Date: Sat, 01 Feb 97 17:37:07 -0800 From: "That Doug Guy" <tiller@connectnet.com> To: "FreeBSD Questions" <FreeBSD-Questions@freebsd.org> Cc: "Brandon C. Wood" <bwood@leland.Stanford.EDU> Subject: FreeBSD + OS/2 = success :-) (Was: extended partition?) Message-ID: <199702020137.RAA14408@smtp.connectnet.com>
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On Thu, 30 Jan 1997 21:46:31 -0800 (PST), Doug White wrote: >On Thu, 30 Jan 1997, Brandon C. Wood wrote: > >> Can FreeBSD be installed on an extended partition only (to be booted with >> the OS/2 boot manager), or do the files need to have their own primary >> partition? > >They need to be in their own partition type, not a DOS partition. You >will need to split off some space or delete one of your DOS partitions to >make room for FreeBSD. I'd like to add some detail to this if I may, since I was struggling with the same problem and finally found a fix. OS/2's fdisk utility is fairly similar in the way it shows information about the disk to MS-DOS based fdisk. My original plan was this: 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) As I've come to discover, this won't work at all. It turns out that the key element here is that you CANNOT install FreeBSD in an extended partition. You also need to remember that once you've installed FreeBSD, OS/2's fdisk will see the FreeBSD partition/slice as a primary partition. From a space allocation perspective, it's important to remember that you can only have 4 primary partitions on a disk; or 3 primary and one extended partition, which can then be broken up into more than one logical drive. Also, when viewed from FreeBSD's fdisk, the whole extended partition looks like ONE slice, no matter how many logical drives are on it. So be very careful when you use FreeBSD's fdisk to pick your FreeBSD install slice. What finally worked for me, was using OS/2's fdisk to delete the D: partition above. To solve the problem of all of my drive letters moving, I created a 1M logical drive D: at the end of the free space then booted with the FreeBSD install disk. The install routine picked the free space by default, and it installed cleanly. Once you've successfully installed FreeBSD, you'll have to use OS/2's fdisk from either the Warp Utility Disk boot, or use the OS/2 install disks and exit to a prompt. Just add the FreeBSD partition to the Boot Manager menu, mark the Boot Manager partition Startable, and you're off and running. :-) OS/2's fdisk currently shows: Primary Partition: OS/2 Boot Manager Primary Partition: C: DOS Primary Partition Type A5 Logical Partition: D: Logical Partition: E: OS/2 system Logical Partition: F: OS/2 data (HPFS formatted) In this FreeBSD newbies not-so-humble opinion, it is not anywhere *near* clear enough in the docs that you cannot install FreeBSD in an extended partition. I read quite a lot before I tried the install, and pounded away at it for hours (deleting a mostly backed up DOS partition in the process) before I figured all this out. I'm sure that it's perfectly clear to the "oldbies" that what I wanted to do would not work, and yet when I posted my first request for help to the questions list, I never got a response from any of you. I did get some very helpful people that did their best to give me some directions to explore, and I am Bcc:'ing this to them so that they will know I finally got it working. >The OS/2 Boot Manager can boot FreeBSD fine, btw; I have it here. Me too. :-) I'm interested in the other boot managers available from FreeBSD, such as Boot Easy and OS-BS. Has anyone used either of them and OS/2 Boot Manager, and would like to comment? I am loathe to try experimenting with a working system. Thanks, Doug
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