Dual boot

Hi
I have just installed FreeBSD into a machine that was already duel booting Windows XP and Linux Mint. When I now boot the machine I have the choose of F1 DOS - F2 Linux - F3 ? - F4 FreeBSd. F1 DOS will boot and so will F4 FreeBSd but the other two F2 and F3 do nothing. Can any body tell me how to get my Linux to work

Thanks
 
You can install a boot loader that can boot a Linux kernel into your Linux partition (not the MBR!). The FreeBSD boot loader is a chain loader. That means it just identifies partitions and starts the boot loader it finds there.

That's how it manages to be so small (< 512 byte).
 
kamikaze said:
You can install a boot loader that can boot a Linux kernel into your Linux partition (not the MBR!). The FreeBSD boot loader is a chain loader. That means it just identifies partitions and starts the boot loader it finds there.

That's how it manages to be so small (< 512 byte).


With regards to FreeBSD Boot loader i think there are some issues with Vista due to the non standard Vista booting method
If you used BSD boot loader Vista wouldn't boot i think
(And because it has to be <512bytes it is downright ugly :p)

So i created a entry in Vista boot loader using bcdedit
Works like a charm §e

Also for laptops with recovery partitions you wouldn't want to use BSD boot loader i think because if you accidentally hit the wrong button you will start recovery....x(
 
* bcdedit /create /d "Linux" /application BOOTSECTOR
Sometimes the /create doesn't work so use /copy
* bcdedit /copy /d "FreeBSD Operating System" /application BOOTSECTOR
* bcdedit /set {ID} device boot (where ID is a very long number which you will get after the first command)
Copy /boot/boot1 (FreeBSD CD) to C:\Windows
* bcdedit /set {ID} PATH \Windows\boot1
* bcdedit /displayorder {ID} /addlast (I did not try but probably you can also use "/addfirst")
* bcdedit /timeout 5 (time in seconds before the default OS is started)
 
Weinter said:
With regards to FreeBSD Boot loader i think there are some issues with Vista due to the non standard Vista booting method
If you used BSD boot loader Vista wouldn't boot i think
(And because it has to be <512bytes it is downright ugly :p)

So i created a entry in Vista boot loader using bcdedit
Works like a charm �e

Also for laptops with recovery partitions you wouldn't want to use BSD boot loader i think because if you accidentally hit the wrong button you will start recovery....x(
Actually you can boot Vista with the FreeBSD boot loader.

You can also mask partitions, so you won't be able to accidentally start recovery.

I'll ask the author of the FreeBSD boot loader for Vista howto weather I may translate it.
 
boot manager

I'd say GAG looks ugly nowadays but it works perfectly. I have 8 OS's to boot (1PP -xp, 2PP - FreeBSD, 3PP(at the end)- storage, 4EP - 6 linuxes) and I never had problems to boot any OS even after reinstall or exchanging linuxes: just setup GAG again in a minute and never forget to choose an OS's grub/loader setup on its own root.
Yeah...of course I dream to have gfx grub like bootloader for FreeBSD too 'cause it's the best OS ever!

From my point of view Vista is a junk whatever "special" boot they created (let's wait for W7 from M$ :) XP with sp3 looks much better to me.
 
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