From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Mon Jul 18 21:33:49 2005 Return-Path: X-Original-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 59ECC16A41F for ; Mon, 18 Jul 2005 21:33:49 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from LukeD@pobox.com) Received: from orb.pobox.com (orb.pobox.com [207.8.226.5]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 02BC843D45 for ; Mon, 18 Jul 2005 21:33:48 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from LukeD@pobox.com) Received: from orb (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by orb.pobox.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id 48C161E9D; Mon, 18 Jul 2005 17:33:47 -0400 (EDT) Received: from pool-71-113-98-94.sttlwa.dsl-w.verizon.net (pool-71-113-98-94.sttlwa.dsl-w.verizon.net [71.113.98.94]) (using TLSv1 with cipher DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA (256/256 bits)) (No client certificate requested) by orb.sasl.smtp.pobox.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id 73ADF91; Mon, 18 Jul 2005 17:33:45 -0400 (EDT) Date: Mon, 18 Jul 2005 14:33:42 -0700 (PDT) From: Luke Dean X-X-Sender: lukas@border.crystalsphere.multiverse To: Ross Kendall Axe In-Reply-To: <42DC1173.6020307@axe.homelinux.net> Message-ID: <20050718142635.E7170@border.crystalsphere.multiverse> References: <42DC1173.6020307@axe.homelinux.net> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: /boot on a separate partition X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list Reply-To: Luke Dean List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Mon, 18 Jul 2005 21:33:49 -0000 On Mon, 18 Jul 2005, Ross Kendall Axe wrote: > I am currently trying to get to grips with FreeBSD and am trying it out > on an old Pentium machine. However, the machine's BIOS can't seem to > read past 504MB, so I want to place the /boot directory in a small 25MB > partition at the start of the drive. Setting up the partition with > sysinstall is easy enough, but does anyone have any suggestions of how > to diddle the bootloader to accept this configuration? > > I don't particularly want to go for the standard 'small / partition and > separate partitions for /usr, /var, /home...' since I only have a 1GB > drive to play with and judging the partition sizes down the nearest KB > would be... tricky. I have performed this procedure before (many, many > times) on Linux using both LILO and GRUB, but I can't seem to get my > head around the FreeBSD bootloader. All I would expect you have to do is use FDISK to make two partitions, remembering to mark the first one as bootable. Then use disklabel to create your slices. Make a /boot slice on the first partition, then make a / slice and a swap slice on the second partition. That should be all that's required for what you're trying to do. A little over a year ago, I had to split up a drive to solve the same problem you're having, but I went the "small /" route instead, so you might be running into a problem I didn't have. Luke Dean