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Subject: Re: Converting from Linux to FreeBSD
To: dennis@etinc.com (dennis)
Date: Tue, 6 Feb 96 8:55:06 MET
From: Greg Lehey <lehey.pad@sni.de>
Cc: hackers@freebsd.org (Hackers; FreeBSD)
In-Reply-To: <199602011715.MAA19747@etinc.com>; from "dennis" at Feb 1, 96 12:15 pm
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>
>>>> My questions...
>>>>
>>>> can linux be 'upgraded' in place to freeBSD?
>>>
>>> Probably not.  Certainly, in view of the requirement that you don't go
>>> down for long, you'd be better off installing FreeBSD on separate
>>> disks.  That way, if you *do* experience problems, you can fall back
>>> to Linux quickly and painlessly.
>>
>> In particular, the Linux second stage boot code will not work for
>> FreeBSD, which expects the second stage boot code to pass it much
>> information from BIOS space that is unavailable in protected mode.
>>
>> In addition, using the FreeBSD second stage boot will not by default
>> recognize the unsliced partitions Linux uses as mountable as root,
>> nor will the kernel recognize ext2fs by default (variant root FS
>> types is one argument pro a bootfs).
>
> Its taking more time to discuss this issue than simply build a new system and
> copy stuff over!

There's no contradiction in that.  The discussion is not so
time-critical, and the results can be used in multiple situations.
The last thing the original poster wants is to run into problems in
mid-migration.

Greg