From owner-freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Mon Jul 13 00:27:54 2015 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@mailman.ysv.freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:1900:2254:206a::19:1]) by mailman.ysv.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id E713199980B for ; Mon, 13 Jul 2015 00:27:54 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from wblock@wonkity.com) Received: from wonkity.com (wonkity.com [67.158.26.137]) (using TLSv1.2 with cipher ECDHE-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384 (256/256 bits)) (Client CN "wonkity.com", Issuer "wonkity.com" (not verified)) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id 7051029CF for ; Mon, 13 Jul 2015 00:27:54 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from wblock@wonkity.com) Received: from wonkity.com (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by wonkity.com (8.14.9/8.14.9) with ESMTP id t6D0RfVi038343 (version=TLSv1/SSLv3 cipher=DHE-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384 bits=256 verify=NO); Sun, 12 Jul 2015 18:27:41 -0600 (MDT) (envelope-from wblock@wonkity.com) Received: from localhost (wblock@localhost) by wonkity.com (8.14.9/8.14.9/Submit) with ESMTP id t6D0ReXK038340; Sun, 12 Jul 2015 18:27:40 -0600 (MDT) (envelope-from wblock@wonkity.com) Date: Sun, 12 Jul 2015 18:27:40 -0600 (MDT) From: Warren Block To: Polytropon cc: reg@dwf.com, FreeBSD questions Subject: Re: FreeBSD install. In-Reply-To: <20150712221641.69f81f00.freebsd@edvax.de> Message-ID: References: <201507120402.t6C427Dg001385@deneb.dwf.com> <20150712221641.69f81f00.freebsd@edvax.de> User-Agent: Alpine 2.20 (BSF 67 2015-01-07) MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed X-Greylist: Sender IP whitelisted, not delayed by milter-greylist-4.4.3 (wonkity.com [127.0.0.1]); Sun, 12 Jul 2015 18:27:41 -0600 (MDT) X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.20 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Mon, 13 Jul 2015 00:27:55 -0000 On Sun, 12 Jul 2015, Polytropon wrote: > On Sat, 11 Jul 2015 22:02:07 -0600, reg@dwf.com wrote: >> I have been trying for several months to put PCBSD 10.1 and FreeBSD 10.1 >> on one disk. I finally gave up, and am installing FreeBSD over >> the top of my previous PCBSD. sigh. > > It should be no big problem to allocate two slices, put > FreeBSD in one, PC-BSD in the other, and add the FreeBSD > boot manager to select which OS to boot. This has been > possible for decades now, and it isn't "special". > > > >> After several attempts to put FreeBSD in a partition on the disk >> I gave up, and let it have the full 500GB disk. Mumph. > > Did you use MBR or GPT partitioning? As far as I remember, > the GPT approach doesn't support boot manager use yet. Grub can do that. Doing it from the installer will require command-line use and familiarity with the tools: https://forums.freebsd.org/threads/gpt-multiboot.49055/ Instead of dual-booting, I recommend using VM software. VirtualBox is free, does not require any messing about with existing partitions, and allows the VM client to run at the same time as the host. >> And why isnt the installer smart enough to install to a partition, >> every other OS in existence can do that. > > Depends on how "every other OS in existence" defines what "partition" > means. :-) I'm fairly sure that the installer will install to a partition if one is available or created with the partitioning screen. It will still be up to the user to install boot0, which of course only works with MBR primary partitions. The four-partition limit of MBR often means that the ugly partition-with-a-partition format is required: https://forums.freebsd.org/threads/creating-a-traditional-mbr-layout-with-bsdinstall.45072/