Re: putting FreeBSD in an extended partition

2000-09-27 Thread Zhiui Zhang

On Tue, 26 Sep 2000, Mike Smith wrote:

  I am wondering whether there is a good reason for not putting FreeBSD in a
  DOS extended partition.
  
  Good luck booting it.
  
  Do you mean as long as I can boot it, the kernel itself has no problem
  with being putting into a DOS extended partition? 
  
  Loader(8) can't grok it and the kernel can't mount it as root. 
 
 Actually, that's not entirely true.
 
 The problem with booting is that you cannot mark an extended partition 
 entry as 'active' (without some nasty, nonstandard hacks).
 
 If that were possible, it would be trivial to improve the loader to deal 
 with that case.  The kernel most certainly can mount an extended partition 
 as root, however.

I know this is a minor subject.  But Why Linux can be put in an extended
partition while FreeBSD cannot? I can not find anywhere (e.g.
kern/subr_diskslice.c) in the kernel that prevents this and I know LILO
can boot FreeBSD. If it is the problem of booteasy, then we can use other
boot loader. 

-Zhihui



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Re: putting FreeBSD in an extended partition

2000-09-27 Thread Robert Nordier

Zhiui Zhang wrote:

 On Tue, 26 Sep 2000, Mike Smith wrote:
 
  If that were possible, it would be trivial to improve the loader to deal 
  with that case.  The kernel most certainly can mount an extended partition 
  as root, however.
 
 I know this is a minor subject.  But Why Linux can be put in an extended
 partition while FreeBSD cannot? I can not find anywhere (e.g.
 kern/subr_diskslice.c) in the kernel that prevents this and I know LILO
 can boot FreeBSD. If it is the problem of booteasy, then we can use other
 boot loader.

The standard bootblocks (ie. boot2) don't support this at present,
nor do our tools like fdisk(8) and the equivalent part of sysinstall;
so there's a reasonable amount of work needed to make booting from
extended partitions a properly-supported feature.  I'll most likely
be adding this support in the next few months, though.  It hasn't
been a priority item as there's been little interest till recently.

It should be fairly easy to hack boot2 to get this working in your
particular case, if you have the time and inclination.

--
Robert Nordier

[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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Re: putting FreeBSD in an extended partition

2000-09-26 Thread Zhiui Zhang

On Mon, 25 Sep 2000, Doug White wrote:

 On Sat, 23 Sep 2000, Zhiui Zhang wrote:
 
  
  I am wondering whether there is a good reason for not putting FreeBSD in a
  DOS extended partition.
 
 Good luck booting it.

Do you mean as long as I can boot it, the kernel itself has no problem
with being putting into a DOS extended partition?  First of all, it seems
to me that there is no way to put FreeBSD in an extended partition without
modifying /stand/sysintall.

-Zhihui



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Re: putting FreeBSD in an extended partition

2000-09-26 Thread Peter Pentchev

I guess what Doug meant was (at least as far as I've seen in other postings)
the current FreeBSD boot loader does not support booting from extended
partitions.

G'luck,
Peter

-- 
This sentence was in the past tense.

On Tue, Sep 26, 2000 at 11:25:35AM -0400, Zhiui Zhang wrote:
 On Mon, 25 Sep 2000, Doug White wrote:
 
  On Sat, 23 Sep 2000, Zhiui Zhang wrote:
  
   
   I am wondering whether there is a good reason for not putting FreeBSD in a
   DOS extended partition.
  
  Good luck booting it.
 
 Do you mean as long as I can boot it, the kernel itself has no problem
 with being putting into a DOS extended partition?  First of all, it seems
 to me that there is no way to put FreeBSD in an extended partition without
 modifying /stand/sysintall.


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Re: putting FreeBSD in an extended partition

2000-09-26 Thread Doug White

On Tue, 26 Sep 2000, Zhiui Zhang wrote:

 On Mon, 25 Sep 2000, Doug White wrote:
 
  On Sat, 23 Sep 2000, Zhiui Zhang wrote:
  
   
   I am wondering whether there is a good reason for not putting FreeBSD in a
   DOS extended partition.
  
  Good luck booting it.
 
 Do you mean as long as I can boot it, the kernel itself has no problem
 with being putting into a DOS extended partition? 

Loader(8) can't grok it and the kernel can't mount it as root. 

Doug White|  FreeBSD: The Power to Serve
[EMAIL PROTECTED] |  www.FreeBSD.org



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Re: putting FreeBSD in an extended partition

2000-09-26 Thread Mike Smith

 I am wondering whether there is a good reason for not putting FreeBSD in a
 DOS extended partition.
 
 Good luck booting it.
 
 Do you mean as long as I can boot it, the kernel itself has no problem
 with being putting into a DOS extended partition? 
 
 Loader(8) can't grok it and the kernel can't mount it as root. 

Actually, that's not entirely true.

The problem with booting is that you cannot mark an extended partition 
entry as 'active' (without some nasty, nonstandard hacks).

If that were possible, it would be trivial to improve the loader to deal 
with that case.  The kernel most certainly can mount an extended partition 
as root, however.

-- 
... every activity meets with opposition, everyone who acts has his
rivals and unfortunately opponents also.  But not because people want
to be opponents, rather because the tasks and relationships force
people to take different points of view.  [Dr. Fritz Todt]
   V I C T O R Y   N O T   V E N G E A N C E




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Re: putting FreeBSD in an extended partition

2000-09-25 Thread Doug White

On Sat, 23 Sep 2000, Zhiui Zhang wrote:

 
 I am wondering whether there is a good reason for not putting FreeBSD in a
 DOS extended partition.

Good luck booting it.

Doug White|  FreeBSD: The Power to Serve
[EMAIL PROTECTED] |  www.FreeBSD.org



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putting FreeBSD in an extended partition

2000-09-23 Thread Zhiui Zhang


I am wondering whether there is a good reason for not putting FreeBSD in a
DOS extended partition. I have installed four O.S.es on my laptop and know
that could be a limitation if FreeBSD can not be put into a DOS extended
partition. I do not see any limitations in the boot loader or kernel that
prevent this. Thanks for any enlightment.

-Zhihui



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