From owner-freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Mon Mar 28 21:00:04 2011 Return-Path: Delivered-To: hackers@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 241271065672 for ; Mon, 28 Mar 2011 21:00:04 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from dieterbsd@engineer.com) Received: from imr-ma03.mx.aol.com (imr-ma03.mx.aol.com [64.12.206.41]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id CC2578FC15 for ; Mon, 28 Mar 2011 21:00:03 +0000 (UTC) Received: from imo-da04.mx.aol.com (imo-da04.mx.aol.com [205.188.169.202]) by imr-ma03.mx.aol.com (8.14.1/8.14.1) with ESMTP id p2SL00RA016201 for ; Mon, 28 Mar 2011 17:00:00 -0400 Received: from dieterbsd@engineer.com by imo-da04.mx.aol.com (mail_out_v42.9.) id n.1088.1f288c9 (55913) for ; Mon, 28 Mar 2011 16:59:57 -0400 (EDT) Received: from smtprly-mc03.mx.aol.com (smtprly-mc03.mx.aol.com [64.12.95.99]) by cia-md06.mx.aol.com (v129.9) with ESMTP id MAILCIAMD068-d3dd4d90f6c5296; Mon, 28 Mar 2011 16:59:57 -0400 Received: from web-mmc-d02 (web-mmc-d02.sim.aol.com [205.188.103.68]) by smtprly-mc03.mx.aol.com (v129.9) with ESMTP id MAILSMTPRLYMC037-d3dd4d90f6c5296; Mon, 28 Mar 2011 16:59:49 -0400 To: hackers@freebsd.org Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Date: Mon, 28 Mar 2011 16:59:48 -0400 X-MB-Message-Source: WebUI X-AOL-IP: 67.206.165.10 X-MB-Message-Type: User MIME-Version: 1.0 From: dieterbsd@engineer.com Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed X-Mailer: Mail.com Webmail 33456-STANDARD Received: from 67.206.165.10 by web-mmc-d02.sysops.aol.com (205.188.103.68) with HTTP (WebMailUI); Mon, 28 Mar 2011 16:59:48 -0400 Message-Id: <8CDBBA235B59E56-11D4-42F9@web-mmc-d02.sysops.aol.com> X-Spam-Flag: NO X-AOL-SENDER: dieterbsd@engineer.com Cc: Subject: Re: multi-boot bootstrap? 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: Mon, 28 Mar 2011 21:00:04 -0000 > Now, how are you going to multiboot OpenBSD and NetBSD on a PowerPC=20 machine > from the same hard disk. I didn't say anything about a requirement for booting multiple OSes from the same disk. I said: >> Go through all the disks and look >> for bootable partitions. Extract the GPT partition labels for >> these partitions. Present a menu of choices. There can be multiple disks. (Assuming the hardware supports that.) I haven't worked with PowerPC machines and it has been a very long time since I worked with Sparc. I'm more familiar with Alpha, which would=20 take some hacking to boot more than one OS per disk, but some rocket=20 scientist decided to drop FreeBSD support for Alpha, so I suspect that no one here cares about Alpha. > From what I know, one or the other can only be as > the first entry and it then has to be set from the forth prompt. > So, you will need two disks to boot , saya: OpenBSD, NetBSD, FreeBSD,=20 Linux, > and MacOSX or a combination of these. > > On PPC boxes with OpenFirmware 3.x, you actually need to set the=20 active > partition if you want to boot Linux and/or freebsd from the forth=20 prompt if > both are on the same disk. Can these PPC boxes boot from GPT disks? "active partition" sounds=20 MBRish. Perhaps they can use the "protective MBR" trick?