On Sat, 26 Sep 2009, Manolis Kiagias wrote:
Bret Busby wrote:
Hello.
I have been interested in installing FreeBSD on my laptop (HP/Compaq
NX5000, 2MB RAM), in a free 20MB partition.
I really hope you meant Gb here ;)
I noticed that the Linux Format magazine to which I subscribe, in
Issue 124, comes with FreeBSD 7.2 on the DVD.
From what I understand, FreeBSD (and possibly all BSD) uses hard disc
slices rather than partitions, and therefore cannot
easily be installed in a free partition, but needs for hard disc
slices to be used.
'Slice' is FreeBSD jargon for what Windows / DOS would call a 'primary
partition'. In short, FreeBSD can only be installed in your machine only
if you have free space *and* the possibility to create a primary
partition in it . Due to BIOS limitations, PC hardware only supports 4
primary partitions on any disk.
If you already have 4 primary partitions and you are not willing to
delete one, you can't install FreeBSD as it won't install on what
Windows calls an "Extended partition". But let's say you have a typical
laptop with two partitions for OS and data, and some free space at the
end. FreeBSD will happily install there.
Is it yet possible to install FreeBSD into a hard disc partition,
rather than needing to install into hard disc slices?
I have attached a copy of the screenshot showing the partition table;
I wanted to install FreeBSD into sda8.
Can this be done.
Thank you in anticipation.
The screenshot won't come through in the mailing list, if at all
possible upload it somewhere and send us a link.
See
http://busby.net/bret/Screenshot--dev-sda-GParted.png
However, with the response above, and, with all of the responses thus
far, to the query, it appears that I cannot install FreeBSD on the
computer, without a full system rebuild, involving removal of all of the
installed operating systems and software from the computer, then
repartitioning, or, slicing up, the hard drive, and then creating new
logical, extended partitions, and then reinstalling each of the
operating systems, and all of the software for each of the operating
systems, trying to ensure that I then have at least all of the software
that is currently installed on each operating system on the computer,
and, the data that is currently present on the computer.
And, with being required to do all of that, I do not know what would
happen, regarding issues such as the interrupt conflict that I
encountered when trying to initially install Debian 3.1 on the computer,
the interrupt conflict being between the WiFi card and the ethernet
card, which reuired Ubuntu to resolve the conflict, then (at the time,
as I was then a strictly Debian user) uninstalling Ubuntu to reinstall
Debian 3.1, with the solution to the interrupt conflict, having used
Mandriva Linux to do the partitioning, so as to retain the initial
installation of MS Win XP, which I would probably lose, and have to
install from scratch, as part of installing BSD on the system.
So, getting the system set up, initially, to get Debian 3.1 running (it
has been superseded on the system, first by Debian 4, and, now, by
Debian 5), took a fair bit of time and effort, and problem solving,
using various operating systems, to get the one extra operating system
installed.
Due to the time and effort involved, and the apparent complexity, it all
seems too difficult, to install BSD.
If FreeBSD would be able to be installed in a logical partition, within
an extended partition, as can be done with Linux, it would probably be
able to be done by me - in the meantime, it is simply too difficult.
Thanks anyway, for your help, to those who responded.
--
Bret Busby
Armadale
West Australia
..............
"So once you do know what the question actually is,
you'll know what the answer means."
- Deep Thought,
Chapter 28 of Book 1 of
"The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy:
A Trilogy In Four Parts",
written by Douglas Adams,
published by Pan Books, 1992
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