Booting with GRUB WInXP,FreeBSD 6,Mepis 3.1

Tha1 · 01-05-2006, 03:15 PM

Hey guys.
I'm trying to see how can i configure GRUB so i can boot WinXP,FreeBSD 6 and Mepis 3.1. I installed Mepis after installed FreeBSD,and I can't see how can i do this,since i don't have a grub.conf file,but instead, i have a menu.lst file(i suppose it is bcoz I have grub-gfxboot and not grub installed).
When I do fdisk it gives me this output(i have a SATA disk,by the way):

Code:

  fdisk /dev/sda

The number of cylinders for this disk is set to 14593.
There is nothing wrong with that, but this is larger than 1024,
and could in certain setups cause problems with:
1) software that runs at boot time (e.g., old versions of LILO)
2) booting and partitioning software from other OSs
   (e.g., DOS FDISK, OS/2 FDISK)

Command (m for help): p

Disk /dev/sda: 120.0 GB, 120034123776 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 14593 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1   *           1        1305    10482381    7  HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2            1306        3525    17832150   a5  FreeBSD
/dev/sda3            3526       10705    57673318+   7  HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda4           10706       14593    31230360    f  W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/sda5           10706       12664    15735636    b  W95 FAT32
/dev/sda6           12665       14593    15494661   83  Linux

and when i choose option b and show my BSD disklabel, it gives me this:

Code:

# /dev/sda2 :
type: ESDI
disk: ad4s4
label:
flags:
bytes/sector: 512
sectors/track: 63
tracks/cylinder: 255
sectors/cylinder: 16065
cylinders: 14593
rpm: 3600
interleave: 1
trackskew: 0
cylinderskew: 0
headswitch: 0           # milliseconds
track-to-track seek: 0  # milliseconds
drivedata: 0
8 partitions:
#       start       end      size     fstype   [fsize bsize   cpg]
  a:     1306      1371*       65*    4.2BSD     2048 16384     8
  b:     1371*     1498*      127*      swap
  c:     1306      3525      2220     unused        0     0
  d:     1498*     1692*      194*    4.2BSD     2048 16384 28552
  e:     1692*     1758*       65*    4.2BSD     2048 16384     8
  f:     1758*     3525      1767*    4.2BSD     2048 16384 28552

Can you give me some tips on how to do this plz?
Also, is there any problem with the number of cylinders reported when first done fdisk?

Tha1 · 01-06-2006, 08:44 AM

Anyone?

Or just give me a tips of where should i start...

anticapitalista · 01-06-2006, 12:33 PM

I think your problem is that you can only have 4 primary partitions.
You will have to make one of them a logical partition, and then you will be allowed more than 4 on that logical partition.

syg00 · 01-06-2006, 05:34 PM

I don't understand the problem.
menu.lst is the file you need - some distros use grub.conf, but that is just a choice they make.
I would have expected the Mepis installer to have recognised your XP install and built an entry for it in menu.lst.
Never tried BSD, but I suspect you should be able to chainload it just like XP.
Post the menu.lst if you can't sort it out.

BittaBrotha · 01-09-2006, 04:47 AM

I have Debian's Grub as main bootloader and have Mepis, Sourcemage, Ubuntu & Freebsd along with Winxp installed and grub picked up all of those. When I add a new distro, I do have to manually add it to the grub menu.lst file.

I'm at work now but when I get home, if I remember, I will take a look at how FBSD is included in the menu.lst.