New OpenBSD installation on HDD with Windows

[cableguy]

Hi,

If there is anyone out there that could help me with this problem I would honestly apreciate it...

I have a computer with a clean install of Windows 7 and I would like to install on the same drive OpenBSD. I had some previous attempts with FreeBSD, Debian and Windows and that was a mess, had to format everything ... This time if anyone who actually did it, could point me in the right dirrection, at least for the followings:

1. Create partitions. How many, one for swap, one for home, one for boot, etc (and what format if not default?).
2. Make the computer boot from Windows Loader's or OpenBSD's loader, and how should I do that? (some links to good tuts would be just greate)
3. What would be the total amount of space that I should use for OpenBSD and all its partitions? Would 100GB be enaugh?

I know it's lame, but I can't just "ditch" Windows since I'm not the only one using the computer.

Much obliged...

My rig:
CPU: i7 3770
GPU: NVidia GTX 760
RAM: 8GB
MB: Gigabyte Z77X-D3H

[jggimi]

Hello, and welcome!

First, multibooting is described in FAQ 4.9. I'll quote what it states there. The italics are the OpenBSD Project's, not mine:

It is not a trivial task! If you don't understand what you are doing, you may end up deleting large amounts of data from your computer. New OpenBSD users are strongly encouraged to start with a blank hard drive on a dedicated machine, and then practice your desired configuration on a non-production system before attempting a multiboot configuration on a production machine.

The reason I quoted this is because from your post, it appears you have never used OpenBSD before. I strongly urge you to use a second drive. It could be an externally attached USB or SATA drive - OpenBSD can be installed onto and used via a USB stick.

Also note: OpenBSD does not support UEFI boot or drives with GPT partitioning. Your system's BIOS must permit and support "legacy" MBR booting.

If your BIOS permits MBR booting, then multibooting is possible, but the boot drive must have a functional MBR, not the "pseudo MBR" stored as part of a GPT. If your system is GPT, it will need to be converted to MBR first. Microsoft states this can be done only on drives with no volumes -- which means you will need to reinstall Win7 with MBR partitioning.

Now, your system may support MBR partitioning, your system may already use MBR booting. If it does, you can follow the steps in FAQ 4.9 for reducing the size of your NTFS partition, then install OpenBSD into the free space.

OpenBSD uses MBRs for booting the first stage bootloader. It uses MBR partition tables only to define its own space on an MBR drive. OpenBSD has its own, separate partitioning system called "disklabels" which are ubiquitous across all architectures. MBRs are used on only five of those.

[ocicat]

Originally Posted by cableguy

I had some previous attempts with FreeBSD, Debian and Windows and that was a mess, had to format everything ...

Welcome!

Although you stated that this is a clean Windows 7 installation, back up any & all data which has value first. Mistakes happen. Save yourself aggravation.

Following this, study Section 4.9 of the project's FAQ. This should be sufficient information for most multibooting cases.

Create partitions. How many, one for swap, one for home, one for boot, etc (and what format if not default?).

The installer will create partitions of various sizes by default which should be adequate for an initial installation. As you gain experience, you may elect at a later point to reinstall, choosing different sizes. Another alternative would be to create a single partition for everything.

Don't stress yourself out on partitions unless you have specific requirements. Since you didn't mention any, simply go with the default partitioning, or create one large partition.

Studying Section 4 of the FAQ will also help familiarize yourself with the installation process.

Make the computer boot from Windows Loader's or OpenBSD's loader, and how should I do that?

Use of Window's boot manager is discussed in the FAQ. If you want to use only tools found in OpenBSD, study fdisk(8). The key is to the problem is deciding which MBR partition should be "active".

What would be the total amount of space that I should use for OpenBSD and all its partitions? Would 100GB be enaugh?

You haven't described what you are using an OpenBSD installation, but I will inject that I run OpenBSD on Alix systems with only a 4GB CF card. 100GB will be sufficient for all kinds of MP3 or MP4 files.

I know it's lame, but I can't just "ditch" Windows...

You don't need to apologize. The reality is that some Windows applications may be needed for your school, employment, etc. You don't need to apologize.

GPU: NVidia GTX 760

Be aware that nVidia does not make source for compatible drivers available, so the OpenBSD project has a long record of not providing significant (or sufficient...) support. While nv(4) may meet your needs, it also may not. Performance may not be stellar.

[ocicat]

cableguy, you may also benefit from an old thread I initiated on multibooting OpenBSD from Windows Vista followed by Windows 7:

http://daemonforums.org/showthread.p...ight=multiboot

[cableguy]

Damn you, Nvidiaaaa!

Well, nevermind. I didn't bought that graphics card for games hehe, but I hoped I would find same tools I used on Backtrack and Kali...

Would you recommend me instead to perform a clean installation of OpenBSD on a laptop i5 with a NVidia GeForce 540M and 4GB of RAM? Would that give me even more problems with the Optimus crap they put on laptops? Even more, any of you people out there have OpenBSD on a laptop and fully functional?

My purposes are as a developer... only need neat text editors, like notepad++, programs such as Ilustrator and Photoshop (could use Gimp too), stable server of SQL and APACHE; also IDE's for C/C++ with compilers, etc... And for entertainment, a cool GUI, music/movie players, normal stuff, I guess.

If you tell me I can have all that on OpenBSD, I divorce Windows tonight.

[ocicat]

Originally Posted by cableguy

Would you recommend me instead to perform a clean installation of OpenBSD on a laptop i5 with a NVidia GeForce 540M and 4GB of RAM?

I assume by "clean" installation, you mean install only OpenBSD on your laptop.

The potential issues (since you have not actually installed to test for yourself...) with nVidia are present whether you are multibooting or have only a single operating system on the disk.

...any of you people out there have OpenBSD on a laptop and fully functional?

I run OpenBSD-current on a Lenovo X1 Carbon laptop. I have no issues. Besides nVidia shortcomings, the OpenBSD environment will also be lacking in Flash compatibility, however, newer browsers have sufficient HTML5 support where this is becoming less of an issue. There are also applications such as youtube-dl which allows one to download from YouTube & view these files on video players such as mplayer or vlc.

...but otherwise, I write code for a number of languages on this laptop, & sufficient applications exist in packages to make this a respectable development machine. I rarely use Windows, & usually only for a few Windows applications which are needed.

My purposes are as a developer... only need neat text editors, like notepad++, programs such as Ilustrator and Photoshop (could use Gimp too), stable server of SQL and APACHE; also IDE's for C/C++ with compilers, etc... And for entertainment, a cool GUI, music/movie players, normal stuff, I guess.

If you tell me I can have all that on OpenBSD, I divorce Windows tonight.

It all comes down to familiarity, a willingness to search for answers, & time to experiment.

Emacs, vi, SQLite, PostgreSQL, MySQL, & the gimp are all applications I regularly use. C/C++, Python, Ruby, node.js, & Perl can all be found on OpenBSD.

[cableguy]

Hi again,

I appreciate the fast replies.
Ocicat you are awesome, so, talking about willingness, I am going to follow the thread you posted before about multibooting OpenBSD and WinVista/7, but I'm going to do it on the laptop (I have Win7 installed on both computers). I'm coming soon with news. Just hope to do it well.

Thanks again.

[IdOp]

Originally Posted by cableguy

Even more, any of you people out there have OpenBSD on a laptop and fully functional?

In case you haven't seen it already, perhaps the Your OpenBSD Laptop thread can give you some flavour of the range of possibilities.

[jggimi]

Originally Posted by cableguy

...programs such as Ilustrator and Photoshop ...

With very few exceptions [1], none of the 8,766 [2] third party applications available for OpenBSD are commercial closed-source program products such as those two products of Adobe Systems Incorporated.

See the /pub/OpenBSD/<release>/packages/<architecture> directory at your nearest OpenBSD mirror server for a list of available third party packages, and see FAQ 15 for a discussion of the ports and packages system for third party products.

[1] One that comes to mind is www/opera. The Opera browser is a free but closed source application, available as a binary "port" due to license restrictions on redistribution, and usable with OpenBSD/i386 only, under compat_linux(8) Linux emulation.

[2] That's the count as of yesterday, for -current, per ports/INDEX.