nov 2004 09:45:28 -0500 In-Reply-To: Message-ID: <44fz2u2fsn.fsf@be-well.ilk.org> Lines: 27 User-Agent: Gnus/5.09 (Gnus v5.9.0) Emacs/21.3 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: install & partitioning advice needed X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list Reply-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Sun, 28 Nov 2004 14:45:29 -0000 "baldyeti" writes: > Using a FreeBSD 4.6 CD I have, I'd like to install on an > older system (P200). The machine has a 4 GB IDE drive and > another 4 Gb attached via SCSI. These seem to be recognised > as da0 and ad0. [Vice versa, actually...] > The SCSI adapter has no ROM, and is not > directly bootable. I thus suppose FreeBSD - and any OS under > the circumstances - needs at least one little boot slice on > the 1st (IDE) drive. I could free about 400 Mb on that drive, > in an extended partition. Can FreeBSD be started from an > extended partition, or will it need a primary one, and which > filesystem(s) needs reside on the startup disk, with which > recommended minimum size? FreeBSD can't boot out of a "logical partition". You probably could install to the second disk, and just boot from a boot manager installed on the first disk, or from floppies. These are a bit tricky for beginners, though. With release 4.6, you could easily get away with a 50MB root partition on the first drive. 4.6 is distinctly outdated, though. Your easiest path is probably to go with a fairly smart bootloader. I understand that "GAG" is pretty good: http://gag.sourceforge.net/