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From: scott@statsci.com (Scott Blachowicz)
Subject: Re: Windows NT and FreeBSD
In-Reply-To: deng@interport.net's message of 16 Oct 1995 16:05:40 -0400
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To: deng@interport.net (Daniel Eng)
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Organization: StatSci div. of MathSoft, Seattle, WA USA
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References: <DGI48B.A73@gateway.dcc.com> <45uduk$ndn@interport.net>
Date: Tue, 17 Oct 1995 17:07:50 GMT
>>>>> "Daniel" == Daniel Eng <deng@interport.net>
Daniel> I'm using the OS-BS program (beta actually) from the CD-ROM to
Me too...have you noticed that if you let it time out, it just hangs? It
does for me...kinda annoying.
Daniel> Not very elegant, but it works. You end up having to use two
Daniel> boot loaders.
Ahhhh...but you can boot FreeBSD from the NT boot menu. I recently saw
this posting on the questions@freebsd.org list:
>> Date: Mon, 25 Sep 1995 12:05:29 +0100
>> To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org
>> From: richard@harlequin.co.uk (Richard Brooksby)
>> Subject: Booting FreeBSD from the Windows NT Loader
>> Sender: owner-questions@freebsd.org
>> Precedence: bulk
>> Content-Length: 2482
>>
>> I run my PC with Windows 95, Windows NT, and FreeBSD. I had some problems
>> with the FreeBSD boot selector and Windows 95, so I started investigating
>> other ways to boot. (Has anyone else had problems with Windows 95 and
>> booteasy, by the way?)
>>
>> I discovered that the Windows NT loader can be configured to run other boot
>> sectors from files in the DOS partition. The boot loader's INI file
>> (usually C:\BOOT.INI) just needs to be edited to point at the file
>> containing the sector.
>>
>> DON'T ATTEMPT THIS UNLESS YOU KNOW WHAT YOU'RE DOING. I think you must be
>> ready to edit partition tables by hand using a sector editor before you
>> start mucking about with them, in general. I've had to do this on several
>> occasions to avoid trashing Windows NT, which is a bit sensitive about
>> them. Make backup copies on floppy disks and make sure you have the
>> utilities to put them back if things should go wrong.
>>
>> To boot FreeBSD from the NT loader, copy your existing boot sector for the
>> FreeBSD partition to a file on the DOS C: drive. Something like this will
>> do the trick:
>>
>> dd if=/dev/wd0c of=<path to C>/freebsd.sec bs=512 count=1
>>
>> (Change wd0c to sd0c if you boot from a SCSI disk. You could copy the
>> appropriate file from /usr/mdec instead, but I'm typing this from memory on
>> my Mac and couldn't tell you which ones offhand. Read the manual.)
>>
>> Then alter the BOOT.INI file on C: so it contains a line like this under
>> the "[operating systems]" heading:
>>
>> c:\freebsd.sec="FreeBSD"
>>
>> The NT boot loader will then give you FreeBSD as an option. You can make
>> it the default by editing the "DEFAULT=" line in BOOT.INI in the obvious
>> manner.
>>
>> You can also add other boot sectors for other systems, although I haven't
>> tried it with the Linux LILO boot loader.
>>
>> Once you have this working, you can restore the original master boot record
>> for DOS or Windows 95 use by running "FDISK /MBR" from DOS. You are less
>> likely to have trouble with Windows 95, Windows NT, or OS/2 booting and
>> partitioning if you keep the default MBR.
>>
>> I would be interested to hear from anyone else who uses this trick. Please
>> send me some mail if you try it, successfully or not.
>>
>> FYI, I'm running:
>> - FreeBSD 2.0 with a locally patched kernel
>> - Windows 95 beta (as released on the Microsoft Developer's Network)
>> - Windows NT 3.51 retail version
>>
>> ---
>> Richard Brooksby <richard@harlequin.co.uk>
>> Manager & Developer / Memory Management / Symbolic Processing / Harlequin
>> +44 1223 873881 (voice) +44 1223 872519 (fax)
and it works great for me.
--
Scott Blachowicz Ph: 206/283-8802x240 StatSci, a div of MathSoft, Inc.
1700 Westlake Ave N #500
scott@statsci.com Seattle, WA USA 98109
Scott.Blachowicz@seaslug.org