From owner-freebsd-hackers Tue Oct 3 18:35:29 1995 Return-Path: owner-hackers Received: (from root@localhost) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.6.12/8.6.6) id SAA08798 for hackers-outgoing; Tue, 3 Oct 1995 18:35:29 -0700 Received: from relay2.UU.NET (relay2.UU.NET [192.48.96.7]) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.6.12/8.6.6) with ESMTP id SAA08784 for ; Tue, 3 Oct 1995 18:35:26 -0700 Received: from ast.com by relay2.UU.NET with SMTP id QQzjxu13837; Tue, 3 Oct 1995 21:35:23 -0400 Received: from trsvax.fw.ast.com (fw.ast.com) by ast.com with SMTP id AA04960 (5.67b/IDA-1.5 for ); Tue, 3 Oct 1995 18:35:22 -0700 Received: by trsvax.fw.ast.com (/\=-/\ Smail3.1.18.1 #18.1) id ; Tue, 3 Oct 95 20:33 CDT Received: by nemesis.lonestar.org (Smail3.1.27.1 #19) id m0t0Iej-000J6zC; Tue, 3 Oct 95 20:29 WET DST Message-Id: Date: Tue, 3 Oct 95 20:29 WET DST To: tony@thing.sunquest.com, hackers@freebsd.org From: uhclem%nemesis@fw.ast.com (Frank Durda IV) Sent: Tue Oct 3 1995, 20:29:57 CDT Subject: MBR/Win95/IDE (3 questions) Sender: owner-hackers@freebsd.org Precedence: bulk [0]-- win95 -- [0]I've heard a lot of people complaining about not being able to configure [0]Win95 and FreeBSD via the FreeBSD bootloader. Has anyone been able to do [0]this ? [0]Any similar problems with FreeBSD and NT ? Mine works fine. Here was the procedure I used: Started with disk with no partitions, booted a MS-DOS 6.2 (or later). Used FDISK to define part of disk I wanted Microsoft to use. Rebooted and installed MS-DOS. Then booted from the hard disk, installed Windows '95 (mine was from CD-ROM). Once Windows '95 was installed, loaded a *real* operating system by booting FreeBSD 2.0.5R from boot floppy. Installed FreeBSD 2.0.5R using remainder of disk, selected default boot manager. Now when I boot, press [F2] for FreeBSD. It says "F1 dos", but if you press [F1] you will boot Windows '95. If you really want DOS, press [F1] and as soon as it says "Starting Windows '95", press [F5] several times. Of course, Windows '95 has replaced DOS 6.x with DOS 7, but other than that things work fine. On another system, I had DOS 7, Windows 3.11 and Windows '95 all in the DOS partition, plus FreeBSD 2.0.5R. All four systems are usable by pushing the right keys during or after booting. I have always found installing FreeBSD *first* on a hard disk and then trying to get Microsoft products to co-exist to be very difficult. Windows '95 also seems to be confused by the validity of non-MS partitions, although it doesn't silently wipe them out anymore like it did in the Beta releases. [0]-- IDE -- [0]I'm currently 100% SCSI, but will likely be getting El Cheapo EIDE disc for [0]Windoze. [0] [0]If the bios boots from the IDE disc, which I think is the default [0](I'll clearly need the FreeBSD bootloader on the IDE disk) does this [0]imply that the boot default (if I don't select a device) will have to be [0]a slice on the IDE disk (i.e Windoze, not FreeBSD). On 99% of the systems out there, you must have a bootable partition ("active") on the IDE drive, and to do a two-way boot, the active partition needs to be something other than a DOS partition. (FYI, Microsoft knows calls divisions of the hard disk "partitions" - "slices" are a FreeBSDish creation.) You can put a very tiny FreeBSD partition that then lets you boot from SCSI (or even a second IDE drive). Or just put your root partition over on the IDE drive. Root is supposed to be small. [0]Basically back to the above question of how the boot loader works, how (if [0]at all) I can configure it. I'd like the default to always be boot [0]FreeBSD, even if I the bios boots IDE. [0] [0]Otherwise, I guess I'm looking at disabling IDE booting in the BIOS, [0]and then see if the FreeBSD boot loader from the SCSI disc will be [0]able to boot Windoze off the IDE disc. As far as I know, there are only a few systems that allow IDE devices to be present and the boot device to *NOT* be IDE. The BIOSes that support this scheme cheat and look at the primary IDE drive and if no partitions are marked active, the BIOS will pretend there was no IDE and let SCSI take over. These BIOSes are *VERY* rare, and I have only seen them in systems with integrated IDE and SCSI interfaces. There is usually a CMOS setup option that says "Boot from IDE Y/N". Frank Durda IV uhclem%nemesis@fw.ast.com "Using the net, you can see a picture of Pikes Peak, which is updated every hour, or a picture of Bill Gates' house, which is updated once a week. The difference is that Pikes Peak doesn't move, but they keep having to move the camera further back at Bill's place." :-) - (C) 1995 FDIV