Install freebsd using ext4 partition as /home

D

dancaer69

Hello,
I'm thinking to install and try freebsd on my desktop pc which has already arch linux installed as main os and also window 10 and 2 other linux distros. I have a separate ext4 partition on a different disk which I use as /home for all 3 linux distros. I also have a swap partition which used as swap from the 3 linux distros.
So I want to know if is possible and how can I create/modify/use the partitions to:
-install freebsd on a partition(which filesystem to use?)
-use my home partitition for freebsd also
-use my swap partition also for freebsd
-use grub from my main arch linux os as bootloader to boot the installed freebsd
From information I get from gparted:
swap is on my 3rd disk in /dev/sdc3 partition
home is also on 3rd disk in /dev/sdc5 partition
I want install freebsd in place of one of other linux distros on my 4rth ssd disk in /dev/sdd4 partition.
Do i need to create another partition to use as /boot? I prefer not if I have the option.
Thanks in advance.
 
It's pretty straightforward if you're using UFS. FreeBSD should see the empty /dev/sdd4. To give it a try, I'd say use UFS. (ZFS is easy if using the whole disk, but takes a bit more work to put on a single partition.)
If this is MBR, rather than EFI, you shouldn't need a separate boot partition, just add a section to Arch's grub. I have a page on grub2, that mentions FreeBSD, http://srobb.net/grub2.html. I'm not sure about EFI because I've never done a multiboot machine with it.

It's a bit dated but either of the FreeBSD stanzas listed there should work.
You can't share /home. FreeBSD can mount ext4fs but it's read only, if I remember correctly. I think it can write to ext3. Linux can mount FreeBSD UFS partitions. I don't think it can share swap either, though you could always reform the swap partition on boot. Depending upon what you're doing and how much free space you have, you might even create a swap partition after install in the FreeBSD partition.
 
I have a multi-boot system that has both Linux Mint 17 and FreeBSD 11 on it. There is no good way to share Linux filesystems with FreeBSD. If you are using Arch, I assume you are an advanced Linux user. So consider migrating your /home to a ZFS filesystem. ZFS on Linux is at a point where it is quite reliable and ZFS has a number of advantages over ext4.

That is what I do, also with external drives that should be shared between Linux and FreeBSD.

Multi-booting the system is easy if you use UEFI, but can be a bit tricky if you have legacy BIOS boot.
 
How to reinstall freebsd without overwriting personal data? I understand this would require separate home partition. Does anyone know how to reinstall without formatting it? I have never been able to get this to work and have used default install instead.
 
When you assign partitions to directories there's an option to newfs(8) the partition, or not. Obviously you want that switched off for the partition that has your /home. Or simply do a standard install and add /home after the installation.
 
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