Windows XP + Fedora core 2 + Free BSD

redhat_newbie

Hi friends,

I want to install Windows XP(win) + Fedora core 2(linux) + Free BSD(unix) on my new machine.I have 120 GB HDD which is completly free of space.
I want to dedicate 40 GB to each of the OS. I would like to get the boot menu showing each of these.

Which one to install first ( in case of dual boot windows first later fedora) but in case of triple boot what would be the case ?

I know to make dual boot OS (linux and windows) but I am not sure to cope up with free BSD.

Any help would be appreciated (step by step way please !)

cheers,
RHN

QBall

FreeBSD can be booted from either the Windows bootloader (the way I do it), pretty much any Linux boot loader that I've heard of (I don't know which one FC2 uses) or from the FreeBSD boot loader.

I would say do the following:

• Install Windows
• Install FC2
• Make sure that whatever boot loader you pick works to select both of those.
• Install FreeBSD and when it comes to boot loader stuff (see here). select "None" which will leave the boot loader alone.
• Add FreeBSD to whichever boot loader you use to boot Windows & FC2
• You're done.

I think there is a problem with dual booting Fedora Core 2 and Windows XP. I haven't paid attention to it since I don't use either, but you may wish to Google for it.

Once you have installed Windows and FC2 and have them happily playing together, post back here saying what bootloader you use and I should be able to dig you out a HOWTO for making FreeBSD boot from it.

Rambo

I have being duel booting Fedora core and windows xp for about 6 months now
and never had a problem
Fedora core 2 uses Grub boot loader and very good in detecting other OS installed
on your system

You may have to install windows xp First ,BSD. then load up Fedora core 2

hostyle

AFAIR BSD uses grub too. Eveything should be fine as long as you install Windows first. After that everything should be peachy. I've tried installng BSds multiple times but it never seems to like my hardware

QBall

http://linuxtoday.com/news_story.php3?ltsn=2004-05-27-023-26-OS-HL-RH

Have a look at that first though.

I would still say do Windows, then FC2 then FreeBSD. Mainly because I know that FreeBSD plays well when you select "None" as I said above. There are loads of articles about booting FreeBSD with grub on the net, so it shouldn't be too much of a problem.

redhat_newbie

Hi Rambo and Qball,

I have a machine running dual boot windows xp professional and fedora core 2.
Its working fine. As Rambo mentioned I use GRUB boot loader. I am making this triple boot on a new machine to get hands on Free BSD (UNIX) , Fedora Core 2(linus) and Windows XP professional.

So is this installation order correct

1) Windows XP ( 40 GB NTFS)
2) Free BSD (FFS)(40 GB --> /boot (100 MB) /swap (2048MB) / (rest) )
3) Fedora core 2 (ext3 40 GB --> /boot (100 MB) /swap (2048MB) /(rest))

order is 1 2 3
or
order is 1 3 2

Cheers,
RHN

QBall

Originally posted by hostyle
AFAIR BSD uses grub too.

Not "natively" although it does work. I can't remember the name of FreeBSD's own boot loader, or even if it has a name.

Originally posted by hostyle
I've tried installng BSds multiple times but it never seems to like my hardware

5.x or 4.x? Do you have odd hardware?

QBall

Originally posted by redhat_newbie

order is 1 2 3
or
order is 1 3 2

Either should do.

redhat_newbie

Thanks lads for the suggestions and help,

Would be using Free BSD 5.x.
ATI 9200 Graphics card
Seagate HDD
HP DVD-ROM
Intel 865 MoBo
AC 97 Audio

would let you know the results soon........

Thanks a million Qball and Rambo
your help is much appreciated
cheers,
RHN

redhat_newbie

Thanks hoststyle

I will keep in mind about the hardware compatiability.

Many thanks

cheers,
RHN

hostyle

Originally posted by QBall
5.x or 4.x? Do you have odd hardware?

I've tried both. I've tried various versions of FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD, plus a few live CD *BSDs. Every time I get "too many errors" errors. Been over 6 months since I tried. So I guess I do must unusual hardware, but nothing I can place a finger on. VIA chipset is the most likely offender though. Its caused problems in Windows before and in various linux distros, but all were at least bootable and managed to at least get part-way through the install

QBall

Originally posted by hostyle
I've tried both. I've tried various versions of FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD, plus a few live CD *BSDs. Every time I get "too many errors" errors. Been over 6 months since I tried. So I guess I do must unusual hardware, but nothing I can place a finger on. VIA chipset is the most likely offender though. Its caused problems in Windows before and in various linux distros, but all were at least bootable and managed to at least get part-way through the install

Sounds like odd hardware or flaky ACPI to me. :dunno:

I have a VIA chipset (on a well-flaky laptop at that) and I've got 5.2.1 running OK. Some devices (like my cheap-ass Taiwanese built-in USB 802.11 card) don't work, but I'm not surprised. After all, the PCMCIA slot doesn't even work under Windows. I had trouble getting through the install until I turned ACPI off, but it worked after that. It's still better than Win2K IMHO.

hostyle

Hrm. ACPI is a BIOS option, right? I'm sure thats off. Will check at next reboot. If its on I might turn it off rustle up some of those old BSD CDs and try a quintuple boot.

QBall

Originally posted by hostyle
Hrm. ACPI is a BIOS option, right? I'm sure thats off. Will check at next reboot. If its on I might turn it off rustle up some of those old BSD CDs and try a quintuple boot.

AIUI, ACPI isn't handled by the BIOS, roughly speaking, ACPI == (APM + PnP)++. The ACPI code describes the various bits of hardware and then the OS interprets that code to do power management and hardware configuration stuff/magic.

When you're booting for the first time, wait until it says "Hit [Enter] to boot immediately, or any other key for command prompt." and then hit some key other than enter. At the prompt do the following:

unset acpi_load [enter]
boot [enter]

That should stop it from interpreting the ACPI. Without ACPI, your system might sit down and refuse to work, so it's your choice. Also, ACPI is often used for fan speed control and the like so if you have a particularly hot processor, or if you overclock, you could cause heat damage. That said, my laptop is running FreeBSD nearly two years now without ACPI enabled and it hasn't died of heatstroke yet.

[EDIT]
With newer FreeBSD versions, there may be a boot menu which has an option to boot without ACPI
[/EDIT]

redhat_newbie

Install Windows XP professiona and Fedora is easy......
But when it came to Free BSD 5.2.1 (Allocating disk space) everything is confusion

I tried it on test machine which is installed with XP prof and fedora
total: 40 GB
c:/

---

>20 GB (xp prof)

fedora

---

> 10 GB

Rest of 10GB is free

When it came to FDisk Partition editor

I was confused , couldn't find about which is ext3, Fat was visible but couldn't find myself way.

but
ad0s1
ad0s2
ad0s3

Some
"unsed" and "unknown"

Can anyone help me out.............

thank you all,
RHN

Sarunas

Originally posted by redhat_newbie
Install Windows XP professiona and Fedora is easy......
But when it came to Free BSD 5.2.1 (Allocating disk space) everything is confusion

I tried it on test machine which is installed with XP prof and fedora
total: 40 GB
c:/

---

>20 GB (xp prof)

fedora

---

> 10 GB

Rest of 10GB is free

When it came to FDisk Partition editor

I was confused , couldn't find about which is ext3, Fat was visible but couldn't find myself way.

but
ad0s1
ad0s2
ad0s3

Some
"unsed" and "unknown"

Can anyone help me out.............

thank you all,
RHN

When you in fdisk, press z. This will change in what the size of partitions is in, press it until its on mb.

I guess ad0s1 is windows partition.
ad0s2 is probably swap for fedora.
ad0s3 is probably root partition for fedora.

Move the arrows down to untill its on unused. press c.

Press ok (how many sectors to be allocated for the partition)
Prees ok(165 is freebsd partition).

Press q,
Move the cursor down to none.

Press A, this will automatically create slices in the newly created partition.

Thats pretty much it, ( i tried to explain as much as possbile).

After install, download GAG. Configure all of your OS'es, save it to floppy, test it all of the OS'es. then save it to MBR.

See freebsd handbook, The installation explanation is much better than mine.

READ THE HANDBOOK AND GOOGLE FIRST BEFORE POSTING ANYTHING(ie. you not understanding freebsd installation)

Sarunas

Originally posted by hostyle
I've tried both. I've tried various versions of FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD, plus a few live CD *BSDs. Every time I get "too many errors" errors. Been over 6 months since I tried. So I guess I do must unusual hardware, but nothing I can place a finger on. VIA chipset is the most likely offender though. Its caused problems in Windows before and in various linux distros, but all were at least bootable and managed to at least get part-way through the install

What via chip is it?

I ran linux/*bsd on the following chipsets: via kt133, via kt400, and now im on via kt600. No problems.

Maybe your box is built from no-name parts?
Or maybe on latest? and you tried old distro back from few years?

Try something like freebsd 5.2.1. And investigate the problems.

hostyle

Originally posted by Sarunas
What via chip is it?

KT400 north bridge, VT8235 south bridge. Windows 2000 has had problems with it. Mandrake 10 has had major issues with it (though I'm typing this using it). Mandrake 9.2 was about the only OS that had zero problems (2.4 kernel I guess).

I ran linux/*bsd on the following chipsets: via kt133, via kt400, and now im on via kt600. No problems.

Maybe your box is built from no-name parts?
Or maybe on latest? and you tried old distro back from few years?

Try something like freebsd 5.2.1. And investigate the problems.

How does one investigate problems that state "... too many errors" and then hangs?

I don't have the time right now to get back to trying out a BSD but maybe next week I'll give it another shot.

Sarunas

Originally posted by hostyle
KT400 north bridge, VT8235 south bridge. Windows 2000 has had problems with it. Mandrake 10 has had major issues with it (though I'm typing this using it). Mandrake 9.2 was about the only OS that had zero problems (2.4 kernel I guess).



How does one investigate problems that state "... too many errors" and then hangs?

I don't have the time right now to get back to trying out a BSD but maybe next week I'll give it another shot.

You prolly have dodgy mb. I cant think of any software problems that could occour on most OS'es (win 2000, linux, *BSD).

You could try updating BIOS, that might solve some problem, but might introduce new ones.

redhat_newbie

Thanks Sarunas.......
The installation manual is there, but it doesn't explain me the experience.

I read it , but didn't know to press Z to see it in mb. That kind of help is excepted !

many thanks for your help !

Actually I had been to that fdisk menu stage for about 10 times tried each bit but finally quit and shut down the pc.

cheers,
RHN

Sarunas

No problem, you where nearly there.

Now you know where you went wrong. Reading man or help is always helpful. So is "trial & error".

hostyle

Originally posted by Sarunas
You prolly have dodgy mb. I cant think of any software problems that could occour on most OS'es (win 2000, linux, *BSD).

I don't think so. Many companies are pointing the fingers at this particular chipset (and the Windows drivers provided for it) when their software causes the OS to hang. VIA always points the finger back at each company. The linux problems stem _mainly_ from two things: kernel 2.6.x newness; and anything to do with Atheros wireless cards interacting with VIA chipsets. All windows problems point straight to VIA, who refuse to acknowledge the problem, despite thousands of complaints. Apparently they're working in new drivers, but thats been for about a year. Anyway this is getting a little OT. Thanks for your suggestions.

You could try updating BIOS, that might solve some problem, but might introduce new ones.

Been done, tried various revisions. Its definitely a VIA problem.

nadir

yea i have a via chipset in a computer here, its an iwill via dual p3 , and its been a whole lot of trouble, crashed constantly in win2k untill i added all the updates, but i mean like if you played audio or anything simple it would crash. In linux i finally managed to stablise it after alot of tweaking, now its fine, but it was damn troublesome. I had to disable acpi, sort out all my irqs manually, turn off one of the usb ports in bios. .etc . total nightmare to get running stable.

Gerry

To boot freebsd from grub:

make a new entry in the grub.conf

title FreeBSD 5.2.1
# sub in the correct disk and partition number
#if freebsd is on the second disk, second partition, you'd say
# rootnoverify(hd1,1)
# here I'm presuming its the first partition on the first disk
rootnoverify(hd0,0)
# Then, tell it to use the freebsd loader
chainloader +1

This works for me, and I boot freebsd, gentoo, and win2k