Is it possible / sensible to install FreeBSD in a laptop partition

covacat said:
it does not even try to execute the lba0 it just shows no boot options on that disk and refuses to boot from it
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I don't want to hijack this thread, I will ask just one question though: did you check if lba0 had proper fake partition and ended up with the magic nibble 0x55aa ? I've seen systems rejecting boot if either one was not present (I'm not aware of any tool not doing it but that state can be a result of custom hacking around).
 
it was a standard freebsd 13.1 install. i did not investigate further very hard bootote again from install media and everything seemed ok just no option to boot from internal storage
 
okay, so I read the conversation only from the first page.
In short: yes, it is possible to install FreeBSD dual boot on a laptop.
Is it sensible? I am not sure. (more on that later)

I have been using FreeBSD sporadically since 2008-09. On my desktop, when I installed FreeBSD for the first time, I had it alongside Windows XP, a linux, and third was FreeBSD. It didn't show up in the boot menu. I had to edit grub file in linux, and then boot entry showed up fine.
Then I installed it on a an older laptop which had a dead battery, and it used to run on direct power. That laptop used to get heated with FreeBSD, but had no issues with Win 7.
Around 2014ish I got another desktop, and FreeBSD was my main OS. The desktop had dual boot with Win 7, but I rarely used it.

In 2017, I got an Alienware laptop, and I installed FreeBSD on it as well. The laptop had UEFI, and unusual boot settings. In order to use FreeBSD on it, I had to turn off the secure boot, and it booted up fine with minor settings in BIOS.
But soon after using FreeBSD on that new laptop, my battery got worn out. I am still not sure about the cause, but I think it may have been FreeBSD, not sure. That's why I don't think it is a sensible idea to use on laptop. But times have changed. Maybe its okay now.

I got a new optiplex a couple of months ago. My employer is okay with me using FreeBSD, but the desktop came with Windows 10 (I chose it over 11). I have installed FreeBSD on it along side Windows 10, and FreeBSD is my primary OS, or "daily driver".
The only thing with that hardware/installation is, I dont get a boot-up screen asking me for OS. Every time I want to boot into Windows, I have to go into one time boot options (by pressing F12), and then I choose Windows.

Whether you can set-up dual boot with FreeBSD, or what type of options/menu you get is depended on your laptop/motherboard.
 
smithi said:
All you need is to let Win (10+ anyway) shrink itself, leaving quite ordinary freespace on the disk.
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The trick to doing this is two fold:
#1 - entirely delete the paging file, set to NONE
#2 - entirely disable check points
These two steps remove the non-movable files that prevent Windows from fully shrinking the volume.
You MUST reboot after doing both steps.

I employ the above two steps before using PerfectDisk to relocate various system and kernel files to the top of the disk in preparation for imaging to a smaller SSD.
 
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