Help installing FREEBSD

[geekgod]

Hi guys, i have 40 gb hard disk with a 15 gb primary partition, a 23 gb extended partition inside which i house my suse 9.1 in a separate 7 gb partition.

i have burnt the freebsd iso's received in the digit dvd and would like to install it as i heard that it is a very good distro.
but the problem is that when i boot with the installation disk and reach the partition editor screen, my extended parttion does not get expanded to allow me to use my suse space for installing freebsd.
i visited the freebsd website, and there i learnt that free bsd can only be installed in a primary partition.

is there any way i can install freebsd in this machine without destroying my exisiting partitions? i have some very important data in the second windows partition. and i cant backup as my writer is malfunctioning(it has taken a sudden fancy of breaking cds) and i cant buy a new one right now.

also is there a lot of difference between the mode of use of linux and freebsd? i mean, if i am more or less comfy with suse 9.1, will freebsd pose a lot of problems?

 

[nixcraft]

If you are talking about GUI admin tools then diffrence is almost 100%
On freebsd use sysinstall tool (just you use yast on Suse)

If you go by command line then difference is not that much; but still exists.

FreeBSD is rock solid and stable; remember our yahoo is powered by FreeBSD only. More fancy and easy to use means more bugs (as we have in Windowz).

I have suggestion for you try to install FreeBSD in Vmware so that you won’t disturb anything; once you got confidance move to dedicated partition from vmware. X Windows also works nicely under Vmware.

 

[GNUrag]

If you are not willing to risk loosing your partitons and are not willing to delete a drive to make a promary partiton then better dont try FreeBSD as of now.... FreeBSD needs a dedicated primary partition.

 

[technomodel]

ok, here's what you can try. it's not a very elegant method, but one that works
.btw, this guide is with the assumption that you only need to preserve you second windows partition.if you cant afford to format and reinstall xp, you'll have to do what GNUrag said.

first, boot with your xp boot cd, and delete the existing primary partition. then from the free space thus created, create two partitions, one for xp, and the other for bsd.as you already have an extended partition, both these partitions will be primary. i'd suggest to keep the active partition (c: ) for xp.
if you dont want to triple boot with suse, then u may delete that partition too.now install xp as you do, and then boot with freebsd and install it in the second primary partition.
post here if you face problems with installation.and good luck, as you might need it

 

[geekgod]

thnx techno. i successfully installed freebsd in the manner u said. now i'm facing two problems.
1.my windows suddenly appears to have become very slow. is this because a new unrecognised space has been introduced between the two partitions?
2.when i boot into free bsd, it starts with the shell .i tried to configure xfree86 with xf86cfg but it cant load the saved config file and shows error.
also why doesnt kde or gnome start automatically when i boot into freebsed?
i'm not very comfortable with the shell,, so plz help to get my gui up and running.else i'll just have to remove this

 

[GNUrag]

1.my windows suddenly appears to have become very slow. is this because a new unrecognised space has been introduced between the two partitions?

Its nothing like that... Free space means free space... it has nothing to do with speed of operation of any OS ...

2.when i boot into free bsd, it starts with the shell .i tried to configure xfree86 with xf86cfg but it cant load the saved config file and shows error.

What kind of errors does it show ? your X configuration should be done with xf86config

also why doesnt kde or gnome start automatically when i boot into freebsed? i'm not very comfortable with the shell,, so plz help to get my gui up and running.else i'll just have to remove this(

By default the KDE login manager does not show up. You have to enable XDM or KDM by changing the ttyv terminal settings.... do the following:

Edit /etc/ttys file and edit the line that starts with ttyv8 into:

ttyv8 "/usr/local/bin/kdm -nodaemon" xterm on

now this shall initialize KDM login manager on 8th terminal (CTRL + ALT + F9) ....

btw: did you care to read the FreeBSD documentation beforehand ? Its installed on your harddisk by default... CHeck out the documentation at this location:
/usr/share/doc/en/faq/index.html ... and answer to your specific query is Available here

 

[Guest]

can anybody tell me where can i get free bsd cds?i m on dialup.

 

[Vivek788]

well...i have a doubt...freebsd bootloader is grub?
Will it detect all my oses?
how many gb needed for freebsd ?

 

[praka123]

^dude,first of all BSDs needs a primary partition(max 4).are u willing to format delete ur extended partition which means logical partitions which bsd dose not support and make another primary partition along with ur windows,which too insists on installing only on primary partition.yes grub/Lilo both are used.
BSDs are almost like linux.only the kernel which is changed.yes,bsds dont use gnu tools by default.bsd versions exists.

 

[mehulved]

FreeBSD uses loader as it's bootloader. I am not familiar with editing it but I do believe it can be used to boot multiple OS's.
What you can also do is install loader on root partition and install GRUB or some boot manager on MBR.

 

[praka123]

with BSD's,IRC chatrooms will be a great help

 

[vish786]

bsd requires different partition type, & can be installed on win partition also, had seen tat option when i had installed long back... dont remember whether it was freebsd or openbsd which required different paritition type... if ur new to linux dont go for freebsd/openbsd, its little difficult to install.... rather try diff distro

 

[praka123]

easiest bsd to try will be pc-bsd,but...it is buggy(personal view)