From owner-freebsd-hackers Tue Aug 3 18:42:57 1999 Delivered-To: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org Received: from mail1.its.rpi.edu (mail1.its.rpi.edu [128.113.100.7]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 9A4D714C0A for ; Tue, 3 Aug 1999 18:42:51 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from drosih@rpi.edu) Received: from [128.113.24.47] (gilead.acs.rpi.edu [128.113.24.47]) by mail1.its.rpi.edu (8.9.3/8.9.3) with ESMTP id VAA43702; Tue, 3 Aug 1999 21:40:07 -0400 Mime-Version: 1.0 X-Sender: drosih@mail.rpi.edu Message-Id: In-Reply-To: <199908031801.UAA01402@m1-18-dbn.dial-up.net> References: <199908031801.UAA01402@m1-18-dbn.dial-up.net> Date: Tue, 3 Aug 1999 21:40:13 -0400 To: Robert Nordier From: Garance A Drosihn Subject: Re: Multiple versions of FreeBSD on one HDD Cc: hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" ; format="flowed" Sender: owner-freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG At 8:01 PM +0200 8/3/99, Robert Nordier wrote: >Garance wrote: > > - If I select 2.2.8 at the PowerBoot menu, it comes up > > with one error message about "no /boot/loader", but > > then it comes right up in the 2.2.8 system. So this > > works fine, although it looks odd. > >You're using the new boot blocks for 2.2.8, and these always try >to pass control to loader(8). To get rid of the message, create >a /boot.config file with the line > /kernel >in it. Yes, that did get rid of the minor error message. Thanks. > > - If I select 3.2 at the PowerBoot menu, it comes up > > with two messages about "invalid partition", [...] > > It seems to want to boot 'da(0,a)/kernel', but if I > > type in 'da(0,e)/kernel', then it boots up fine. > >The problem here is a missing `a' partition. Seems like your >first partition on that slice is `e'. There's a one-line >patch to boot2 to get this working, but the standard version >only autoboots from the `a' partition. I did my fdisk-ing for both 2.2.8 and 3.2 systems while doing the installation of 2.2.8 (I wanted to use the same partition for swap on both, and that freebsd-partition was going to be in the same fdisk-slice as the 3.2 install would be). Might that be why I don't have an "a" partition in the third slice? (the slice meant for freebsd-3.2). [in case that doesn't make sense, here's the layout I ended up with, as seen from the 3.2 system: Filesystem 1K-blocks Used Avail Capacity Mounted on /dev/da0s3e 39647 21280 15196 58% / /dev/da0s3g 248047 108480 119724 48% /Users /dev/da0s3h 985287 465169 441296 51% /usr /dev/da0s3f 59519 1905 52853 3% /var procfs 4 4 0 100% /proc /dev/da0s2a 38991 19802 16070 55% /228Root /dev/da0s2f 390942 351090 8577 98% /228Usr /dev/da0s2e 59471 950 53764 2% /228Var with /dev/da0s3b being my swap partition when booting either system. swapinfo from 3.2 shows: Device 1K-blocks Used Avail Capacity Type /dev/da0s3b 256000 0 255872 0% Interleaved ] I'd rather not depend on patching boot2. Given that I wouldn't mind (too much) to do some reinstalls, is there some way I can end up with the first freebsd-partition in the third fdisk-slice to be named /dev/da0s3a instead of /dev/da0s3e? For instance, is this where your recommendation of: >It's usually best to temporarily change fdisk partition types, >so that sysinstall sees no existing FreeBSD slice on the drive. >However, there may be other problems involved here as well. would be help me out? (how does that first partition on the third slice end up as "e" anyway? I didn't explicitly ask for that...) > > I have a number of questions from doing this: > > 1. why does the install turn my HD unbootable? (invalid > > partition table). I didn't ask it to re-fdisk anything, > > and I didn't ask for it to change my boot loader. > >There are a number of possibilities, but one would have to look >at a copy of the broken MBR to be sure. (The most usual reason >for an "invalid partition table" message is multiple partitions >flagged as active, or partitions that use the new-style active >flag that is supported from Win95. This can be sorted out by >booting from floppy or CD-ROM and using fdisk.) I'll be out of town for a few days here, but maybe I'll try some re-installs when I get back, and see if I can figure out some of these things. Thanks. --- Garance Alistair Drosehn = gad@eclipse.acs.rpi.edu Senior Systems Programmer or drosih@rpi.edu Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-hackers" in the body of the message