Free Bsd 6.1, Dual Boot Help

[hitest]

I was wondering if someone could please give me some advice?

I've been tooling around with Slackware 11.0 for a bit and am ready to try setting up a dual boot with FreeBSD 6.1. How does this look for my liloconf file? I will do a clean install of Slack 11 and set up these partitions. I've got an 18 GB scsi drive where I'll be installing Slack and BSD.

What do you think?

# Linux bootable partition config begins

image = /boot/vmlinuz

root = /dev/sda2

label = Linux

read-only

# Linux bootable partition config ends

# FreeBSD

other=/dev/sda3

table=/dev/sda

label=FreeBSD

[iccaros]

I have never dual booted BSD with Linux, but here is some information

http://geodsoft.com/howto/dualboot/

from the FREE BSD Hand book

The LILO Boot Manager: To install this boot manager so it will also boot FreeBSD, first start Linux and add the following to your existing /etc/lilo.conf configuration file:

other=/dev/hdXY

table=/dev/hdX

loader=/boot/chain.b

label=FreeBSD

In the above, specify FreeBSD's primary partition and drive using Linux specifiers, replacing X with the Linux drive letter and Y with the Linux primary partition number. If you are using a SCSI drive, you will need to change /dev/hd to read something similar to /dev/sd. The loader=/boot/chain.b line can be omitted if you have both operating systems on the same drive. Now run /sbin/lilo -v to commit your new changes to the system; this should be verified by checking its screen messages.

[hitest]

I have never dual booted BSD with Linux, but here is some information

http://geodsoft.com/howto/dualboot/

from the FREE BSD Hand book

The LILO Boot Manager: To install this boot manager so it will also boot FreeBSD, first start Linux and add the following to your existing /etc/lilo.conf configuration file:

other=/dev/hdXY

table=/dev/hdX

loader=/boot/chain.b

label=FreeBSD

In the above, specify FreeBSD's primary partition and drive using Linux specifiers, replacing X with the Linux drive letter and Y with the Linux primary partition number. If you are using a SCSI drive, you will need to change /dev/hd to read something similar to /dev/sd. The loader=/boot/chain.b line can be omitted if you have both operating systems on the same drive. Now run /sbin/lilo -v to commit your new changes to the system; this should be verified by checking its screen messages.

Okay, thanks, iccaros, so if I read your post correctly I can leave out loader=/boot/chain.b as I am going to run both Slack and BSD on the same scsi drive. Thanks, I didn't know that one. I also didn't know I had to run /sbin/lilo -v to commit changes to liloconf.......I thought /sbin/lilo would do it. Thanks:-)

My partition scheme looks okay if my main drive is sda? Thanks, man!

Yeah, I've never dual booted Linux and BSD either before, so I'm in uncharted territory here. I was going to run BSD on my second scsi drive, but, that gets even weirder with drive geometry.

[shanenin]

It has been a while since I dual booted bsd with linux. I think(i'm not sure, its been so long) I just added an entry to my grub.conf that was already booting linux. If I remember correctly, it just had to point to the loader file

default=0
timeout=10

title Linux 
		root (hd0,0)
		kernel /bzimage root=/dev/hda3

title FreeBSD 
		root (hd0,4,a)
		kernel /boot/loader

'a' is referring to the fist slice of the fourth partition. I would think this would be similar assuming you are using lilo with slackware.

edit added later//

I don't think my example is very helpful since you are using lilo, but I felt like adding something. Good luck :-)

Edited December 8, 2006 by shanenin

[Carnevil]

I usually use the FreeBSD boot loader but I did a little reading from FreeBSD 6 Unleased.

If you're running Linux and want to boot FreeBSD from Linux's LILO loader, it is fairly easy to do so. In Linux, edit the file /etc/lilo.conf and add the following lines:

other=/dev/hda2

table=/dev/hda

label=FreeBSD

Change the line beginning with other= to reflect whatever device name Linux uses to identify your FreeBSD drive. (Remember, Linux's device names, including hard drive names, are significantly different from FreeBSD's naming convention.)

After you have changed the configuration file, reinstall LILO by typing lilo as the root user.

So your conf file should be right on since you're using scsi.

Edited December 8, 2006 by Carnevil

[hitest]

Thanks, iccaros, Carnevil for your very helpful feedback:-) I really needed to hear from some other Unix users. I now feel ready to bork-up my system, heh-heh.

I'm going to do some reading in the FreeBSD handbook and then have at it, it has been a month or two since I've run FreeBSD.

This will be fun:-)

[martymas]

hi hitest

once you get that info

put it in a post so i can look at it

i dont like ubuntu much

but ive got to learn some how

and it is a good way to start

i made a few mistakes in the process of getting to

where i am

but now i have cable it will help

take care

marty

[hitest]

hi hitest

once you get that info

put it in a post so i can look at it

i dont like ubuntu much

but ive got to learn some how

and it is a good way to start

i made a few mistakes in the process of getting to

where i am

but now i have cable it will help

take care

marty

Hey marty:-) I plan to start tomorrow. I might be successful, I learn by doing weird things to my system. I learn a lot when I fail. We will see what happens:-)

[hitest]

Thank you iccaros, Carnevil, and shanenin!

I've just finished setting up my dual boot Slackware/BSD system. I did it without trashing my system, heh-heh. Below is a screenshot of FreeBSD 6.1 running KDE 3.5.1, this is booting from my sda3 partition.

[shanenin]

the very first thing I did after using bsd was to change my default shell to bash, csh kind of sucks.

this command should do it

chsh -s /usr/local/bin/bash user

Edited December 10, 2006 by shanenin

[hitest]

the very first thing I did after using bsd was to change my default shell to bash, csh kind of sucks.

I like bash as well:-)

[iccaros]

the very first thing I did after using bsd was to change my default shell to bash, csh kind of sucks.

I like bash as well:-)

does BSD come with KSH?

if so its always fun to play with this

ksh -o vi

this will make VI the editor for ksh and give you things like <esc> then k will walk back in history of commands. and such, basically you can use vi commands to get around the shell.

Note Vi commands not VIM.

happy playing

[hitest]

happy playing

Thanks, iccaros! I'm having fun with this, it is good to have a new toy!

[hitest]

I recently finished setting up my dual boot Slackware 11.0, FreeBSD 6.1 system. Here's what I did.

First I re-sized my sda2 root slackware partition. I did this by booting my computer with an Ubuntu 6.06 CD then re-sizing the partition with Gparted which worked flawlessly, creating room for BSD. I then used Gparted to create another partition.

I then booted my BSD install disks and installed FreeBSD 6.1 to the newly created partition. After the install I booted into Slackware and modified my lilo conf, then ran /sbin/lilo

Here's my liloconf:

# Linux bootable partition config begins

image = /boot/vmlinuz

root = /dev/sda2

label = Linux

read-only

# Linux bootable partition config ends

# FreeBSD

other=/dev/sda3

table=/dev/sda

label=FreeBSD

I can now boot either Slackware or BSD with lilo:-)

Many thanks to iccaros, Carnevil, and shanenin for their kind help.

P.S. If your partition scheme is different, adjust accordingly:-)