Installing with rEFIt on Macbook

P

primatephreak

Hey yall, I'm still having trouble with installing FreeBSD on my Macbook. Instead of installing on a VM, I'm now using a partition slice on my Macbook's HD. I've got rEFIt on the first slice (which is invisible to DiskUtility and installs itself automagickally there, Mac OSX on the second, OpenGEU on the third, and the next two are clean EXT3 slices.

I installed FreeBSD on the fourth slice after to OpenGEU and got nothing in the rEFIt boot loader, but when I "rebless" my disk with rEFIt it sees the FreeBSD partition and changes it to HFS+! After that I still get nothing in the boot loader. I then tried PC-BSD both with and without it's (I think GRUB) boot loader, and I did see the FreeBSD icon in the rEFIt bootloader, but it goes into a text based boot loader (GRUB?) showing me: 1. (Blank) 2. (Blank) 3. Linux 4. FreeBSD

I choose FreeBSD and the text outputs a hash (#) symbol over and over again, so I can't get it to boot. I think (GRUB?) is the problem. After that I reboot and the FreeBSD icon is gone from rEFIt.

I now repartitioned my last two slices to EXT4, but they now show up as EXT3. If anyone could recommend advice, that'd be great.

Also, how should I properly partition and install FreeBSD? Either the partitions or the FreeBSD bootloader seems to be the problem.

Here is my Partition Inspector Output:

Code: 
*** Report for internal hard disk ***

Current GPT partition table:
 #      Start LBA      End LBA  Type
 1             40       409639  EFI System (FAT)
 2         409640    299138455  Mac OS X HFS+
 3      299400600    362315159  Basic Data
 4      362577304    425487239  Basic Data
 5      425749384    488134983  Basic Data

Current MBR partition table:
 # A    Start LBA      End LBA  Type
 1              1       409639  ee  EFI Protective
 2         409640    299138455  af  Mac OS X HFS+
 3 *    299400600    362315159  83  Linux
 4      362577304    425487239  83  Linux

MBR contents:
 Boot Code: Unknown, but bootable

Partition at LBA 40:
 Boot Code: None (Non-system disk message)
 File System: FAT32
 Listed in GPT as partition 1, type EFI System (FAT)

Partition at LBA 409640:
 Boot Code: None
 File System: HFS Extended (HFS+)
 Listed in GPT as partition 2, type Mac OS X HFS+
 Listed in MBR as partition 2, type af  Mac OS X HFS+

Partition at LBA 299400600:
 Boot Code: GRUB
 File System: ext3
 Listed in GPT as partition 3, type Basic Data
 Listed in MBR as partition 3, type 83  Linux, active

Partition at LBA 362577304:
 Boot Code: None
 File System: ext3
 Listed in GPT as partition 4, type Basic Data
 Listed in MBR as partition 4, type 83  Linux

Partition at LBA 425749384:
 Boot Code: None
 File System: ext3
 Listed in GPT as partition 5, type Basic Data
 
Ok, I'm seriously thinking about leaving FreeBSD and the BSDs in general because of their difficultly of use for people that are new to the OS. Plus the documentation really isn't all that great, and everyone thinks it is, I beg to differ. Also, the help on forums here and else where is not very good. I'm quite disappointed with the current state of the BSDs. Yes they are powerful, especially for servers, but the majority of desktop users are at a loss when it comes to FreeBSD i general. Even PC-BSD is a pain, sure they have a graphical installer, but I've noticed lots of bugs with KDE (KDE is quite bulky by the way). I'm very upset. Now if I could only get it running on my Macbook, then I could do something to change it and make my own RELEASE...
 
Can no one seriously help me please? I install FreeBSD as my third (and to rEFIt, the last) OS on my disk, I boot up, and get nothing.

Should I install the FreeBSD boot loader, the GRUB, or leave it untouched? Also, should I mark the partition as bootable? And should I format the partition to something like UFS or xfs3/4 before I install and use FreeBSD's partitioner?
 
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