Date: Sat, 10 Jun 2000 13:14:07 -0400 (EDT) From: Kenneth Wayne Culver <culverk@wam.umd.edu> To: Mark Ovens <mark@dogma.freebsd-uk.eu.org> Cc: "Jasper O'Malley" <jooji@nickelkid.com>, freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: REVISED: Active partition problems with FreeBSD 4.0/NT dual-boot Message-ID: <Pine.GSO.4.21.0006101313420.17493-100000@rac4.wam.umd.edu> In-Reply-To: <20000610170801.F233@parish>
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You could also use a different bootloader. That seems to work for me. ================================================================= | Kenneth Culver | FreeBSD: The best NT upgrade | | Unix Systems Administrator | ICQ #: 24767726 | | and student at The | AIM: muythaibxr | | The University of Maryland, | Website: (Under Construction) | | College Park. | http://www.wam.umd.edu/~culverk/| ================================================================= On Sat, 10 Jun 2000, Mark Ovens wrote: > On Sat, Jun 10, 2000 at 11:53:44AM -0400, Jasper O'Malley wrote: > > On Sat, 10 Jun 2000, Mark Ovens wrote: > > > > > On Fri, Jun 09, 2000 at 03:16:06PM -0400, Jasper O'Malley wrote: > > > > > > > I didn't boot off C:\BOOTSECT.BSD that time, I "hit F5, then hit F1" to > > > > boot back into FreeBSD (i.e. I did it entirely through the FreeBSD boot > > > > loader process). In fact, C:\BOOTSECT.BSD disappeared with everything else > > > > on the original NTFS partition when the partition table was overwritten ;) > > > > > > Yes, but those (F1... F5....) messages come from the FreeBSD loader > > > (boot0). NT obviously doesn't rewrite the MBR when installing. > > > > Nope, sure doesn't. But the thing is that, by this point, boot0 had > > already taken residence in the MBR of da0, so I wasn't dealing with a > > situation where I'd trashed the partition table again. > > > > So when you re-installed NT it wrote a new PT to the MBR, which is > actually boot0? > > > > > It did it again because the "active" flag in da0s1's partition > > > > table entry was cleared when I booted into FreeBSD. Upon reboot, > > > > the BIOS--seeing that no partitions were marked active on the > > > > lowest numbered BIOS drive-- threw out the error message and > > > > stopped the boot again. It's a bug, but it's not uncommon, from > > > > what I've seen in the freebsd-questions archive and elsewhere. > > > > > This is beginning to sound familiar. When I used to install from CD > (I've been using cvsup for over a year now) I always used the "no boot > manager" option but when I rebooted after completing the install I > found that *no* partitions were set active and had to use Partition > Magic to turn one on. > > > > The BIOS can't boot from anything other than the first drive, that's > > > what boot managers are all about. > > > > Right, but normally the BIOS doesn't bother checking for active partition > > on the first drive. Ordinarily, the BIOS just cares that there *is* a > > first disk, and hands control over to the MBR on the first disk, and the > > program in the MBR is normally what cares about active partitions and > > such. Because my particular BIOS is looking for an active partition > > before the MBR (in this case, boot0) gets control, it's not letting me > > boot unless I manually use fdisk to set the NTFS partition active (even if > > I just want to boot into FreeBSD). > > > > I think that's why we've both seen the same "no active partition" > problem. I too have an Award BIOS (4.51PGM) on a Gigabyte m/b > (GA-586TX3). The term "brain-dead BIOS" in your original post seems to > be spot-on :) > > > > Sorry for the problems [the FAQ] has caused but it was done in all good > > > faith. > > > > I understand :) It's really not a problem, I didn't have anything > > important on my NT partition. Other may people may, however, so it might > > be wise to remove the instruction altogether until the new wording is > > completed. > > > > I've already submitted a PR with the new wording, docs/19174. > > > Right now, my problem isn't really that boot0 is trashing my partition > > table anymore, it's that it's clearing the active flag on my NTFS > > partition when I boot into FreeBSD. > > > > The only thing I can suggest now, other than getting a new m/b, is to > put / on da0 and /usr, /var, and swap on da1. This is the way > mine is setup and it works fine. > > > Cheers, > > Mick > > > > -- > Want a lean, mean, computing machine? > Get rid of that excess FAT - install FreeBSD > ________________________________________________________________ > FreeBSD - The Power To Serve http://www.freebsd.org > My Webpage http://ukug.uk.freebsd.org/~mark/ > mailto:mark@ukug.uk.freebsd.org http://www.radan.com > > > > To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org > with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message > To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message
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