From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Fri Jul 15 21:17:53 2005 Return-Path: X-Original-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org 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 5C4D116A41C for ; Fri, 15 Jul 2005 21:17:53 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from letter2steve@yahoo.com) Received: from web51405.mail.yahoo.com (web51405.mail.yahoo.com [206.190.38.184]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with SMTP id 725BE43D46 for ; Fri, 15 Jul 2005 21:17:52 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from letter2steve@yahoo.com) Received: (qmail 46939 invoked by uid 60001); 15 Jul 2005 21:17:51 -0000 DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; q=dns; c=nofws; s=s1024; d=yahoo.com; h=Message-ID:Received:Date:From:Subject:To:Cc:In-Reply-To:MIME-Version:Content-Type:Content-Transfer-Encoding; b=tQp2+NhHFj5L9QadFV3VGFDdJFOCRp+syDH3ALbqHipSIhg9+B7sCYbdoQxVgF4cLJcncVZCNL4MtcgWl7lbr4AHBDzk2rfclwvWtvTSj0Ko0kO3DNLQ9Vhjg1zyJ7/it2kKwTy4r8MGB72sapkiEeQfgUgp1R/rV8zeXGL3mhg= ; Message-ID: <20050715211751.46937.qmail@web51405.mail.yahoo.com> Received: from [199.243.104.196] by web51405.mail.yahoo.com via HTTP; Fri, 15 Jul 2005 14:17:51 PDT Date: Fri, 15 Jul 2005 14:17:51 -0700 (PDT) From: Steve Quinn To: George Ruch In-Reply-To: <42D80E2D.707@3lefties.com> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Three questions... X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Fri, 15 Jul 2005 21:17:53 -0000 George Ruch wrote: --- George Ruch wrote: > I'm working on a 5.4-REL test installation on my main desktop machine. > Hardware specifics: > MSI MS-6378 MB > AMD Athalon 1800 @ 1536 > 256 MB memory > 2 x Maxtor 30 GB drives > Zip 100 ATA > DVD-RW > This will be a learning installation. I have some past experience with > OS/2 Warp 3 and Redhat 5.1 (no, you don't get to guess my age) on much > smaller drives. > > Q1: I have two drives, laid out as follows: > Drive 1 > /ad0a WinXP, NTFS, 16.06GB, primary > /ad0e data, NTFS, 12.58GB, extended > > Drive 2 > /ad1a currently empty, 14.36GB, primary > (installation target) > /ad1e /ad0 backup, NTFS, 14.27GB, extended > > I'd like to use XP's NTLDR to manage the dual boot process. I've seen > the following trick for Linux ( www.redhat.com/advice/tips/dualboot.html): > > - Boot into Linux, copy the first sector of the boot partition as follows: > dd if=/dev/hdb of=/bootsect.lnx bs=512 count=1 > - Move bootsect.lnx to WinXP root (C:\), and add the following line to > boot.ini: > C:\bootsect.lnx="Linux" > > Does this approach work with FreeBSD? Logic says it should, given the > similarities, but when has logic applied consistently to computers? > > Q2: Failing that, does anyone out there have any experience with > PowerQuest's (now Symantec) BootMagic boot manager (p/o Partition Magic > 8.0) and FreeBSD? The documentation indicated that it will recognize > Linux partitions, but says nothing about FreeBSD. > > Q3: Partitioning > Yes, I know you've seen several million questions on partitioning > schemes. I've read up on it, and I'd like to get some feedback on this > plan. All slices would be p/o ad1a, which has approx. 14,704MB free. > > / 128M > /usr 8192M > /home 3312M > /var 1024M > /tmp 1024M > swap 1024M (4 x physical) > > Thanks in advance, > > | George Ruch > | "Is there life in Clovis after Clovis Man?" Hi George I'd suggest backing up your MBR before starting anything This way, independent of the boot manager your choose, you can always (hopefully) get back to your current working one It's really easy, really small (512 bytes) and could save mega amounts of time/hair I boot with FreeBSD or Linux media from CDROM/Floppy to accomplish an MBR backup Media I've used include the FreeBSD fixit thingy, Knoppix, Linux installer CD's, RIP (Rescue is Possible) http://www.tux.org/pub/people/kent-robotti/looplinux/rip/ Here's a way to backup it up to a Dos formatted floppy FreeBSD Use FreeBSD 4.11 Disk2 or FreeBSD 5.4 Disk 1 Boot the CD, choose fixit, and choose CDROM Pop in the floppy and mount it FreeBSD 4.11 #mount_msdos /dev/fd0 /mnt FreeBSD 5.4 #mount_msdosfs /dev/fd0 /mnt Backup the MBR of the Primary ATA Master to floppy #dd if=/dev/ad0 of=/mnt/my.mbr bs=512 count=1 #umount /mnt Linux #mount -t msdos /dev/fd0 /mnt #dd if=/dev/hda of=/mnt/my.mbr bs=512 count=1 #umount /mnt Restoring the MBR is basically the reverse mount the floppy under /mnt #dd if=/mnt/my.mbr of=/dev/ad0 (or hda) bs=512 count=1 #umount /mnt The RIP floppy has scripts for this sorta thing making it pretty easy It would be really smart to experiment with a sacrificial lamb prior to your production machine I hope this helps Take care Steve Quinn __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? 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