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Date:      Thu, 16 Jan 97 16:46:32 -0800
From:      "That Doug Guy" <tiller@connectnet.com>
To:        "FreeBSD-questions@freebsd.org" <FreeBSD-questions@freebsd.org>
Subject:   Boot mgr help please: DOS, FreeBSD and OS/2 on the same disk
Message-ID:  <199701170047.QAA18721@connectnet1.connectnet.com>

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Howdy, :)

	I want to install FreeBSD on my home machine so that I have a 
test/learning platform for myself.  My one and only hard disk is a Western 
Digital Caviar 1.6G EIDE drive.  I currently have OS/2 on the disk in the 
following configuration:

Primary Partition:  OS/2 Boot Manager
Primary Partition: C: drive with DOS 
Logical Partition:  D:  Free space, intended home for FreeBSD
Logical Partition:  E:  OS/2 system
Logical Partition:  F:  OS/2 data (HPFS formatted)

	This system has worked well for me for 2+ years, and now I want to 
add FreeBSD to my happy family. :)  However, in order to install FreeBSD 
I had to go through some pretty complex gymnastics with FIPS, etc. which 
resulted in the loss of my DOS partition (thank goodness for backups :).  I 
did however finally get a FreeBSD system up and running, but the problem 
came when I tried to boot OS/2.  My system had changed to:

Primary Partition:  OS/2 Boot Manager
Primary Partition: C: drive with DOS
Primary Partition:  FreeBSD
Logical Partition:  D:  OS/2 system
Logical Partition:  E:  OS/2 data (HPFS formatted)

	This prevented OS/2 from booting because of course everything 
was on the "wrong" drive.  I tried using OS/2's fdisk to create a fake D: 
partition with some free space from the C: partition, but ran into the "3+1" 
rule, so it wouldn't use the free space that I allocated.  

	My question is, what is the best way to acheive my desired goal?  
Re-installing OS/2 is an option, but not a desirable one.  I have read some 
about the other boot managers for FreeBSD, would Boot Easy or OS-BS be 
able to fool OS/2 into thinking that it was still on the E: partition?  Also, if one 
of the other boot managers can live without a primary partition to run from, I 
could always delete OS/2's Boot Manager and create the fake D: partition 
that way.  

blessings,

Doug




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