freebsd install

I just got a cdset of freebsd4.5 and ready to install. My intel P II has 13gig hard drive but multiple booted with 3 primary partition of win98s and one redhat, all for testing purpose. Now i want to convert one partition of win98 to freebsd. I also use partition magic to set the partition. Here 's my questions:

1. Do I need to restore the BIOS to "natural drive numbering"(as the handbook said)? I am not sure what it means anyway.

2. Can i Use the feature "set partition active" of PM?

3. Should I use PM to delete the win98 partition I want to convert to free space before I do the installation?

I am still in the process of reading more because I don't feel very comfortable to start the installation yet... any help would be greatly appreciated.

It'd be much easier and cleaner if you can backup your Redhat stuffs, low-format your disk and redo the partitioning. Not to mention when your current Redhat is in the 2nd (or middle) partition and you want freebsd to be installed to your 1st partition.
If you read my posts before you should have seen that I mentioned dozen times that dual/tri-boot is a bad practice these days.

Thanks. I use this computer for testing so I want to stretch things a little bit that's why I do multiple boot.

>you want freebsd to be installed to your 1st partition.

Is that the reason why it didn't boot?
I just installed freebsd to the third patition, after 2 win98 partitions. But I have problem with booting it.

>> Is that the reason why it didn't boot?

Which OS? Did you install FreeBSD's bootloader?

>> after 2 win98 partitions

Where's your Redhat?

3 OSes:

1. win98 4gig(ad0s1) in the first partition.

2. freebsd 4 gig to be installed in the second partition( the installations failed).

3. redhat 3 gig in the third and last partition.

2 types of freebsd install failures: (1) "unable to mount or to swap..." (2) "panic: page fault" and "panic: Kmem_map: too small" or "panic UFS_dirbad: sync...". The second types happened when the installer was copying files to the hard drive.

So, it wasn't the boot problem, but the kernel panic error may be due to the hard drive itself?

Move your redhat to 2nd partition and install FreeBSD to the 3rd parition. Have a look at
2.5.2 Disk Organization

I used partition magic v.6 to move the partions and after that my computer has this arrangement:

1. win98 with 3.5gig(ad0s1)

2. backup partition fat32 with 1gig

3. redhat 3 gig(/boot, /, /home and swap): ad0s2

4. unallocated space 4.6 gig for installing freebsd


Results: the installation still failed with the error "unable to swap /dev/ad0s3b: invalid argument".

and although I chose win98(ad0s1) as bootable and did not select freebsd boot manager, I was unable to boot win98 because of the error "error in the partition (scheme). Fortunately I was able to reinstall window choosing to keep the previous system files which bring me back to my win98 intact.

One thing I noticed, freebsd did not regconized the backup partition as a separate partition.

>> the installation still failed with the error

With the new partition arrangement it should go thru just fine. The error indicates that you didn't Fdisk right, and when the slice/partition isn't ready, you can't extract the tarballs to disk. Why don't you tell us step by step what you have done? So far you have provided only the error message without any details.

>> did not select freebsd boot manager

Why didn't you?

>> freebsd did not regconized the backup partition as a separate partition

How can you tell? And because you didn't read Ch. 2 and didn't do right, not to mention tribooting is a bad practice which a newbie shouldn't have done in the first place.

>>With the new partition arrangement it should go thru just fine. The error indicates that you didn't Fdisk right, and when the slice/partition isn't ready, you can't extract the tarballs to disk. Why don't you tell us step by step what you have done? So far you have provided only the error message without any details.

1. after each failure, I use partition magic to delete the freebsd partition(bad).

2. I popped the Cd in, ran the kernel config. The only thing I did here was to removed all the conflicts which all belong to the network group.

3. I clicked C to created the freebsd slice ad0s3, the clicked Q.

4. I created 5 freebsd partitions: ad0s3a-g.

5. I selected to install binaries+kernel source+X-windows and NO ports.

The last time, the files were copied to my hard drive up to 43% then I got kernel panic: page fault.

>>Why didn't you?


I selected not to use freebsd boot manager to avoid problem with MBR, at least until I am sure the installer works OK.


>>How can you tell? And because you didn't read Ch. 2 and didn't do right, not to mention tribooting is a bad practice which a newbie shouldn't have done in the first place

the backup partition(fat32) was lumped into the redhat partitions as one big ad0s2. For DOS, they are all "extended" partition.

Some paper I read suggested that one should started with a CLEAN drive.

>> after each failure, I use partition magic to delete the freebsd partition

Not a clean way.

>> The only thing I did here was to removed all the conflicts

Not only those, there are a lot others you should have removed. That's why you need to know your hardware well enough beforehand.

>> I selected to install binaries+kernel source+X-windows and NO ports

You don't need that outdated version of X, install X from ports instead.

>> the files were copied to my hard drive up to 43% then I got kernel panic: page fault

Lke I said, your drive is not clean.

>> I selected not to use freebsd boot manager to avoid problem with MBR

You have to, it's a must for your setup.

>> Some paper I read suggested that one should started with a CLEAN drive

If you read my 1st reply in this thread I said low-format your disk and redo the partitioning but you didn't listen. If I were you I'd grab Disk Manager from Ontrack immediately.

So Sorry freebsd. I thought I gave up on the installation. But I just add a second hard disk as secondary master. The disk is 20gig and 7200rpm from seagate. I will reserve the whole disk for freebsd.

Will it be easier now to install freebsd on it?

You still need to dangerously dedicated the entire disk for FreeBSD. You still need to install a freebsd boot manager so you can choose to boot into win98.

Thanks. But I'm still stuck. I have disk 1 for win98 and redhat(13gig and 5400rpm) and LILO as boot loader. Now if I install freebsd into disk 2(20 gig and 7200rpm), what can I do to boot it?

>> Now if I install freebsd into disk 2(20 gig and 7200rpm), what can I do to boot it?

That's why I said you need to install the FreeBSD Boot Manager so it overrides existing LILO.

Thanks freebsd. I just installed freebsd v4.5 successfully and boot it with LILO. LILO may not be the best choice but I 'm still so happy.

Thanks again.