From owner-freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Fri Aug 27 06:52:59 2010 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id EB17010656A3 for ; Fri, 27 Aug 2010 06:52:59 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from tajudd@gmail.com) Received: from mail-bw0-f54.google.com (mail-bw0-f54.google.com [209.85.214.54]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 6D3F48FC08 for ; Fri, 27 Aug 2010 06:52:59 +0000 (UTC) Received: by bwz20 with SMTP id 20so2035742bwz.13 for ; Thu, 26 Aug 2010 23:52:58 -0700 (PDT) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=gmail.com; s=gamma; h=domainkey-signature:received:mime-version:received:in-reply-to :references:from:date:message-id:subject:to:cc:content-type; bh=gPhePDbR7zdHIl/3ueDqMXTeNDQDFnOHWqO1wsP+F2U=; b=fZZfb3H2aX3NmkcgKdoxSxlpTPJAbcAly+eMYu5mVcTiJZTkh0AnSChohQ2tqSHahT 0NQ0+4xTG+yyNKqul/1bXoNP17/TrSUNZ7ug23geTLbcff4fTUnr78x7FjAC9BGu93i7 mLVANLOWcjPvQC6dtd6QJ0LrLor+qiLwzDpgM= DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; c=nofws; d=gmail.com; s=gamma; h=mime-version:in-reply-to:references:from:date:message-id:subject:to :cc:content-type; b=RU6sgnlNmPDNKDQKxJnzJQBBnRi9rSqvVckycRlKsRwcCgl6dhSJAUiF/voDDpEseh YRP8Vix79IwvJS5VohLQyerGRdksi8QqSu6rjgB8mUjHiRoo2XWJBAiM8Zo7Xj+P4Rmp jwR1jrI8qJ00lb1LWtbOfba8fqtv+jCe0rBSY= Received: by 10.204.102.197 with SMTP id h5mr180504bko.24.1282890138461; Thu, 26 Aug 2010 23:22:18 -0700 (PDT) MIME-Version: 1.0 Received: by 10.204.66.211 with HTTP; Thu, 26 Aug 2010 23:21:57 -0700 (PDT) In-Reply-To: <4C76FD1B.50804@FreeBSD.org> References: <4C76FD1B.50804@FreeBSD.org> From: Tim Judd Date: Fri, 27 Aug 2010 00:21:57 -0600 Message-ID: To: Doug Barton Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 X-Content-Filtered-By: Mailman/MimeDel 2.1.5 Cc: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Is there a boot manager that can handle this? X-BeenThere: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Technical Discussions relating to FreeBSD List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Fri, 27 Aug 2010 06:53:00 -0000 On Thu, Aug 26, 2010 at 5:47 PM, Doug Barton wrote: > Howdy, > > I'm looking to have the following on 1 disk: > > Primary partitions: > Windows XP, FreeBSD 9-current, FreeBSD 7-stable > > Extended partition: > FAT32 data volume, Ubuntu Linux > > I have all that installed now (or did anyway) but what I can't do is > boot all of it. Our boot manager would be fine for my taste, but doesn't > seem to handle booting from a logical volume at all. The latest version > of grub that came with Ubuntu works fine for that, and can handle the > Windows and the *1st* FreeBSD partition just fine, but if I try to boot > the 2nd FreeBSD partition grub just boots the first one again. I got > some help from some Linux folks on some commands for grub that allowed > me to "hide" the first FreeBSD partition, but what that seems to have > done is change the partition type. When I tried changing it back and > booting FreeBSD the data in the partition was gone. (No harm done, I > have everything backed up and I hadn't started work on the FreeBSD > partition, but still ...) > > So what I'm looking for is a boot manager that can do all this with > minimal fuss, and without destroying my data. :) Any suggestions? > > BTW, the current arrangement is: > Windows, Extended, FreeBSD, FreeBSD > > I thought of changing that to: > Windows, FreeBSD, Extended, FreeBSD > > to see if that helps grub be less confused, but I'd prefer not to do > that work unless a) someone can tell me that it will work for sure, or > b) no other alternatives are forthcoming. > FYI http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/boot-introduction.html "...This MBR searches for the first bootable (a.k.a. active) slice on the disk, and then runs the code on that slice to load the remainder of the operating system. The MBR installed by fdisk(8), by default, is such an MBR. It is based on /boot/mbr." OK, so the default /boot/mbr doesn't consider a 2nd boot disk or slice. You *must* (imho) remove all of the bsd bootstrapping from the equasion. GAG might do it (I've seen it do some wonderful stuff).but you will need a native bsd bootstrap/loader *SOMEHOW* in order to load BSD. You might be chasing your tail. I wish you luck, But years ago when I read that, I never again tried two freebsd systems on the same platter. If necessary, add a 2nd hard disk and try boot0, GAG, or one of the other various other bootloaders. Good luck.