Date: Sun, 12 Mar 2000 21:05:57 -0500 From: Bob Johnson <bobj@atlantic.net> To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Cc: eric.boucher24@sympatico.ca Subject: Re: Installation problem Message-ID: <3.0.6.32.20000312210557.00ac9210@rio.atlantic.net>
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I haven't used Win 2000, but because it is simply the most recent version of Windows NT, I think you can probably use the same procedure that is used for Windows NT 3 and 4. I'm going to explain how you would solve this for NT 4, you'll have to experiment and see if it works this way for Win 2000. Please post your results to the list: it will be useful information for a lot of people in the future, I'm sure. On a Win NT system the master boot record loads and runs the Win NT boot loader from the NT boot partition. The boot loader then presents you with a menu that lets you select which partition you _really_ want to boot from. You have replaced the MBR with the FreeBSD boot manager, so when you select the "DOS" option, it boots the NT boot loader, which then presents you with the normal NT boot menu. That is why you are seeing two boot menus. It is pretty easy to get rid of the FreeBSD boot menu and return your system to its normal boot process. Simply boot from the Windows NT install CD-ROM/floppy and tell it to repair the existing installation. When it asks you what to repair, tell it to ONLY repair the Master Boot Record (i.e. the boot sector). I expect Windows 2000 will be similar. Now, let's see if we can get FreeBSD working on your system: Unfortunately, it sounds like you are also having a problem because you have a large hard drive. This will greatly complicate things if it is true. Like most operating systems, FreeBSD can only boot from a partition that is in the first 1024 cylinders of the hard drive. This is because of limitations in the system BIOS, not the operating system. Check your system BIOS and look at how many cylinders it thinks your hard drive has. If it is more than 1024, then take a look at http://www.freebsd.org/tutorials/multi-os/x136.html for information on this problem. You may need to either re-install Windows 2000, or get a program like Partition Magic to re-partition your drive without having to re-install Windows. Your goal is for the FreeBSD boot partition to be ENTIRELY contained in the first 1024 cylinders of your hard drive. The boot partition is the "root" partition, and is called "/" when you set up FreeBSD. It will only need to be about 40 MB (it should be at least 40 MB to allow room for growth when you upgrade to newer releases of FreeBSD). All of the other FreeBSD stuff can be anywhere on the disk. Once you have figured out how to arrange your disk so all three operating systems can boot from the first 1024 cylinders, you need to read (and probably print out) the instructions at http://www.freebsd.org/FAQ/admin.html#AEN1778 , which explain how to boot FreeBSD from the NT boot loader. When you install FreeBSD, tell it to install a standard MBR. This will set it up so that when you reboot your system it will boot to FreeBSD. You will need to do this as the first step of arranging the system to multi-boot, and later will fix it so it boots to NT. If you can't boot FreeBSD with the standard MBR, you are probably still having a problem with the 1024 cylinder limit. You can also have problems if the MBR is not on the same drive as the FreeBSD boot partition. Once you have installed FreeBSD and booted to it, you will need to copy the FreeBSD boot sector to a floppy as described in the instructions you printed out above. You can figure out which partition you are interested in by using the command "df". The "/" partition is the one you need to copy the boot partition from. Use the "dd" command as described in the instructions to create a file on an MS-DOS floppy. In recent versions of FreeBSD, "mount_msdos /mnt /dev/rfd0" (or something like that -- I'm doing this from memory) is how you mount an MS-DOS floppy. Once you have the boot file on the floppy, run the NT (or Win 2000?) Install program and tell it to repair the boot record so that it will boot to the NT boot loader. Then reboot Windows NT or Win 2000 and edit the boot loader as described in the instructions you printed out. Once you have done that, the Windows 2000 boot menu will include FreeBSD as a choice. Good luck! -- Bob >Date: Sun, 12 Mar 2000 16:13:28 -0500 >From: Eric Boucher <eric.boucher24@sympatico.ca> >Subject: Installation problem > >Hi, > >My name is Eric > >I just bought the book "the complete FreeBSD". I'm using Win98 and >Win2000 installed on the same hard disk. I wanted to install FreeBSD on >the same hard disk, but it didn't work. It stop after I clic the "done" >button after specifying my mouse, my card etc. . Is FreeBSD compatible >with Win2000? Do I have to remove Win98 to make FreeBSD work properly? >When I tried to install FreeBSD, I marked the option to make a >bootdirectory to choose from my others OS. Is it this option that make >FreeBSD unreable? Now, when I start my computer, I have the choice to >start FreeBSD or Dos. When I choose FreeBSD, the computer make a "beep" >sound and didn't start nothing. When I choose Dos, I have a second menu >that appear to choose from my two different Windows systems (wich was my >old boot menu before I install FreeBSD). How can I do to erase that >first menu, because FreeBSD isn't working on my system for now, but the >boot choices are still there. If you need more info on what I have on my >computer or what I did to try to install FreeBSD, just ask me by e-mail. > >Thanks a lot. I can't wait using your OS version. > >P.S. Excuse my english, it's not my first language as you can see. > > > >To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org >with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message > +-------------------------------------------------------- | Bob Johnson | bobj@atlantic.net +-------------------------------------------------------- To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message
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