From owner-freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Sat Nov 14 03:02:39 2020 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@mailman.nyi.freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2610:1c1:1:606c::19:1]) by mailman.nyi.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 72D6B2D2F64 for ; Sat, 14 Nov 2020 03:02:39 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from dpchrist@holgerdanske.com) Received: from holgerdanske.com (holgerdanske.com [184.105.128.27]) (using TLSv1.3 with cipher TLS_AES_256_GCM_SHA384 (256/256 bits) key-exchange ECDHE (P-256) server-signature RSA-PSS (4096 bits) server-digest SHA256 client-signature RSA-PSS (2048 bits) client-digest SHA256) (Client CN "www.holgerdanske.com", Issuer "www.holgerdanske.com" (not verified)) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id 4CY0WL2LbMz3rf0 for ; Sat, 14 Nov 2020 03:02:38 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from dpchrist@holgerdanske.com) Received: from 99.100.19.101 (99-100-19-101.lightspeed.frokca.sbcglobal.net [99.100.19.101]) by holgerdanske.com with ESMTPSA (TLS_AES_128_GCM_SHA256:TLSv1.3:Kx=any:Au=any:Enc=AESGCM(128):Mac=AEAD) (SMTP-AUTH username dpchrist@holgerdanske.com, mechanism PLAIN) for ; Fri, 13 Nov 2020 19:02:30 -0800 Subject: Re: Booting multiple BSDs. To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org References: <3e235e4f8da5018abbd1d05a1976c7a9@riseup.net> From: David Christensen Message-ID: Date: Fri, 13 Nov 2020 19:02:29 -0800 User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64; rv:68.0) Gecko/20100101 Thunderbird/68.12.0 MIME-Version: 1.0 In-Reply-To: <3e235e4f8da5018abbd1d05a1976c7a9@riseup.net> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8; format=flowed Content-Language: en-US Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Rspamd-Queue-Id: 4CY0WL2LbMz3rf0 X-Spamd-Bar: / Authentication-Results: mx1.freebsd.org; dkim=none; dmarc=none; spf=none (mx1.freebsd.org: domain of dpchrist@holgerdanske.com has no SPF policy when checking 184.105.128.27) smtp.mailfrom=dpchrist@holgerdanske.com X-Spamd-Result: default: False [-0.10 / 15.00]; RCVD_TLS_ALL(0.00)[]; RCVD_VIA_SMTP_AUTH(0.00)[]; MID_RHS_MATCH_FROM(0.00)[]; FROM_HAS_DN(0.00)[]; RBL_DBL_DONT_QUERY_IPS(0.00)[184.105.128.27:from]; TO_MATCH_ENVRCPT_ALL(0.00)[]; NEURAL_HAM_LONG(-1.00)[-1.000]; MIME_GOOD(-0.10)[text/plain]; TO_DN_NONE(0.00)[]; PREVIOUSLY_DELIVERED(0.00)[freebsd-questions@freebsd.org]; AUTH_NA(1.00)[]; RCPT_COUNT_ONE(0.00)[1]; SPAMHAUS_ZRD(0.00)[184.105.128.27:from:127.0.2.255]; ARC_NA(0.00)[]; NEURAL_SPAM_SHORT(1.00)[1.000]; DMARC_NA(0.00)[holgerdanske.com]; NEURAL_HAM_MEDIUM(-1.00)[-1.000]; R_SPF_NA(0.00)[no SPF record]; FROM_EQ_ENVFROM(0.00)[]; R_DKIM_NA(0.00)[]; MIME_TRACE(0.00)[0:+]; ASN(0.00)[asn:6939, ipnet:184.104.0.0/15, country:US]; RCVD_COUNT_TWO(0.00)[2]; MAILMAN_DEST(0.00)[freebsd-questions] X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.34 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Sat, 14 Nov 2020 03:02:39 -0000 On 2020-11-13 17:58, Weaver wrote: > On 14-11-2020 10:48, David Christensen wrote: >> On 2020-11-12 21:42, Weaver wrote: >>> What's the best way of going about this? >>> I've search engined around and all I can find most of the time is >>> multi-booting with Windows, which I ,left behind when XP came out, or >>> rambling non-specifics and vague references. >>> Is installing gptboot the go, then hitting a key to gain interactive >>> mode, then choosing a partition to boot from, or is there something a >>> little more automated available? >>> Thanks for any time and trouble entered into. >>> >>> Harry Weaver >> >> In workstations/ servers, I install 2.5" SATA trayless racks and have >> a stack of SSD's with one OS each. The only hassle is remembering to >> reset the CMOS clock before and after running a Windows SSD. >> >> >> In laptops with one drive, I install VirtualBox and have one VM for each OS. > > This will be in a small tower with 4 different drives, each with a > different OS on each one. > I am just wondering if there's a bootable partition on each one, is > there a boot-manager that will pick up each one and give me a choice as > to which one to boot? I am confident that there are several boot managers, likely one for each of those four OS's, that can find multiple bootable OS drives/ slices/ partitions and allow you to boot the OS of your choice. But, my experience is that keeping them all running is an exercise in "infinite bug propagation" I can afford US $45 mobile racks and US $20 SSD's. My time and mental bandwidth are more valuable. I would remove three of those drives and run one OS at a time. David