Date: Fri, 2 Feb 1996 11:46:00 +1030 (CST) From: Michael Smith <msmith@atrad.adelaide.edu.au> To: fenwick@hposl03.cup.hp.com (John Fenwick) Cc: questions@freebsd.org, fenwick@hposl03.cup.hp.com Subject: Re: Install/Configuration questions Message-ID: <199602020116.LAA25570@genesis.atrad.adelaide.edu.au> In-Reply-To: <9602011710.AA06525@hposl03.cup.hp.com> from "John Fenwick" at Feb 1, 96 09:10:07 am
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John Fenwick stands accused of saying: > I am trying to understand the operation of the FreeBSD boot managers > to solve some install difficulties. The install target is a SCSI disk PC. > Perhaps you can shed some light on these questions. > > * Is the boot manager - either booteasy or osbs - typically installed > in the first 60-odd sectors of a boot disk, and if so is it installed > on top of what existing DOS boot manager may have already been there? The boot manager lives in the first sector of the disk, beside the MBR. I _think_ that os-bs may occupy some space in the following (unused) sectors of the first cylinder. > * Using one particular install configuration results in only the first > 17 sectors of the disk being used to install the boot manager. > What has been installed in this case, and why is it different > from the 62 or 63 sectors noted above? I don't follow this. I can only guess that something is writing the whole first cylinder, as it sees it. > * If I overwrite my current Win95-installed boot manager by installing > one from BSD, would I be able to recover the original Win95-installed > boot manager by running the DOS "fdisk /mbr" command? Win95 doesn't have a boot manger. You should be able to remove either Booteasy or os-bs with 'fdisk /mbr', yes. > * Are the install tools for boot managers available under UNIX, > or are they only available under the DOS tools on the CDROM? > If I wanted to migrate my BSD installation to a different disk, > would I be able to copy the boot sectors also? Would "dd" be able > to do the copy in this case? Migration to a new disk is always best performed by backing up, reinstalling to the new disk, and restoring from your backup. > * Can you recommend some documentation that would describe where such > things as the locations and sizes of partition tables, disk labels, > and boot managers, are typically found on boot disks? The traditional answer here is "read the source". I'm sure other people have suggestions for DOS-oriented references. > - John Fenwick -- ]] Mike Smith, Software Engineer msmith@atrad.adelaide.edu.au [[ ]] Genesis Software genesis@atrad.adelaide.edu.au [[ ]] High-speed data acquisition and (GSM mobile) 0411-222-496 [[ ]] realtime instrument control (ph/fax) +61-8-267-3039 [[ ]] "wherever you go, there you are" - Buckaroo Banzai [[
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