Dual boot FreeBSD 4.10 and FreeBSD 5.3

[Jerry McAllister]

> 
> I'm about to make the switch from 4.10 to 5.3. However, I don't want to 
> do it in one go, but rather first install 5.3 on a separate physical 
> disk and get all applications installed and configured correctly. Once 
> I've completed the process, the scenario is a RAID-1 setup (gmirror is 
> the route I've chosen after extensive reading).
> 
> Current situation
> -----------------
> 
>   [homebell] ~> uname -a
> FreeBSD homebell.dyndns.org 4.10-RELEASE-p2 FreeBSD 4.10-RELEASE-p2 #0: 
> Mon Oct 18 21:48:34 CEST 2004 
> homebell at homebell.dyndns.org:/usr/obj/usr/src/sys/HOMEBELLapmipfw  i386
> 
>   [homebell] ~> df -h
> Filesystem    Size   Used  Avail Capacity  Mounted on
> /dev/ad4s1a   126M    66M    50M    57%    /
> /dev/ad5s1e   252M    64M   168M    28%    /rootback
> /dev/ad5s1f   150G    28G   110G    20%    /backup
> /dev/ad4s1f   252M    90K   232M     0%    /tmp
> /dev/ad4s1g   112G   9.8G    93G    10%    /usr
> /dev/ad4s1e   252M   123M   108M    53%    /var
> procfs        4.0K   4.0K     0B   100%    /proc
> 
>   [homebell] ~# atacontrol list
> ATA channel 0:
>      Master: acd0 <COMPAQ DVD-ROM GD-2500/0011> ATA/ATAPI rev 0
>      Slave:  acd1 <Hewlett-Packard CD-Writer cd16n/1.15> ATA/ATAPI rev 0
> ATA channel 1:
>      Master:      no device present
>      Slave:       no device present
> ATA channel 2:
>      Master:  ad4 <HDS722512VLAT80/V33OA60A> ATA/ATAPI rev 6
>      Slave:   ad5 <HDS722516VLAT80/V34OA6EA> ATA/ATAPI rev 6
> ATA channel 3:
>      Master:  ad6 <HDS722512VLAT80/V33OA6EA> ATA/ATAPI rev 6
>      Slave:       no device present
> 
> ATA channels 2 and 3 are on a Promise TX2 ATA133 controller. ATA channel 
> 1 on the motherboard is fried and unused.
> 
> ad4 hosts my 4.10 installation, ad5 is a pure backup disk, and ad6 is 
> today empty and it's where I will put 5.3 (ad4 will be the mirror to ad6 
> once the migration is completed).
> 
> Therefore, I first want to install 5.3 on ad6 (actually ad6s1 I believe) 
> and dual boot between ad4s1(4.10) and ad6s1(5.3) during the migration phase.
> 
> I'm a bit uncertain as to the procedure to get to the dual boot status. 
> Currently, I have no boot manager installed. Can I install 5.3 onto 
> ad6s1 and from sysinstall install the FreeBSD Boot Manager to both ad4 
> and ad6? Or should I first do 'fdisk -B -b /boot/boot0 ad4' from within 
> 4.10 (as per the handbook)? Or is 'boot0cfg -B ad4' the proper way of 
> doing it?

Essentially, setting it up as a dual boot is a good idea, since you
have the room.

You can use the install CD and I believe it will do everything for you.
Tell it to install the boot manager.   It should be installed on the 
first bootable disk.   I believe the installer will do it for you if
you say to install the standard FreeBSD iboot manager.   I think the MBR 
will also need to be installed on the as6 disk as well.   

If the installer does not want to put on one of those MBRs, then you
will have to do it with fdisk as you indicate.   That can be done
from a boot from your 4.xxx system or from the fixit CD which is
on the FreeBSD disk 2.   Boot the CD up and quit out of the kernel
config stuff and then find Fixit in the subsequent menu.

Either way, it will not muck up you 4.10 installation - unless you
select the wrong disk for the whole install, of course.  

////jerry

Then just make sure you choose to make the ad6s1 slice bootable and it 
will write the boot block on to it as well.
> 
> My concern is of course to not mess up my current 4.10 installation.
> 
> -- 
> Kjell
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