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Date:      Fri, 8 May 1998 12:31:49 -0700 (PDT)
From:      Doug White <dwhite@gdi.uoregon.edu>
To:        Stephen Wersan <wersans-f@iwvisp.com>
Cc:        FreeBSD Questions <questions@FreeBSD.ORG>
Subject:   Re: Installing FreeBSD
Message-ID:  <Pine.BSF.3.96.980508122417.27908B-100000@gdi.uoregon.edu>
In-Reply-To: <199805080906.4280800@iwvisp.com>

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On Fri, 8 May 1998, Stephen Wersan wrote:

> I know you can't write a book that will cover all the peculiar combinations
> of hardware and software that a user may have -- that is why you have this
> e-mail address.

Yup. :)

Most everthing checks out.

>                        Matrox Mystique 220 Graphics Adapter (PCI)

I don't remember which X server this goes to -- the SVGA or the I128.

>                        USR Sportster 33.6 fax-modem (ISA)

These are not happy right now -- they have this bad habit of not probing.

>                        Floppies 5.25" (B - 1.2M), 3.5" (A - 1.44M), and
> LS-120 (H) 

The wfd device will support that ls-120.

>                        Acer 24X CDROM reader (F) -- bootable, but in the
> trial described above, I executed install out of DOS.

You want to boot from the CD -- it's sooo much easier.

> SOFTWARE -- On the 4.55G (4338 blocks) hard disk I have a 338-block primary
> DOS partition (C) and two 2000-block NTFS                      
>                       partitions. The first of these (D) contains Windows
> NT 4.0, and except for a recycle bin, the second (E) is essentially
>                       empty. On the DOS partition, I have installed System
> Commander which I use on boot-up to choose between
>                       MS-DOS (v 6.00) and NT. Unless you convince me
> otherwise, I would like to continue using System Commander, 
>                       adding FreeBSD as a third menu item. I would be more
> convinced on the basis of necessity than installation 
>                       convenience.

In other words, it looks like this:

sd0  4.5G
	380M	DOS
	2G	NTFS 
	2G	NTFS

sd1  9.1G
	2G	NTFS
	2G	NTFS

Am I reading you right there? (We avoid using disk letters since it's
impossible to tell what physical disk you're talking about.)

> After reading thru the first three chapters and most of the fourth, I am
> inclined toward putting most of FreeBSD on the larger disk. But both you
> (fourth bullet, p. 62) and the Linux books I have read indicate that there
> is an advantage to putting the swap partition on another disk. With so much
> disk space and 64M memory, is this a realistic concern?

YES, especially if you run Xwindows or other multimedia applications.

> Is there any
> advantage to be gained by putting more than the swap partition on the
> smaller disk?

You get a little speedup since the system can issue commands to each disk
separately. It doesn't have to wait for one to return before issuing a
command to the other disk, like for IDE. This buys you speed in
interleaving accesses and saving head movements.

> How does one go about installing FreeBSD in such a two-disk
> manner? In allotting my currently unused disk space, I would like to
> reserve a modest amount for a future Linux playground.

It's not easy from the installer, since you have to partition and label
two separate disks.  

If I were you, I wouldn't worry about it.  The performance gain really
shows if you have a busy server, but for a workstation, .... 

Doug White                              | University of Oregon  
Internet:  dwhite@resnet.uoregon.edu    | Residence Networking Assistant
http://gladstone.uoregon.edu/~dwhite    | Computer Science Major



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