From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Tue Sep 29 17:40:43 2009 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 74BF51065676 for ; Tue, 29 Sep 2009 17:40:43 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from freebsd@edvax.de) Received: from mx01.qsc.de (mx01.qsc.de [213.148.129.14]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 336DB8FC13 for ; Tue, 29 Sep 2009 17:40:43 +0000 (UTC) Received: from r55.edvax.de (port-92-195-71-245.dynamic.qsc.de [92.195.71.245]) by mx01.qsc.de (Postfix) with ESMTP id 8F34F3D751; Tue, 29 Sep 2009 19:40:42 +0200 (CEST) Received: from r55.edvax.de (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by r55.edvax.de (8.14.2/8.14.2) with SMTP id n8THefLX001484; Tue, 29 Sep 2009 19:40:41 +0200 (CEST) (envelope-from freebsd@edvax.de) Date: Tue, 29 Sep 2009 19:40:41 +0200 From: Polytropon To: Bret Busby Message-Id: <20090929194041.befdad5c.freebsd@edvax.de> In-Reply-To: References: <4ABE4464.6000604@otenet.gr> Organization: EDVAX X-Mailer: Sylpheed 2.4.7 (GTK+ 2.12.1; i386-portbld-freebsd7.0) Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Question about FreeBSD installation procedure X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list Reply-To: Polytropon List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Tue, 29 Sep 2009 17:40:43 -0000 On Tue, 29 Sep 2009 12:36:00 +0800 (WST), Bret Busby wrote: > See > http://busby.net/bret/Screenshot--dev-sda-GParted.png I think I do understand. You have: 1. a primary DOS partition which contains a NTFS file system 2. an extended DOS partition containing "subpartitions" with an ext3 partition a linux swap partition a FAT32 logical volume three further ext3 partitions So you should have two "slots" of primary DOS partitions. It is, of course, assumed that the "unallocated" part is NOT subpart of sda2, but of the whole disk sda. > However, with the response above, and, with all of the responses thus > far, to the query, it appears that I cannot install FreeBSD on the > computer, without a full system rebuild, involving removal of all of the > installed operating systems and software from the computer, then > repartitioning, or, slicing up, the hard drive, and then creating new > logical, extended partitions, and then reinstalling each of the > operating systems, and all of the software for each of the operating > systems, trying to ensure that I then have at least all of the software > that is currently installed on each operating system on the computer, > and, the data that is currently present on the computer. I think you're wrong. The installation should work. In order to test, fire up the FreeBSD installer from the CD and enter the slice editor. See if you can create a new slice - no slice will actually be created. However, keep a working (!) and tested (!) backup of your data at hand. Just in case. You won't need it, but HAVE it. :-) > Due to the time and effort involved, and the apparent complexity, it all > seems too difficult, to install BSD. I always thought it was complicated to install operating systems that require extended DOS partitions and logical volumes for their OS partitioning... :-) > If FreeBSD would be able to be installed in a logical partition, within > an extended partition, as can be done with Linux, it would probably be > able to be done by me - in the meantime, it is simply too difficult. At the moment, it can't. And due to the limitations that have artifically been brought into the PC world by DOS, I think it's sufficient for FreeBSD to require a primary DOS partition, i. e. its own slice, to be installed into. Honestly, I've never seen the need for extended DOS partitions. Let's say you intendedly want to run a multi-OS system, then you can install four systems, each one in its own slice, and within the slice, the partitiions, if needed and supported. -- Polytropon Magdeburg, Germany Happy FreeBSD user since 4.0 Andra moi ennepe, Mousa, ...