From owner-freebsd-current@freebsd.org Tue Mar 17 14:17:41 2020 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-current@mailman.nyi.freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2610:1c1:1:606c::19:1]) by mailman.nyi.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id C51EB267EF0 for ; Tue, 17 Mar 2020 14:17:41 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from tsoome@me.com) Received: from st43p00im-zteg10061901.me.com (st43p00im-zteg10061901.me.com [17.58.63.168]) (using TLSv1.2 with cipher ECDHE-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384 (256/256 bits)) (Client did not present a certificate) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id 48hZxw0KBlz3GR7 for ; Tue, 17 Mar 2020 14:17:39 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from tsoome@me.com) Received: from [10.247.0.203] (unknown [91.209.240.229]) by st43p00im-zteg10061901.me.com (Postfix) with ESMTPSA id C1D33860385; Tue, 17 Mar 2020 14:17:35 +0000 (UTC) Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8 Mime-Version: 1.0 (Mac OS X Mail 13.0 \(3608.60.0.2.5\)) Subject: Re: what 3rd party boot mgr is required to boot multiple freebsd versions? From: Toomas Soome In-Reply-To: <059a7ecf-4ef8-0903-d2ee-debb8bb108b4@FreeBSD.org> Date: Tue, 17 Mar 2020 16:17:31 +0200 Cc: freebsd-current@freebsd.org Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Message-Id: References: <7c00489f-b9a2-2cc9-dd6b-dae600019099@snakeoilproductions.net> <059a7ecf-4ef8-0903-d2ee-debb8bb108b4@FreeBSD.org> To: Matthew Seaman X-Mailer: Apple Mail (2.3608.60.0.2.5) X-Proofpoint-Virus-Version: vendor=fsecure engine=2.50.10434:, , definitions=2020-03-17_05:, , signatures=0 X-Proofpoint-Spam-Details: rule=notspam policy=default score=0 suspectscore=0 malwarescore=0 phishscore=0 bulkscore=0 spamscore=0 clxscore=1011 mlxscore=0 mlxlogscore=999 adultscore=0 classifier=spam adjust=0 reason=mlx scancount=1 engine=8.0.1-1908290000 definitions=main-2003170061 X-Rspamd-Queue-Id: 48hZxw0KBlz3GR7 X-Spamd-Bar: -- X-Spamd-Result: default: False [-2.42 / 15.00]; RCVD_VIA_SMTP_AUTH(0.00)[]; TO_DN_SOME(0.00)[]; R_SPF_ALLOW(-0.20)[+ip4:17.58.0.0/16]; FREEMAIL_FROM(0.00)[me.com]; MV_CASE(0.50)[]; DKIM_TRACE(0.00)[me.com:+]; RCPT_COUNT_TWO(0.00)[2]; DMARC_POLICY_ALLOW(-0.50)[me.com,quarantine]; RCVD_IN_DNSWL_LOW(-0.10)[168.63.58.17.list.dnswl.org : 127.0.5.1]; MIME_TRACE(0.00)[0:+]; SUBJECT_ENDS_QUESTION(1.00)[]; FREEMAIL_ENVFROM(0.00)[me.com]; ASN(0.00)[asn:714, ipnet:17.58.63.0/24, country:US]; MID_RHS_MATCH_FROM(0.00)[]; FROM_EQ_ENVFROM(0.00)[]; ARC_NA(0.00)[]; NEURAL_HAM_MEDIUM(-0.82)[-0.819,0]; R_DKIM_ALLOW(-0.20)[me.com:s=1a1hai]; FROM_HAS_DN(0.00)[]; NEURAL_HAM_LONG(-1.00)[-1.000,0]; MIME_GOOD(-0.10)[text/plain]; IP_SCORE(0.00)[ip: (-4.07), ipnet: 17.58.63.0/24(-1.56), asn: 714(-2.38), country: US(-0.05)]; IP_SCORE_FREEMAIL(0.00)[]; DWL_DNSWL_LOW(-1.00)[me.com.dwl.dnswl.org : 127.0.5.1]; TO_MATCH_ENVRCPT_SOME(0.00)[]; RCVD_COUNT_TWO(0.00)[2]; RCVD_TLS_ALL(0.00)[] X-BeenThere: freebsd-current@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.29 Precedence: list List-Id: Discussions about the use of FreeBSD-current List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Tue, 17 Mar 2020 14:17:41 -0000 > On 17. Mar 2020, at 15:51, Matthew Seaman wrote: >=20 > On 17/03/2020 12:58, Florian Limberger wrote: >> On 16.03.20 23:33, Chris wrote: >>=20 >>> For the record. I'm *only* using FreeBSD in this situation. I >>> only mentioned Windows above, for the use of it's boot manager. >>=20 >> If you only use FreeBSD, and also use ZFS, you might find beadm[1] >> interesting. >>=20 >> [1]: https://www.freshports.org/sysutils/beadm >>=20 >=20 > Did you know that the system now comes with bectl(8) which is very > similar to beadm? As far as I can tell, the biggest difference is = that > if you have more than one ZFS in your boot environment then: >=20 > beadm create FOO >=20 > is actually equivalent to >=20 > bectl create -r FOO >=20 > ie. turning on the recursive functionality in bectl. >=20 > However, this is not really what the OP was asking about. As I > understand it, they were looking for something that would allow = choosing > between several independent installations of different versions of > FreeBSD, rather than having multiple environments in the same > installation. You can achieve pretty much the same effect though -- > there is a boot menu option to switch between BEs. You would have to > manage any ported software between the different OS versions, perhaps = by > including /usr/local and /var/db/pkg are both parts of your BEs. >=20 > Cheers, >=20 > Matthew >=20 BE=E2=80=99s can solve some scenarios. However, it is easy to add = support for few more. The current BE menu is populated automatically = from the zfs. However, it is also simple task to add a file parser to it = and read menu file with entries with different pool (we only need to = activate such entries same way as it is currently done for =E2=80=9Cnormal= =E2=80=9D BE, or entries with chain load). Read this menu file first and = zfs BE list after, and you have BE menu with manual and automatic = entries. Can be implemented within few hours.=20 rgds, Toomas