From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Tue Aug 8 16:18:27 2006 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 A651316A4DD for ; Tue, 8 Aug 2006 16:18:27 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from backyard1454-bsd@yahoo.com) Received: from web83107.mail.mud.yahoo.com (web83107.mail.mud.yahoo.com [216.252.101.36]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with SMTP id 390BC43D58 for ; Tue, 8 Aug 2006 16:18:27 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from backyard1454-bsd@yahoo.com) Received: (qmail 60034 invoked by uid 60001); 8 Aug 2006 16:18:26 -0000 DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; q=dns; c=nofws; s=s1024; d=yahoo.com; h=Message-ID:Received:Date:From:Reply-To:Subject:To:In-Reply-To:MIME-Version:Content-Type:Content-Transfer-Encoding; b=drSlNmRxDrJ5yIResznCePQzmhm18nQiUpQ0olkytcgVIHEDiigYsjG6qXsXT9EThZgvcnvRHa1+5q+KjnTSGnUTidIv3lwkQ0eglt10vasOxeiRn/op6DlOwesLvbulT2Pw2Rsv6RCmSnuB5O7nrEsqp45QWJbhyH1ef35/DVk= ; Message-ID: <20060808161826.60032.qmail@web83107.mail.mud.yahoo.com> Received: from [63.240.228.37] by web83107.mail.mud.yahoo.com via HTTP; Tue, 08 Aug 2006 09:18:26 PDT Date: Tue, 8 Aug 2006 09:18:26 -0700 (PDT) From: backyard To: Girish Venkatachalam , freebsd-questions@freebsd.org In-Reply-To: <20060808154003.78545.qmail@web35611.mail.mud.yahoo.com> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Cc: Subject: Re: Booting more than 4 OSes from a hard disk? X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list Reply-To: backyard1454-bsd@yahoo.com List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Tue, 08 Aug 2006 16:18:27 -0000 Windows 2000+ can boot on an extended partition as can linux, the BSDs, I think OS/2 warp+ can as well. So you can still only have 4 primary partitions, but you probably only need one that has a bootloader like GRUB on it marked active and the OSs installed all on extended partitions. I've even supprisingly confirmed if GRUB is installed windows won't install it's own bootloader. At least with Win2000sp4 this was the case the one time I tried... I would use GRUB cause its simple, fits on a floppy and is easy to install from that booting floppy. It shouldn't require any special booting options other then boot from harddrive. I would guess BSD doesn't care where it boots from in terms of sectors on the HD, but making a bootloader do this is something I wouldn't be able to answer. Although I know Grub allows you to chainload an arbritary number of sectors from the bootsector so I would look into that for exotic boots as you allude too. -brian --- Girish Venkatachalam wrote: > Dear all, > > I was wondering if the 4 primary parition booting > limit still exists. Is it possible to have > > Windoze > Linux > FreeBSD > OpenBSD > NetBSD > > on the same box in such a way that we can boot into > any of them? > > I am particularly interested in the x86 arch with > IDE > disks. I think this is possible on other archs with > SCSI. > > What boot manager am I supposed to use? Does it > require setting something on the BIOS? Does FreeBSD > support booting from a point way off the first > sector? > > Thanks. > > regards, > Girish > > __________________________________________________ > Do You Yahoo!? > Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam > protection around > http://mail.yahoo.com > _______________________________________________ > freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list > http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions > To unsubscribe, send any mail to > "freebsd-questions-unsubscribe@freebsd.org" >