Dear all! This is not strictly "stable", unless I make a mistake and shoot myself in the foot. I have 6.2 amd64 with mobo asus k8n nforce3 250. This box I'd like to use as host for usb hdd, that should contain linux install (debian 4.0, when comes out). Two worlds have not to interfare in any meaning. I hesi- tate to take internal freebsd hdd out of the box. Here's the plan: plug external hdd to usb, change bios option to boot from cd, install debian on sda, change bios option to boot from usb disk. Lilo or grub should be installed on external disk, without writing any data on inter- nal hdd. Is it possible at all? I'm aware that partition table on external hdd could have data for freebsd disk, but nothing has to be writen on internal disk. No boot manager needed, all has to be done using bios. What obstacle would I see doing that? When usb hdd goes away, I want my freebsd system as I have it now. And... I don't like the idea to add hdd inside the box, as slave. I'd like to hear hints, not to have linux mbr on internal (sata) disk, or any adage to it. Best regards Zoran
On Wed, 31 Jan 2007 15:40:13 +0100 Zoran Kolic <zkolic@sbb.co.yu> wrote:> This is not strictly "stable", unless I make a mistake and shoot > myself in the foot. > I have 6.2 amd64 with mobo asus k8n nforce3 250. This box I'd like to > use as host for usb hdd, that should contain linux install (debian > 4.0, when comes out). Two worlds have not to interfare in any > meaning. I hesi- tate to take internal freebsd hdd out of the box. > Here's the plan: plug external hdd to usb, change bios option to boot > from cd, install debian on sda, change bios option to boot from usb > disk. Lilo or grub should be installed on external disk, without > writing any data on inter- nal hdd. Is it possible at all?Yes, as long as the bios of your machine can boot from an usb hard drive, this should be possible. I have done this with several machines. It works like this: (usb hard drive connected to machine) - you boot machine (on some machines you can press a special key to bring up a bios boot menu) - you select usb hard drive from bios boot menu - bios loads boot loader (either Grub, Lilo, FreeBSD boot loader, or whatever boot loader you use) - boot loader from usb hardr drive does its thing (either booting an OS or displaying a boot menu) So far I am only aware of one caveat; the FreeBSD boot loader doesn't work on all machines. For example, I have an Acer Aspire 5672 laptop here were it doesn't work. I am going to try out grub on that laptop to see if it works better, but haven't found the time yet.> I'm aware that partition table on external hdd could have data for > freebsd disk, but nothing has to be writen on internal disk. No bootNo problem, it is the bios which loads from whatever disk you choose. If you make a mistake (for example when installing an OS on the usb hard drive) and suddenly overwrite your inernal hard drive, that's your fault. (If your'e afarid of this happening, simply disconnect the internal drive when installing on the usb hard drive.)> manager needed, all has to be done using bios. What obstacle would I > see doing that?None, as long as your bios and the boot loader of choice can boot from usb hard drive. HTH -- Regards, Torfinn Ingolfsen, Norway
> It works like this: > (usb hard drive connected to machine) > - you boot machine (on some machines you can press a special key to > bring up a bios boot menu) > - you select usb hard drive from bios boot menu > - bios loads boot loader (either Grub, Lilo, FreeBSD boot loader, > or whatever boot loader you use) > - boot loader from usb hardr drive does its thing (either booting an OS > or displaying a boot menu)Yup. I want my mbr on internal hdd and another grub on external usb drive to boot linux. Simply, to let bios to choose from two equal disks. Possible? Zoran
On Thu, Feb 01, 2007 at 04:10:41PM +0100, Zoran Kolic wrote:> > Yup. I want my mbr on internal hdd and another grub on external > usb drive to boot linux. Simply, to let bios to choose from two > equal disks. Possible? >Mostly. :-) I have the original disk from my laptop in and USB/Firewire enclosure. The original disk has windoze and Gentoo, with GRUB on the MBR. A new, replacement disk drive is now installed, and is FreeBSD only. It has the standard FBSD boot loader. When I power on the laptop, I get the ususal F1/F2/F3 and F5 prompts (three partitions on the internal disk plus the USB/Firewire disk). Selecting F5 will put me into the GRUB menu, which will boot Gentoo. Mostly. I do not believe I have a SCSI driver in the Gentoo kernel, so the boot process crashes when Gentoo attempts to mount the boot device. It is my belief that were I to swap the drives, rebuild the kernel, with a SCSI module included, swap the drives back, I should be able to boot Linux from the external drive. It is not clear if I can boot windoze, as it should have a SCSI driver available to it (although who is to say, given the "customized" laptop installations these days), but it does not boot, despite my telling GRUB to map ad0 to sd0 and map sd0 to ad0, which *should* put the windoze drive on the first disk, at least as far as windoze knows. This is repeated in several sites I have searched, but none of them are using the FBSD bootloader initially, so that may be confusing things. I suppose I could install the GRUB boot loader in the ports, but I am going to "correct" the windoze issue with qemu. Bruce -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------ "I like bad!" Bruce Burden Austin, TX. - Thuganlitha The Power and the Prophet Robert Don Hughes
> A new, replacement disk drive is now installed, and is > FreeBSD only. It has the standard FBSD boot loader. > When I power on the laptop, I get the ususal F1/F2/F3 > and F5 prompts (three partitions on the internal disk plus > the USB/Firewire disk).Hm! Looks like boot manager. I have simple loader, with options to boot this and that via numbers, in frame.> It is not clear if I can boot windoze, as it should have > a SCSI driver available to it (although who is to say, given > the "customized" laptop installations these days), but it > does not boot, despite my telling GRUB to map ad0 to sd0 > and map sd0 to ad0, which *should* put the windoze drive on > the first disk, at least as far as windoze knows. This is > repeated in several sites I have searched, but none of them > are using the FBSD bootloader initially, so that may be > confusing things. I suppose I could install the GRUB boot > loader in the ports, but I am going to "correct" the windoze > issue with qemu.Wow! You have little people living inside your computer! My case is simple. I have existing freebsd on internal drive. I just need linux on usb hdd and want it to be up using bios. When comes to that, I will bravely install on external disk and put linux loader to the first 512 of that drive. Hope it is the right way to stay untainted. Zoran