Date: Fri, 2 Mar 2007 12:49:23 -0500 From: Jerry McAllister <jerrymc@msu.edu> To: Alex Zbyslaw <xfb52@dial.pipex.com> Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Dual booting problems Message-ID: <20070302174923.GA90779@gizmo.acns.msu.edu> In-Reply-To: <45E86139.4070100@dial.pipex.com> References: <63c8e94f0703011336l3b90c7b8r3b3ba31423aa2276@mail.gmail.com> <200703011321.43142.beech@alaskaparadise.com> <200703011330.45944.beech@alaskaparadise.com> <20070302003410.4106fcfd@gumby.homeunix.com> <20070302163726.GC90036@gizmo.acns.msu.edu> <45E86139.4070100@dial.pipex.com>
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On Fri, Mar 02, 2007 at 05:39:05PM +0000, Alex Zbyslaw wrote: > Jerry McAllister wrote: > > >If you select F5 (maybe F6 or more, I should try that some time) it > >will instead cause the MBR from that second (maybe third, etc) disk to > >be loaded and passes control to it. > > > F5 moves to the next disk. From that next disk F5 moves on to the next > disk again and so forth until there are no more disks and then it moves > you back to the first disk. No F6 or greater. OK. That makes sense. I have not had enough disk on hand to try beyond two. > F5 will only successfully move on if there is a FreeBSD MBR (*) on the > next disk. If there is not such an MBR, the F5 option is displayed but > will not work (maybe beep?) and after a while you will timeout and boot > whatever default you have. Hmmm. I thought it would still do a 'dedicated' FreeBSD disk as the second one without an MBR. It will do the first disk, but that is a different situation, of course. > Bad idea to lose the MBR from a disk in the middle of a chain, but easy > to put back booting from CD1. Yup. If you lose the MBR, it can be put back using the Fixit from the installation CD (CD-1). > So as the OP had: > > F1: FreeBSD > F5: Disk 2 (Windows) > > but had not put FreeBSD MBR on that second disk, F5 did nothing and then > the F1 default kicked in and booted FreeBSD. Had the MBR been on that > second disk it would have started to boot windows and then likely > rebooted because the disk was no longer in the same position in the > chain as it had been when Windows was installed. Makes sense. I don't keep up with the Windows stuff much, but I knew it would not be happy in that position and the lack of an MBR on the second disk was where the boot process was stopping. > I don't believe it is necessary for Windows to always be the first disk, > just that the disk has to stay in the same position as it was in when > Windows was installed, which is usually the first disk! (Never tested > that though). Hmmm. Might be interesting to experiment, though that time spent on MS could probably be better spend elsewhere. > > --Alex > > (*) Actually I have no idea what would happen if you stuck some other > booter like grub or gag on a later disk. But blank (new) disk or > Windows MBR will not move on. Don't know this one. ////jerry
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