Date: Mon, 31 Jan 2005 11:33:59 +0000 From: Mark Ovens <marko@freebsd.org> To: "Loren M. Lang" <lorenl@alzatex.com> Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Booting FreeBSD-5.3 from NTLDR Message-ID: <41FE17A7.3030006@freebsd.org> In-Reply-To: <20050131103523.GC8619@alzatex.com> References: <38b3f6e40501292247696b96b@mail.gmail.com> <38b3f6e4050129231132f8e743@mail.gmail.com> <41FCA314.3070602@netcabo.pt> <38b3f6e4050130033551e43818@mail.gmail.com> <20050130120618.GA21695@alzatex.com> <38b3f6e4050130235957c049c2@mail.gmail.com> <41FDEFE7.1090204@freebsd.org> <38b3f6e40501310216de768e@mail.gmail.com> <20050131103523.GC8619@alzatex.com>
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Loren M. Lang wrote: > On Mon, Jan 31, 2005 at 02:16:25PM +0400, Rakhesh Sasidharan wrote: >> Thanks for that link! I had read that part of the handbook a long time >> ago, and that's how my ideas of boot0 and boot1 and etc etc had gotten >> clear. Glad to see it once again -- in the context of my question! :)) >> >> So what I understand now is -- copying boot0 over to c:\bootsect.bsd >> will *not* work. Which explains why my MBR got messed up when I tried >> booting FreeBSD this way. :( >> >> But I'm still confused. How do I install boot0 using sysinstall? As >> far as I remm, sysinstall gives three options -- (a) leave the MBR >> untouched, (b) put a standard MBR, and (c) install BootEasy. My >> understanding is that option (b) copies boot0 to the MBR, and this >> that is what I had chosen while installing FreeBSD. How does one copy >> boot0 to a file using sysinstall?? > > I think option b is actually /boot/mbr and BootEasy refers to > /boot/boot0. They are two different boot loaders, mbr being a very > simple one with no configuration. I think fdisk -B is used to install > /boot/mbr to the mbr of a harddisk and boot0cfg is used to install > BootEasy. > I rewrote that section of the FAQ years ago (around FreeBSD 3.1!!) because the previous wording was unclear and I did _exactly_ what Rakhesh has done :-( At that time it was not possible to add FreeBSD to the NTLDR menu if FreeBSD was on a _different disk_ so you had to either use the FreeBSD boot menu or put the FreeBSD root partition on the same disk as NT (which usually required a BIOS that could boot beyond the first 1024 cylinders) or use the FreeBSD boot manager (which used /boot/boot0). This is what I have done ever since. As I only have a single user set up in XP it doesn't show the NTLDR menu so you don't have to go through two boot menus, just the FreeBSD F1/F5 choice. Caveat: Things have no doubt changed since then so it may now be possible to add FreeBSD to the NTLDR menu with FreeBSD on a different disk, but I've never investigated it as I am happy with the solution I use. HTH Regards, Mark >> >> >> On Mon, 31 Jan 2005 08:44:23 +0000, Mark Ovens <marko@freebsd.org> wrote: >> > Rakhesh Sasidharan wrote: >> > >> 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. >> > > >> > > Ok. I must have used some other command then, which resulted in my >> > > first disk MBR getting over-written ... strange. :-/ >> > > >> > > By the way, does the fact that NTLDR is on my first disk, while >> > > FreeBSD (and hence its MBR boot0) is on my second disk complicate >> > > matters? I mean, you mention boot0 will modify my partition table to >> > > reflect which OS was booted last -- will it by any chance modify the >> > > partition table on the first disk and hence mess it? >> > > >> > > >> > >> > Yes and yes, >> > http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/faq/disks.html#NT-BOOTLOADER >> > >> > Regards, >> > >> > Mark >> > >> > --- >> > avast! Antivirus: Outbound message clean. >> > Virus Database (VPS): 0504-4, 28/01/2005 >> > Tested on: 31/01/2005 08:44:24 >> > avast! - copyright (c) 2000-2004 ALWIL Software. >> > http://www.avast.com >> > >> > >> >> >> -- >> -- 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" > --- avast! Antivirus: Outbound message clean. Virus Database (VPS): 0504-4, 28/01/2005 Tested on: 31/01/2005 11:34:00 avast! - copyright (c) 2000-2004 ALWIL Software. http://www.avast.com
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