From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Tue Aug 8 16:26:23 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 CE72516A4E0 for ; Tue, 8 Aug 2006 16:26:23 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from derek@computinginnovations.com) Received: from betty.computinginnovations.com (dsl081-142-072.chi1.dsl.speakeasy.net [64.81.142.72]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id BDEDC43D97 for ; Tue, 8 Aug 2006 16:26:01 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from derek@computinginnovations.com) Received: from p17.computinginnovations.com (dhcp-10-20-30-100.computinginnovations.com [10.20.30.100]) (authenticated bits=0) by betty.computinginnovations.com (8.13.6/8.12.11) with ESMTP id k78GPbPI045164; Tue, 8 Aug 2006 11:25:41 -0500 (CDT) Message-Id: <6.0.0.22.2.20060808111819.026c7bf0@mail.computinginnovations.com> X-Sender: derek@mail.computinginnovations.com X-Mailer: QUALCOMM Windows Eudora Version 6.0.0.22 Date: Tue, 08 Aug 2006 11:25:18 -0500 To: Girish Venkatachalam , freebsd-questions@freebsd.org From: Derek Ragona In-Reply-To: <20060808154003.78545.qmail@web35611.mail.mud.yahoo.com> References: <20060808154003.78545.qmail@web35611.mail.mud.yahoo.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 X-ComputingInnovations-MailScanner-Information: Please contact the ISP for more information X-ComputingInnovations-MailScanner: Found to be clean X-ComputingInnovations-MailScanner-From: derek@computinginnovations.com X-Spam-Status: No Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed X-Content-Filtered-By: Mailman/MimeDel 2.1.5 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 List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Tue, 08 Aug 2006 16:26:23 -0000 Master boot records are limited to four which is where the limit comes from. It is theoretically possible to have the MBR point to a new disk location where you could have a boot manager that supports unlimited boot partitions. But that requires all the booting is in software and outside the BIOS. A simple solution is to use 2 disks. Each with four partitions. The FreeBSD bootmanager will offer to boot from disk2. On disk 2 you can have your remaining OS's. -Derek At 10:40 AM 8/8/2006, 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" > >-- >This message has been scanned for viruses and >dangerous content by MailScanner, and is >believed to be clean. >MailScanner thanks transtec Computers for their support. -- This message has been scanned for viruses and dangerous content by MailScanner, and is believed to be clean. MailScanner thanks transtec Computers for their support.