Re: Re: WinXP and FreeBSD configuration problems
From: Ryan Sommers [EMAIL PROTECTED] Date: 2005/08/05 Fri PM 01:38:12 EDT To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] CC: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org, freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org Subject: Re: WinXP and FreeBSD configuration problems [EMAIL PROTECTED] said: ad0s0 NTFS2G #Windows Boot ad0s1 FreeBSD 2G #FreeBSD Boot/Swap ad0s3 FAT 20G #Windows ad0s4 FreeBSD 298G#FreeBSD ... extra stuff eliminated ... Why the miniscule 2gb partitions? Honestly, they are pointless. Second, worrying about the performance of boot and swap on a computer with a 320GB harddrive? Again pointless. If you are worried about the performance of your swap space I would rethink running Windows XP because you have way too little RAM. Third, why are you making seperate partitions for boot and swap anyway? From here on out I'm going to revert to the BSD style where you say partition I will now call it a slice. FreeBSD can reside on a single slice. The BSD disklabel'er divides the FreeBSD slice into partitions, for things like swap, and file-systems. My recommendations to you are as follows: 1) Don't worry about where things are on the disk. You're complicating the hell out of everything and in the end you probably won't notice a difference. If you're that worried about performance invest in multiple SCSI disks and create multiple RAID arrays optimized for performance. 2) Don't worry about making seperate slices (the things you can only make 4 of). 3) Make a single slice for Windows and install it there. It's good to make it the first slice on the disk, but not necessary. Then install FreeBSD to another slice. Let FreeBSD overwrite the MBR with the standard boot manager. This has worked countless times for me. I've always dual booted my laptops with FreeBSD and a Windows OS. Just me .02. If you'd like feel free to contact me personally and I'd be glad to help you get started. -- Ryan Sommers [EMAIL PROTECTED] Ryan, Yeah, I have done exactly what you have suggested several times myself without a problem. I not having problems installing a dual boot system. It was the different config. About the 320GB HD, I don't see it as completely pointless as I am going to use it as a desktop and would like to squeeze as much performance that I can out of it. The key is not to spend any money on it and still get it to work a little faster, so buying a SCSI RAID, although nice, is not really what I had in mind. Why do you? The miniscule slices (yes, I know unix/linux calls them slices which are divided up into partitions ie ad0 is the drive, ad0s1 is the first slice and ad0s1a is the first partition on that slice) is because I am just trying it out and didn't want to wait forever for windows to format a 100GB hd to have it fail on me later. I am not decided yet on the final config but I am supposing Windows will have at least 100GB (again performance). And how do I have way to little RAM? I have 1G RDRAM. How much do you need to run XP? Thanks for the advice, I am really just messing around to see what I can do and what I can't. David ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
WinXP and FreeBSD configuration problems
Hello all, OK it is now day three and I have given up. This will be a long one just to warn you now. I have a 320 GiB HD and a 5 GiB HD. The 320 is faster than the 5 (yes, it is that old). I want to dual boot WinXP and FreeBSD. The main issue is that I don't want to put the FreeBSD buried behind 100G FAT partition as I would like to have the swap closer to the edge of the HD. I use the 5 G to transfer files and such, especially when changing the OS on a partition. I prefer not to use it a a boot as it is only 5400 and I would have to put the CDROM on either it as prime boot and slow it more or on the 320 and slow it down. This seems like a simple problem but it has not turned out that way. First, I tried to install windows on the first 2G partition then tried to install freebsd as follows ad0s0 NTFS2G #Windows Boot ad0s1 FreeBSD 2G #FreeBSD Boot/Swap ad0s3 FAT 20G #Windows ad0s4 FreeBSD 298G#FreeBSD Now when I finished installing WinXP I could boot with no problems but after installing FreeBSD, I get a BSOD when trying to boot WinXP. I looked thru google, FreeBSD, and Microsoft for a possible answer. No. Everyone seems to just put all of WinXP on the first partition and then FreeBSD or Linux. I think thats fine for a 20, 30 or even 80 GiB HD but I think there will be a performance issue with the boot and swap so deep on the HD. Next, I tried to reinstall WinXP but when I get the the diskpart section, I only see one partition of 130G (diskpart cannot get past the 128G limit). There is no other partitions, not even the FAT labeled partition. Now I am getting frustrated. Next I tried Ranish Partition Manager (great PM by the way, 30 possible primaries). I set it as follows 1 FAT 2G #Windows Boot 2 unused 2G #To be FreeBSD 3 FAT 20G #Windows 4 unused 298G#To be FreeBSD. I used RPM to format the two FAT partitions. Then installed WinXP. WinXP see the two FAT partitions, the first one I format to NTFS and continue the install. After reboot, WinXP boots fine. Then I again try to install FreeBSD and reboot to WinXP to low and behold, the BSOD. Now I am MAD. Next, I used RPM to edit the MBR list so the 2 FAT partitions are 1 and 2 respectively. This fools the WinXP Install but again I get the BSOD after I install FreeBSD. I have also tried to install RPM loader with the last complete cylinder for the boot manager to no avail. I am now about ready to play hackysack with my HD. Since then I have tried several variations of these themes, diskpart, fdisk and/or RPM in varying order but every time I get a BSOD or a single partition in WinXP install. I would love to be able to put another partition between the FreeBSD boot partition and the Windows partition for a different OS (possible Solaris) using RPM to boot the more than 4 primes this will create but I don't dare until this is solved. I have tried to reach zen to control my skyrocketing rage but have failed to reach enlightenment after my second keyboard was pounded into legos. Any idea how to do this. I prefer not to have to use the 5G as a boot disk but will have to if I can't get this working. The most frustrating thing is it should just work. I could easily do this with any other OS other than MS crap. Why does WinXP care what I do with the other prime partitions or how this can possible affect them, I am at a complete loss. At least, I think I understand simple tech work as how HD's work but I could be wrong. Thanks for the help in advance, David ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Microsoft Wireless Intellimouse 1.0 not work?
Hello all, I have googled to no avail. I have a Microsoft Wireless USB Intellimouse 1.0. I would like to use it on my FreeBSD 5.4 system. It recognizes the mouse but I can't get it to work. I have read that some people can get it to work, that there is a patch I need to apply to the kernel to get it to work, that the first byte sent by the mouse is unknown and that the usm driver is expecting a directional bit. Does anyone know if I can use this mouse with FreeBSD? Is anyone using this mouse with FreeBSD? And if so, how did you get it to work? I have tried so far loading the intellimouse driver in sysinstall to no avail ( as I expected as it is used for a serial port mouse and moused will not load with nothing in the ps/2 port). Thanks in advanced David ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
