Date: Sun, 30 Jan 2005 04:06:18 -0800 From: "Loren M. Lang" <lorenl@alzatex.com> To: rax@rakhesh.com Cc: Joe Kraft <hishadow@netcabo.pt> Subject: Re: Booting FreeBSD-5.3 from NTLDR Message-ID: <20050130120618.GA21695@alzatex.com> In-Reply-To: <38b3f6e4050130033551e43818@mail.gmail.com> References: <38b3f6e40501292247696b96b@mail.gmail.com> <38b3f6e4050129231132f8e743@mail.gmail.com> <41FCA314.3070602@netcabo.pt> <38b3f6e4050130033551e43818@mail.gmail.com>
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On Sun, Jan 30, 2005 at 03:35:45PM +0400, Rakhesh Sasidharan wrote: > Hi Joe! > > Thanks for that. I'll try that today evening from home, and see how it > goes. :)) > > But now here's something else. A doubt actually, based on what you > said. I didn't mention this in my previous post -- but I had infact > copied the "/boot/boot0" file to my WinXP partition (though I can't > recollect if I renamed the file like you said), and poof!! my whole > parition table and MBR was overwritten!! Suddenly there's no more > WinXP, and all my partitions there are gone, and all I can boot into > is FreeBSD! > > Thankfully I had Fedora, and using that I searched the net for > partition unerasing programs, found a demo version which would just > show me all the deleted paritions (thank god!), booted with a DOS > floppy and used this program to find the sector numbers of all my > paritions, and then used Linux fdisk to recreate those partitions and > move on. :D > > At that time I reasoned out that since "/boot/boot0" is a copy of the > FreeBSD, maybe somehow it overwrote my "/dev/ad0" MBR when I copied > the file over (possibly this file is special or something) and that's > how things got messed up. Could you throw some light on what could > have made things happen that way? Is the fact that I copied "boot0" > without renaming what caused all these problems? Is "boot0" a special > file or something? No, boot0 is just a normal file that is 512 bytes long. There is nothing special about it. In it is a bootloader program that can be used to boot FreeBSD, and if you run it during boot, it will read the partition table and look for all OSes. I think it will modify the partition table, though, marking the last OS you booted into, but that's the program running doing that, the file itself is harmless. > > Thanks, > Rakhesh > > On Sun, 30 Jan 2005 09:04:20 +0000, Joe Kraft <hishadow@netcabo.pt> wrote: > > Rakhesh Sasidharan wrote: > > > I didnt see a copy of this mail returned to me, so am sure if it has > > > reached the list. Since I just subscribed, its possible something is > > > wrong -- and so am resending it. > > > > > > Sorry for the inconv. :)) > > > > > > On Sun, 30 Jan 2005 10:47:41 +0400, Rakhesh Sasidharan > > > <rakhesh.s@gmail.com> wrote: > > > > > >>Hi, > > >> > > >>Are there any issues in booting FreeBSD using NTLDR? My machine has > > >>Windows XP, Fedora Core 3, and FreeBSD-5.3, and while I know I can use > > >>GRUB to boot FreeBSD, I want to try booting it using NTLDR. Just for > > >>kicks -- its something I haven't tried so far. :)) > > >> > > >>My ad0 disk has WinXP (and NTLDR), while ad1 has FreeBSD. I tried the > > >>usual suggestions of extracting the first 512 bytes of "/dev/ad1" > > >>(using "dd") into a file and telling NTLDR to use that file for > > >>booting. But it doesn't work. Then I tried extracting 512 bytes from > > >>other locations like "/dev/ad1s1" and "/dev/ad1s1a" and "/dev/ad1s1c", > > >>but to no avail. Finally I even tried copying over copying > > >>"/boot/boot1" (and even "/boot/boot2" and "/boot/loader" coz I was at > > >>my wits end) to a file, and telling NTLDR to use that file for booting > > >>-- but again nada! Most of the times I'd get a "Boot Error" message, > > >>while at other times nothing happens. > > >> > > >>Searching around on Google, I found a post to freebsd-stable that asks > > >>the same question > > >>(http://www.mail-archive.com/freebsd-stable@freebsd.org/msg64950.html). > > >>The reply given there was to use this program called BOOTPART (can be > > >>run from Windows, it extracts the bootsector of any partition you > > >>specify, which can then be used to boot into that partition using > > >>NTLDR). Using that program does allow me extract the bootsectors of > > >>the FreeBSD partition, and use that from NTLDR to boot into it -- but > > >>I am still stumped -- how does this program manage to extract the > > >>bootsectors, while "dd" is not? I've used the "dd" method to > > >>successfully boot into Fedora Core 3 using NTLDR, so I know it > > >>generally does the job. > > >> > > >>Any suggestions folks? Is there some incompatibility thing with NTLDR, > > >>or am I going wrong somewhere? > > >> > > >>Thanks, > > >>Rakhesh > > >> > > > > > > > > > > > > > I'm doing it with Win2k, I haven't tried it yet with XP though. And > > I'll preface this, with I'm doing this from memory because I can't find > > the web page they originally came from. > > > > I had Win2k set up already with an empty partition for FBSD. A fresh > > backup of the windows part, and the magic "recovery disk" may ease > > concerns of trashing what you have, but I like to live dangerously so I > > didn't have them. > > > > Boot the FBSD install CD and install, when you're setting up the > > partition I've tried to get the installer to leave the boot loader > > alone, but NTLDR gets clobbered every time. > > > > When you've got FBSD running, save a copy of /boot/boot0 somewhere you > > will be able to get to it from Windows. > > > > Now you've bot FBSD but not windows, now go back to your Win2k install > > CD and "repair" your current installation, all you should have do do is > > the 'inspect boot files" part. > > > > Once windows restarts, as "administrator" you need to edit boot.ini to > > add an entry for FBSD. Mine looks like (the last line wrapped, but > > should be a single line): > > > > [root@slug mnt]# cat boot.ini > > [boot loader] > > timeout=10 > > default=C:\freebsd.boot > > [operating systems] > > C:\freebsd.boot="FreeBSD" > > multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINNT="Microsoft Windows 2000 > > Professional" /fastdetect > > > > Then copy the boot0 file to C: drive (I called it freebsd.boot). > > Restart the computer and you should have two choices in the list and you > > can choose to boot windows or FBSD. > > > > Best of luck, > > Joe. > > > > > > > -- > Rakhesh > rax@rakhesh.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" -- I sense much NT in you. NT leads to Bluescreen. Bluescreen leads to downtime. Downtime leads to suffering. NT is the path to the darkside. Powerful Unix is. 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