Installing and Using FreeBSD With Other Operating Systems
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# 3 A Typical Installation

Let's say I have two large EIDE hard drives, and I want to install FreeBSD, Linux, and Windows® 95 on them.

Here is how I might do it using these hard disks:

- `/dev/wd0` (first physical hard disk)

- `/dev/wd1` (second hard disk)

Both disks have 1416 cylinders.

1. I boot from a MS-DOS® or Windows 95 boot disk that contains the `FDISK.EXE` utility and make a small 50 MB primary partition (35-40 for Windows 95, plus a little breathing room) on the first disk. Also create a larger partition on the second hard disk for my Windows applications and data.

2. I reboot and install Windows 95 (easier said than done) on the `C:` partition.

3. The next thing I do is install Linux. I am not sure about all the distributions of Linux, but Slackware includes LILO (see Section 2). When I am partitioning out my hard disk with Linux `fdisk`, I would put all of Linux on the first drive (maybe 300 MB for a nice root partition and some swap space).

4. After I install Linux, and are prompted about installing LILO, make sure that I install it on the boot sector of my root Linux partition, not in the MBR (master boot record).

5. The remaining hard disk space can go to FreeBSD. I also make sure that my FreeBSD root slice does not go beyond the 1024th cylinder. (The 1024th cylinder is 528 MB into the disk with our hypothetical 720 MB disks). I will use the rest of the hard drive (about 270 MB) for the `/usr` and `/` slices if I wish. The rest of the second hard disk (size depends on the amount of my Windows application/data partition that I created in step 1) can go to the `/usr/src` slice and swap space.

6. When viewed with the Windows 95 `fdisk` utility, my hard drives should now look something like this:

       ---------------------------------------------------------------------

                         Display Partition Information

       Current fixed disk drive: 1

       Partition  Status  Type  Volume_Label  Mbytes  System  Usage
       C: 1          A   PRI DOS                50    FAT**     7%
          2          A   Non-DOS (Linux)       300             43%

       Total disk space is  696 Mbytes (1 Mbyte = 1048576 bytes)

       Press Esc to continue

       ---------------------------------------------------------------------

                         Display Partition Information

       Current fixed disk drive: 2

       Partition  Status  Type  Volume_Label  Mbytes  System  Usage
       D: 1          A   PRI DOS                420   FAT**    60%

       Total disk space is  696 Mbytes (1 Mbyte = 1048576 bytes)

       Press Esc to continue

       ---------------------------------------------------------------------

   ** May say FAT16 or FAT32 if you are using the OEM SR2 update. See Section 2.

7. Install FreeBSD. I make sure to boot with my first hard disk set at “NORMAL” in the BIOS. If it is not, I will have the enter my true disk geometry at boot time (to get this, boot Windows 95 and consult Microsoft Diagnostics (`MSD.EXE`), or check your BIOS) with the parameter `hd0=1416,16,63` where `1416` is the number of cylinders on my hard disk, `16` is the number of heads per track, and `63` is the number of sectors per track on the drive.

8. When partitioning out the hard disk, I make sure to install Boot Easy on the first disk. I do not worry about the second disk, nothing is booting off of it.

9. When I reboot, Boot Easy should recognize my three bootable partitions as DOS (Windows 95), Linux, and BSD (FreeBSD).

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Overview of Boot Managers |  | Special Considerations