From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Wed Nov 8 08:42:39 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 E0DB516A5AE for ; Wed, 8 Nov 2006 08:42:39 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from jan.grant@bristol.ac.uk) Received: from diri.bris.ac.uk (diri.bris.ac.uk [137.222.10.112]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 227E543D45 for ; Wed, 8 Nov 2006 08:42:39 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from jan.grant@bristol.ac.uk) Received: from mail.ilrt.bris.ac.uk ([137.222.16.62]) by diri.bris.ac.uk with esmtp (Exim 4.63) (envelope-from ) id 1Ghj10-0006iy-Fd; Wed, 08 Nov 2006 08:42:37 +0000 Received: from cse-jg.cse.bris.ac.uk ([137.222.12.37]:58774) by mail.ilrt.bris.ac.uk with esmtps (TLS-1.0:DHE_RSA_AES_256_CBC_SHA:32) (Exim 4.50) id 1Ghj0W-0000z8-84; Wed, 08 Nov 2006 08:42:04 +0000 Date: Wed, 8 Nov 2006 08:42:04 +0000 (GMT) From: Jan Grant X-X-Sender: cmjg@tribble.ilrt.bris.ac.uk To: Bob Schwartz In-Reply-To: <001a01c70282$13eb9a00$0500a8c0@c1> Message-ID: <20061108083717.V72340@tribble.ilrt.bris.ac.uk> References: <001a01c70282$13eb9a00$0500a8c0@c1> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII X-ILRT-MailScanner: Found to be clean X-ILRT-MailScanner-SpamCheck: not spam, SpamAssassin (score=-1.201, required 6, autolearn=disabled, ALL_TRUSTED -1.44, AWL 0.24) X-ILRT-MailScanner-From: jan.grant@bristol.ac.uk X-Spam-Status: No X-Spam-Score: -1.3 X-Spam-Level: - Cc: FreeBSD-questions@FreeBSD.ORG, 'Bill Moran' Subject: RE: Questions on first-time installation 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: Wed, 08 Nov 2006 08:42:40 -0000 On Tue, 7 Nov 2006, Bob Schwartz wrote: > ... at least as it is desribed in the DELL > docs and bios... Be really careful. The windows boot loader should be able to boot a freebsd install for you. Dell usually ship their machines with a small partition at the front of the drive (at least, they did last time I received one). That partition is at an odd offset and didn't agree with the FBSD partition editor: I found this out the hard way. Things may have changed since then; I usually nuke the dell partition anyway. jan PS. I should say that my bad experience with the partition editor is a few years old; I've not tried again recently with new Dell kit. -- jan grant, ISYS, University of Bristol. http://www.bris.ac.uk/ Tel +44 (0)117 3317661 http://ioctl.org/jan/ Axioms speak louder than words.