Installation of FreeBSD onto a Logical Partition

Lovely. I just tried Asus' BIOS update tool in vista 64, which it supposedly supports: In short, it doesn't, and I need to rescue or replace my MB. This might cause some delays.
 
*beep**beep**beep**beep*, I mean damn!

That's terrible!!!

Whenever I do BIOS upgrades I always put it on a USB then reboot and do it that way. You may still be able to recover with that method. I think press F2.

Good luck!
 
It is a bit annoying, yeah - good thing I also have a laptop.
I've tried the most obvious recovery things - but it doesn't seem too keen on working. Will try a few things today, or it's downtown to buy a new MB.

(I'll RMA this one if I do, then use it to build a server or something when I get it back.)
 
RMA. Essentially, I send it in and will most likely get it back after they fix it - if that's not possible, they usually send a new identical one. So yes, warranty. (2 years and 2 months into a 3 year warranty, if I'm not mistaken.)

Anyway, I bought another MB - a P5Q-E. Time will show how it works with FreeBSD (some people have had problems with the sata controllers; some claim it works fine); for now I'm just happy I didn't have to reinstall vista. :)

This means I have a working 64-bit OS for my VMs again, so I'll try to finish tomorrow. An annoying segfault bug in grub2 just got fixed in SVN as well, which is a bonus.
 
@neogrub still dont work after a x times of boot kernel panic

@Panarchy

I still dont get it when I install the neogrub in the easybcd and It keep installing in the xp partition not in the root partition of the freebsd? How will I do it?

After a couple times of reboot I experience kernel panic I cant boot in any os. This is the second times it happen to me after installing the freebsd in the logical drive. I cant use also gparted it will just shutdown. The solution I did in the first is doing a master-slave hd in my other pc box and format using symantec partition manager. I will try this again because I run out of time yesterday.

Hope you can help me.

Thanks.
 
One issue: If FreeBSD is indeed in a logical partition, it isn't enough to chainload it. You actually have to make grub load and start the FreeBSD kernel for you - so you need a grub that understands BSD-style partitions, UFS, and FreeBSD kernels. I know GRUB2 does (that's why I use it), but I can't talk for neoGRUB.
 
grub2 installation

So that means I cannot use the easybcd to load it, if I will install grub2 to the root partition and call the partition using easybcd do you think I can load it.

How will Im going to install grub2 to load it.
 
If you can install grub2 onto any partition, then yes; that should work.
One option would be to create a small ext3 partition with a linux boot CD, and install grub2 onto that from there - slightly messy, but I would expect it to work.

Alternatively, if you have a linux isntalled already you can do it from there, and to that partition.
There's also the possibility that grub2 might compile and work on freeBSD with an UFS partition, but I honestly don't know. I've been way busy, so I can't promise looking at it very soon ...
 
ubuntu and fedora installed

@DJN

I have fedora kde and ubuntu installed on my pc but I dont know what to do, If you can just put me to the right direction maybe you can help me out.

Thanks.
 
Oh, you already have the Linux's installed?

Well that makes things much simpler. In fact, I have the same Linux's as you installed.

Simply PATCH the latest GRUB2 with the FreeBSD 64-bit patch, (which I requested, thanks again Bean), then install it within the BootSector of your Linux partition(s).
 
NeoGRUB

I thought that NeoGRUB was based off of Grub4DOS?

Also, Djn, do you have a working computer now?

I'd really like to see the finished tutorial :stud

Thanks,

Panarchy
 
Still cant do it

@panarchy,

I still cant do it instead I just install it in the primary partition and I have a quad boot machine xp, vista, opensolaris and freebsd using easybcd. I will install ubuntu, fedora, opensure, windows seven and macos this weekend and hope dont messed it.

But if sir DJN can make a good tutorial for us I will try it again to have a running freebsd in the logical partition.

@fbsduser

Thats why I cant make it run using easybcd. Thanks for the comment.
 
Can't GRUB2 -> with FreeBSD 64-bit patches -> be installed onto the FreeBSD Logical Partition?

In which case it could be chainloaded through the BCD [EasyBCD], GRUB4DOS, GRUB1, GRUB2 or NeoGRUB, right?

Thanks Djn, really looking forward to a complete tutorial.

Panarchy
 
I'll have to dig up the relevant virtualboxes and finish this soon. x)
First, though - I think I'll see if I can build and install grub2 from FreeBSD; that would make things a touch cleaner.
 
How about implementing the steps used in this guide?

First, installing FreeBSD on a primary, then backing up the disk first (for other OS installations), then restore the BSD disk image into a logical drive, then editing the PT (using ptedit), and setting up the bootloader (GRUB4DOS)...

What do you think?
 
Well for one the GRUB4DOS Bootloader doesn't support ZFS partitions or calling the FreeBSD bootloader.

However, now that a module has been written for GRUB, one can use that instead of the FreeBSD bootloader, which can be easily chainloaded and booted from logical partitions, through your method or Djn's.

On that note, Djn, did you finish the guide?

Regards,

Panarchy
 
Djn said:
Code: 
[B]Fixit# [/B]newfs /dev/ad0s1s3a
[B]Fixit# [/B]newfs -S /dev/ad0s1s3d
[B]Fixit# [/B]mkdir /dest
[B]Fixit# [/B]mount /dev/ad0s1s3a /dest
[B]Fixit# [/B]mkdir /dest/usr
[B]Fixit# [/B]mount /dev/ad0s1s3d /dest/usr
[B]Fixit# [/B]exit
Click to expand...


You'll want to do
Code: 
newfs -U /dev/ad0s1s3d
to enable soft-updates, -S is to specify sector size, and will give you an error if you do not provide it the expected size parameter.
 
Djn said:
So far, so good:
[...]
Oh, and a curious virtualbox/FreeBSD bug: I use a PS/2 keyboard but have a USB one plugged in. Inside vbox, the ps/2 one stops working when the kernel has booted.

edit:
Code: 
root (hd0,7)
freebsd /boot/kernel/kernel
freebsd_loadenv /boot/device.hints
set FreeBSD.vfs.root.mountfrom=ufs:ad0s7
boot

That, in grub2, works. Now, to set up a reasonable grub.conf. :)
Click to expand...

Btw I just found that grub2 won't boot FreeBSD/amd64 9.1 nor head kernels and got a patch for grub 2.00 (or bzr) by one of the grub developers:
http://paste.debian.net/180121/
[Edit: paste expired so I mirrored the patch here: http://people.freebsd.org/~nox/tmp/grub2-paste_180121.patch. This (or a similar) patch meanwhile also has been committed to grub2 bzr.]

Mailing list thread is here: http://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-stable/2012-July/068924.html

(The sysutils/grub2 port will hopefully be updated soon.)

HTH, :)
Juergen
 
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