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FreeBSD Installation and Upgrading Installing and upgrading FreeBSD.

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Old 3rd May 2008
aromes aromes is offline
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Question install Free BSD to boot off a floppy

Gents,

Really sorry to bother you with this. I read all relevant manuals/documentations and this very specific point is not detailed ->

I am currently installing FreeBSD (Windows XP is 1st OS on that hard drive and I freed an extra partition of that same drive for FreeBSD) and am stuck at following step:
I need to boot FreeBSD off a floppy (so no trace of FreeBSD at all at boot up of my PC...unless I boot the PC with that floppy to get to the FreeBSD partition). I am currently stuck at this menu of the install:
-Install FreeBSD Boot Manager
-Install a standard Boot Manager
-Leave the Master Boot record Untouched
logically it's the last choice "Leave the Master Boot record Untouched". Am I right? Then I believe I should just follow instuctions on how make that boot floppy (I'll check if instructions are clear as of what file to edit and what needs to be edit in there). Thanks for your help.
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Old 3rd May 2008
teckk teckk is offline
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FreeBSD wants to be installed on a primary partition.

You'll need a boot loader to boot multiple OS's

You can configure windows for a boot screen. Use at your own risk.
Leave the Master Boot record Untouched
http://www.webtree.ca/windowsxp/repair_xp.htm

You can try and configure BSD's boot loader to boot both. Not advised.
Install FreeBSD Boot Manager
http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO...book/boot.html

You can use Grub or Lilo which work fine for multiple booting.
http://www.linuxquestions.org

There are booters like this
http://gag.sourceforge.net/

The problem is usually windows will rebel and refuse to boot if not done right.

You can also install FreeBSD on a seperate drive and leave the windows drive alone. My choice. Best to leave touchy picky windows alone.

Edit: Just reread your post. Yes you can make a boot floppy to boot either. That is a good solution.
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Old 4th May 2008
aromes aromes is offline
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Thanks teckk but my question was:
should I choose :Leave the Master Boot record Untouched" in order to boot the partition from a floppy?
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Old 4th May 2008
teckk teckk is offline
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Yes, do not touch the MBR when you install and you can boot into FreeBSD with a boot floppy. When you turn the machine on normally without the boot floppy in the drive, windows will boot and will not even see the partition. As I said BSD wants a primary partition not a logical one. So does windows. Go slow and read every prompt or you will hose windows.

I was letting you know that there are more elegant ways of doing it. Like the machine displaying a boot menu when you turn it on.

As always back up anything important. Like files or windows reg keys. Windows and FreeBSD might not play well on the same drive. Linux can be installed on any logical partition and booted with grub/lilo. FreeBSD wants the primary partition just like windows.

I've had BSD and windows on the same drive.

Let us know how well it works. Good luck.

http://search.yahoo.com/search?p=fre...=UTF-8&fr=moz2

Last edited by teckk; 4th May 2008 at 12:57 PM.
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Old 5th May 2008
aromes aromes is offline
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Thanks so much Teckk for the advices.
Will give it a try as soon as I get some time. FreeBSD is a long time dream (being using Linux, Solaris on i836 and now Open Solaris..and during all these years I was impatient to give a try to FreeBSD. Now, It's about time). I just regret not having tried BSD years ago when it was bit more touchy (I am sure FreeBSD is way more friendly than years ago).
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