*BSD News Article 77132


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From: brian@awfulhak.demon.co.uk (Brian Somers)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc
Subject: Re: FreeBSD on > 500mb HDDs
Date: 28 Aug 1996 11:53:46 +0100
Organization: Coverform Ltd.
Lines: 34
Message-ID: <5018fq$dm@anorak.coverform.lan>
References: <322347AD.344@injersey.com>
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Chris Rehbein (crehbein@injersey.com) wrote:
: For some reason, (I am a FreeBSD newbie) the installation for FreeBSD
: changes my FDISK partitioned 1.7gb Quantum HDD from one boot-level 426mb
: partition (for FreeBSD) and one extended DOS partition with 3 equal
: partitions with the remaining disk space to one 24 mb FreeBSD partition
: and leaves the rest of the HDD (only 480mb!!!) unavailable.  Is this
: caused by an incompatibility with FreeBSD and my DTC EIDE hard card, or
: is it just a FreeBSD shortcoming?  I'm running Win95 on a C drive,
: running (trying, FreeBSD won't install naturally on 24mb) FreeBSD on D:
: bootable partitioned drive.  Also, if someone can point me to a FAQ or
: something that assists in repartitioning a hard drive with an existing
: FAT partition for FreeBSD, that would be very helpful...
: CRehbein

It sounds like you've given FreeBSD an invalid drive geometry.  If you
want to share a disk, you have to share geometry values.

There's a program called FIPS that will alter your allocated DOS
partitions so that you have room for FreeBSD.  However, don't try
to use a "shrunken" partition from FreeBSD unless you've got ba*ls
of steel and a really good sense of humour !

What was the bit about 24mb ?  24mb of memory shouldn't be a problem.
The only "gotcha" is that if you've got an ISA bus-mastering device
(SCSI card, NIC etc.), you must build in BOUNCE_BUFFERS to any new
kernel that you build (see the LINT file).

One other thing - if you are installing on a second disk, make sure
that you get the boot manager stuff right :)  BOOTEASY (if you use
it) must be installed on *both* disks.

--
Brian <brian@awfulhak.demon.co.uk>
Don't _EVER_ lose your sense of humour....